AiauS"  193.5™'}    Pharmacy  of  British  Pharmacopoeia.  365 
ever,  subject  to  several  criticisms.  It  is  entirely  proper  to  de-fat  the 
drug  before  making  the  tincture,  but  the  de-fatting  should  be  with 
purified  petroleum  benzin  and  not  with  ether,  because  the  latter 
extracts  a  portion  of  the  strophanthin.  The  percolation  with  ether 
should  not  be  "  until  the  liquid  passes  through  colorless,"  but  should 
be  continued  until  a  few  drops  evaporated  from  filter  paper  leave  no 
greasy  stain.  Alcohol  of  90  or  95  per  cent,  will  not  entirely  extract 
strophanthus  in  the  proportion  directed,  and  much  less  will  alcohol  of 
70  per  cent,  serve  this  purpose.  A  more  serious  error -is  the  direction 
to  discontinue  the  percolation  with  the  alcohol  when  500  millilitres 
are  obtained  and  then  to  add  sufficient  70  per  cent,  alcohol  to  obtain 
1  litre.  Under  these  conditions  the  drug  will  probably  be  not  more 
than  one-half  extracted. 
The  diluted  acids,  with  the  exceptions  of  diluted  acetic  acid 
(5  per  cent.  HC2H302)  and  diluted  hydrocyanic  acid  (2  per  cent. 
HCN),  are  now  uniformly  10  per  cent,  of  the  respective  absolute 
acids,  instead  of  the  odd  proportions  of  the  1898  Pharmacopoeia, 
which  had  diluted  hydrochloric  acid,  10.58  per  cent.  HQ ;  diluted 
nitric  acid,  17.44  per  cent.  HXOs;  diluted  phosphoric  acid,  13.8  per 
cent.  HgPO^,  and  diluted  sulphuric  acid,  13.65  per  cent.  H2S04. 
In  the  text  the  aromatic  waters  are  directed  to  be  made  by 
distilling  the  water,  in  some  cases  with  the  drug  and  in  other  cases 
with  the  volatile  oil.  In  Chapter  XII  of  the  Appendix,  under 
"  Alternative  Preparations  Sanctioned  for  Use  in  Tropical,  Sub- 
tropical, and  Other  Parts  of  the  British  Empire,"  it  is  stated :  "  Aquae 
olei  anethi,  anisi,  carui,  cinnamomi,  fceniculi,  menthae  piperitae,  mentha 
viridis.  Each  of  these  waters  may  be  prepared  by  triturating  the 
corresponding  oil  with  twice  its  weight  of  calcium  phosphate  and  five 
hundred  times  its  volume  of  distilled  water  and  filtering  the  mixture. 
In  tropical  and  sub-tropical  parts  of  the  Empire  these  aquae  olei  may 
be  used  in  place  of  the  corresponding  aquae  of  the  text  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia." 
It  is  exceedingly  doubtful  if  this  territorial  restriction  will  be 
observed  by  the  practical  pharmacists  of  Great  Britain,  once  they 
become  as  fully  acquainted  as  are  their  x\merican  brethren  with  the 
easy  and  practical  method  of  preparing  saturated  aqueous  solutions 
of  these  aromatic  oils  by  the  use  of  an  insoluble  distributing  medium. 
It  will  be  difficult  to  convince  the  practical  pharmacist  that  such  waters 
as  peppermint  and  spearmint  must  be  prepared  by  distilling  the  oil 
and  water  instead  of  a  simple  process  of  solution,  or  that  these  waters 
