6 
Elixirs. 
f  Am.  Joto.  Phabm. 
\    Jan.  i,  1873. 
made  at  small  expense,  and  will,  I  think,  be  found  to  answer  admira- 
bly.   If  this. will  in  any  way  alleviate  the  frown  which  comes  over 
the  face  of  the  pharmacist  when  he  finds  he  has  to  make  suppositories, 
the  object  of  the  writer  will  be  fully  attained. 
Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  Nov.  28,  1872. 
ELIXIRS. 
By  C.  G.  Polk,  M.  D. 
Within  the  last  six  or  eight  years  a  class  of  pharmaceutical  pro- 
ducts termed  elixirs  have  acquired  extensive  use  and  grown  into  an 
undeserved  popularity,  both  with  physicians  and  the  community  at 
large.  But  while  purporting  to  be  definite  solutions  of  officinal  and 
well  esteemed  remedies,  they  are  as  varying  in  their  constituents  as  the 
proprietary  bitters,  and  of  really  less  value  than  some  of  them.  In 
appearance,  articles  bearing  the  same  name  vary  in  hue  from  an 
inky  blackness  to  the  color  of  officinal  syrup,  with  almost  every  inter- 
mediate tint.  Their  taste  is  as  different  as  their  color,  but  in  thera- 
peutical value  they  generally  agree ;  most  of  them  being  utterly 
worthless. 
The  whole  thing  is  radically  wrong  and  strikes  at  the  very  founda- 
tion of  rational  pharmacy.  In  the  first  place  the  articles  are  so  nu- 
merous that  they  must  modify  the  action  of  the  principal  article  to  a 
degree  that  envelops  the  therapeutical  result  in  mystery,  and  leads  the 
physician  to  grope  in  darkness  and  uncertainty  to  an  extent  as  great 
as  though  he  were  using  Scheitz's  or  Hostetter's  Bitters.  Secondly,  it 
is  morally  wrong  to  tamper  with  human  health  and  rob  the  sick  of  their 
money  without  an  equivalent  benefit.  Thirdly,  they  are  the  creations 
of  private  formulas,  many  of  which  are  unknown  to  any  one  else  than 
the  manufacturer,  and  are  practically  proprietary  medicines.  Fourthly? 
they  are  a  flag  of  truce  to  homoeopathy  initiatory  to  a  surrender, 
withouc  half  the  therapeutic  merit  of  aconite,  belladonna,  pulsatilla, 
bryonia  and  veratrum,  even  homoeopathically  administered.  Fifthly, 
they  are  not  what  they  profess  to  be.  They  are  base  frauds.  Most 
of  the  elixirs  of  calisaya  are  nothing  more  than  a  finely  flavored  solu- 
tion of  sulphate  of  cinchonia  in  proportion  of  about  half  a  grain  to 
the  ounce,  and  do  not  contain  the  least  trace  of  any  other  alkaloid  of 
the  cinchona  bark.  The  ferrated  elixirs  generally  contain  the  stated 
amount  of  the  citrated  iron  in  which  their  virtues  mainly  consists,  but 
