^'^jMn.'f.  mr"'}      The  Sir e7igth  of  Fluid  Extracts,  17 
THE  STRENGTH  OF  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
By  James  W.  Mill. 
It  has  been  proposed  recently,  in  this  journal  and  elsewhere,  to 
reduce  all  fluid  extracts  to  one  uniform  strength — that,  viz.,  of  eight 
troy  ounces  of  drug  to  the  pint,  instead  of  sixteen  troy  ounces  as  is 
the  rule  now.  In  favor  of  tliis  proposition  it  is  urged  that  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  to  carry  out  the  present  formulas  of  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia for  this  class  of  preparations,  the  drug  being  directed  in  such 
very  fine  powder,  and  the  expenditure  of  time  and  labor,  necessary 
to  secure  a  successful  result,  so  great,  to  say  nothing  of  the  waste  of 
alcohol,  that  dispensing  pharmacists  cannot,  or,  in  fact,  with  only  an 
occasional  exception,  do  not  prepare  them  themselves,  but,  instead, 
purchase  the  ready-made  inferior  products  of  the  wholesale  manufac- 
turer. The  reduction  of  the  strength,  as  proposed,  it  is  claimed, 
would  obviate  all  trouble, — dispensing  entirely  with  the  application  of 
heat,  ensuring  the  complete  exhaustion  of  the  drug,  and  enabling  the 
pharmacist  to  prepare  his  own  fluid  extracts  in  any  quantity  desired, 
and  with  very  little  trouble  or  expense, — a  single  percolation,  to  the 
extent  of  two  pints  for  every  sixteen  troy  ounces  of  drug,  being  all 
that  would  be  necessary. 
The  writer  fully  realizes  the  great  expenditure  of  time,  labor  and 
attention  necessary  to  the  correct  preparation  of  fluid  extracts  of  the 
present  strength,  and  would  gladly  welcome  any  new  process  by  which 
the  desired  object  could  be  accomplished  more  easily.  The  proposed 
reduction  of  strength  would,  it  is  true,  very  materially  lessen  the  labor, 
and  render  the  preparation  of  a  fluid  extract  a  comparatively  easy 
matter,  but  could  such  a  preparation,  with  any  propriety,  be  called  a 
fluid  extract?  The  term,  ^' Fluid  Extract,"  it  is  true,  is  purely  arbi- 
trary, and  may  be  made  to  mean  a  fluid  preparation,  representing  in 
every  pint  the  medicinal  virtues  of  sixteen,  eight,  or  even  four  troy 
ounces  of  drug  ;  but  in  a  work  like  the  Pharmacopoeia,  claiming 
something  of  a  scientific  character,  there  surely  should  be  as  close  a 
relation  as  possible  between  the  language  employed  and  the  meaning 
intended  to  be  conveyed.  Now  an  "Extract,"  as  defined  by  Wood 
and  Bache  in  the  U.  S.  D.,  is  well  understood  to  mean  "  a  solid  sub- 
stance resulting  from  the  evaporation  of  the  solution  of  vegetable 
principles,  obtained  either  by  exposing  the  vegetable  to  the  action  of 
a  solvent,  or  by  expressing  its  juice  in  the  recent  state."    Would  not 
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