Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1876. 
Syrup  of  Liquorice  Root. 
487 
the  mentioned  species  of  gentiana  contain  also  iron  blueing  tannin. " 
It  must  not  be  surprising  if  pills  containing  iron  with  gentian  are  ob- 
tained from  one  apothecary's  store  of  a  brown,  and  from  another  of  a 
black  mass." 
On  referring  to  the  new  work  by  Hager,  we  find  only  the  brief  state- 
ment quoted  above,  without  any  further  indication  as  to  the  observa- 
tions upon  which  the  conclusion  is  based.  The  species  mentioned  as 
yielding  some  of  the  commercial  root  are  G.  purpurea,  Lin.,  G.  pan- 
nonica,  Scopoli,  and  G.  punctata,  Lin.,  the  same  species  which  are 
usually  enumerated  in  works  on  materia  medica  as  being  sometimes 
collected  with  G.  lutea,  Lin.  Since  they  appear  to  have  been  medi- 
cinally employed  for  a  long  time,  one  being  even  officinal  in  Austria,  it 
would  seem  surprising  that  the  presence  of  tannin  in  one  or  the  other 
should  not  have  been  observed  before.  If  the  variation  in  color  of  pills 
containing  a  salt  of  iron,  and  prepared  with  extract  of  gentian,  has  led 
Hager  to  the  above  statement,  it  seems  to  be  precisely  as  correct  to  as- 
sume that  the  extract  had  been  prepared  from  a  carelessly  collected 
gentian  root,  in  which  the  presence  of  some  foreign  astringent  root  had 
been  overlooked. 
The  root  of  Gentiana  crinita,  FroeL,  which  had  been  collected  last 
year  near  Philadelphia,  is  free  from  tannin,  and  the  same  must  be  said 
from  a  root  very  similar  in  appearanee,  and  which  was  received  from 
North  Carolina  as  the  root  of  G.  Catesbsei,  Walt.  We  are  therefore, 
it  seems  to  me,  justified  to  regard  the  medicinal  gentian  roots  as  being 
free  from  tannin,  until  positive  proof  to  the  contrary  is  produced. 
ON  SYRUP  OF  LIQUORICE  ROOT  AND  BROWN  MIXTURE. 
BY  A.  P.  BROWN,  PH.G. 
[Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  October  ijth.) 
A  short  time  ago,  having  occasion  to  make  some  ammoniacal  glv- 
cyrrhizin,  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  use  of  ammonia  in  preparing 
syrup  of  liquorice  root  would  be  an  advantage,  I  therefore  devised  the 
following  formula  : 
Take  of  Liquorice  root,     ...       4  troyounces 
Cold  water,      .        .  ,  .    q.  s. 
Water  of  ammonia,     .        .        1  fluidounce 
Granulated  sugar,    .        .        .13  troyounces. 
Grind  the  root  in  a  mill,  and  place  it  in  a  wide-mouth  bottle,  with  a 
