124         GLEANINGS— CHEMICAL,  PHARMACEUTICAL,  ETC. 
GLEANINGS— CHEMICAL,  PHARMACEUTICAL  AND  MEDICAL. 
Santonin  Lozenges. — The  demand  for  santonin  has  of  late 
years  largely  increased,  chiefly  owing  to  its  employment  in 
making  "  worm  lozenges."  On  the  occasion  of  a  recent  visit  to 
a  manufacturing  establishment,  we  were  shown  large  quantities 
of  European  wormseed  in  process  of  preparation  for  making 
santonin.  The  following  process  is  given  by  Wittstein  :  "  Eight 
parts  of  coarsely  powdered  wormseed  are  digested  with  three 
parts  of  hydrate  of  lime,  and  32  parts  of  alcohol  of  40  percent, 
(diluted  alcohol,  U.  S.  P.)  in  a  copper  still  for  one  day,  strained 
and  pressed,  then  twice  again  digested  with  the  same  amount  of 
alcohol.  The  mixed  tinctures  are  distilled  until  the  residue 
equals  24  parts.  The  latter  is  filtered,  and  the  filtrate  evapo- 
rated to  half,  acetic  acid  added  in  slight  excess,  and  allowed  to 
remain  some  days  undisturbed.  The  crystalline  mass  is  thrown 
on  a  funnel  loosely  stopped,  washed  with  cold  water,  dried, 
boiled  with  ten  times  its  weight  of  alcohol  of  80  per  cent.  The 
solution  digested  some  hours  with  animal  charcoal,  filtered 
whilst  hot,  and  the  charcoal  washed  with  hot  alcohol ;  the  solu- 
tion is  allowed  to  crystallize,  and  the  mother  liquor  evaporated 
to  fresh  crystallization.  The  crystals  are  dried  and  kept  ex- 
cluded from  the  light.  The  yield  from  8  pounds  of  wormseed  is 
from  2  to  2i  ounces,  or  from  1|  to  2  per  cent." 
As  santonin  is  soluble  in  volatile  oils,  and  is  associated  in  the 
9  wormseed  with  a  volatile  oil  (ol.  santonici),  some  European 
.  manufacturers  distil  the  wormseed  first  to  remove  this  oil,  it 
being  used  like  our  ol.  chenopodii  as  an  anthelmintic.  When  the 
oil  is  not  wanted,  an  advantage  arises  from  subjecting  the  seed 
to  a  prolonged  desiccation  in  the  drying  room  on  steam  tables,  to 
remove   as  much  of  it  as  possible,  as  it  impedes    the  pro- 
cess of  extracting  the  santonin.     The  dose  of  santonin  is  about 
2  grains  for  a  child.     The  following  recipe  for  santonin  lozen- 
ges has  been  published  in  some  of  the  Medical  Journals. 
Take  of  Roasted  chocolate  nuts,  in  powder,  an  ounce, 
White  sugar,  in  powder,  an  ounce  and  a  half, 
Santonin,  in  fine  powder,  two  drachms, 
Tragacanth,  in  powder,  a  drachm  and  a  half, 
Solution  of  ext.  of  liquorice,  (containing  1J  drm.)  3  fL  drm. 
