524 
ON  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
dose  of  Fluid  Extracts,  renders  its  presence,  therapeutically  con- 
sidered, of  small  account. 
I  have  found  an  advantage  in  adding  a  small  portion  of  sugar 
to  those  Extracts  intended  for  internal  administration,  but  its 
use  is  objectionable  in  those  -which  are  intended  for  external 
use.  Placed  in  the  still  before  evaporation,  it  protects,  in  some 
measure,  from  injury  by  heat,  assists  the  solution  of  the  pre- 
cipitates, and  disguises  the  disagreeable  taste  of  many  Extracts. 
Fluid  Extracts,  prepared  according  to  these  principles,  espe- 
cially if  evaporated  in  vacuo,  retain  the  taste,  color,  and  freshness 
of  the  original  tinctures,  and  certainly  appear  preferable  to  the 
muddy,  acetous  preparations  which  sugar  alone  forms.  I  have 
now  on  hand  samples  of  these  preparations,  made  four  years 
since.  In  most  of  them  I  find  the  transparency,  taste,  and 
flavor  as  perfect  as  when  first  made ;  in  others  there  is  a  slight 
deposit,  but  in  no  case  of  very  great  amount.  It  will,  however, 
be  a  safe  rule,  to  shake  all  Fluid  Extracts  when  dispensed  or 
used. 
Perfection,  in  the  abstract  signification  of  the  term,  can  never 
be  reached  in  any  science.  As  we  approach  it,  the  steps  grow 
shorter,  and,  with  all  our  labor,  we  only  attain  an  approximation 
to  it.  In  thus  briefly  and  hurriedly  glancing  at  the  principles 
which  govern  my  manipulations,  I  do  not  seek  to  claim  for  them 
perfection,  but  hope  that  what  I  have  said  may  call  forth  remarks 
from  others,  and  that  by  a  mutual  interchange  of  ideas — a  "  rub- 
bing together  of  understandings" — this  branch  of  Pharmacy  may 
arrive  at  an  approximation  of  perfection. 
The  practical  application  of  the  principles  of  which  I  have 
spoken  is  very  simple.    I  append  a  formula,  as  an  example  : 
Fluid  Extract  of  Gentian. 
Take  of  Gentian  Root,  in  coarse  powder    .    .  gxvj. 
Diluted  Alcohol        .       .       .       .    .    q.  s. 
Sugar  iiij. 
Alcohol     .  f.  giv. 
Properly  macerate,  and  percolate  the  root  with  the  diluted 
alcohol,  until  its  strength  is  exhausted.  Having  added  the 
sugar  to  the  tincture,  evaporate  in  a  water  bath  to  twelve  fluid 
ounces.  When  cold  add  the  alcohol. —  The  Peninsular  and  In- 
dependent and  Med.  Journ.,  Sept.,  1858. 
