Am  .'our.  Pharni. 
Feb.,  1883. 
I      Syrup  of  Squill  and  Syrup  of  Ipecae.  85 
tionable,  but  in  all  other  cases  complete  solution  is  imperative.  To  this 
end  the  writer  divided  the  menstruum  and  used  portions  successively 
on  the  saccharine  residue.  However,  an  equally  effective,  but  more 
facile  method  consists  in  mixing  the  whole,  then  stirring  until  most  of 
the  sugar  has  dissolved,  decanting  the  syrup,  heating  the  remainder 
wntil  dissolved,  uniting  the  whole,  and  straining.  One  gallon  of  neutral 
syrup  of  squill  is  prepared  as  follows : 
Take  of 
Squill,  whole,  .         .         .         .         .         10  troyounces. 
Sugar,  granulated,         .         .       .  .         .      96    "  " 
Water^^'  J  of  each  sufficient. 
Mix  alcohol  and  water  in  the  proportion  of  one  measure  of  the  first 
and  seven  measures  of  the  second  and  pour  57  fluid  ounces  of  the  mix- 
ture upon  the  squill  contained  in  a  wide-mouthed  bottle.  Macerate 
this  mixture  for  three  or  four  days,  with  occasional  shaking,  and  decant 
32  fluidounces  of  the  liquid.  Upon  the  residue  pour  32  fluid- 
ounces  of  the  menstruum,  and  after  3  or  4  days  decant  as 
before.  Mix  the  two  decantates,  filter  and  pour  the  filtrate  on  the 
sugar  contained  in  an  appropriate  vessel ;  stir  the  mixture  until  most 
of  the  sugar  is  dissolved,  decant  about  six  pints  of  the  syrup,  heat  the 
residue  until  dissolved,  then  mix  the  whole  and  strain. 
Syrup  of  ipecac  is  another  one  of  those  protean  compounds  whose 
radical  fault  not  being  understood  has  caused  it  to  pass  through  a  great 
variety  of  changes.  In  this  case  the  presence  of  a  small  amount  of 
pectosic  matter  is,  however,  only  part  of  the  difficulty.  The  main 
•cause  of  aberration  resides  in  the  large  amount  of  resin  that  is  contained 
in  the  root.  In  some  of  the  former  processes  for  this  syrup  it  was 
assumed,  on  the  statement  that  emetine,  the  active  principle,  being 
insoluble  in  water,  that  acetic  acid  must  be  used  to  render  this  soluble. 
But  acetic  acid  brought  no  advantages  for  preventing  a  cloudiness 
which  invariably  appeared  in  the  syrup.  The  resin  was  excluded  in 
subsequent  methods  by  mixing  a  fluid  extract  or  a  condensed  alcoholic 
-extraction  with  water,  filtering  and  then  adding  the  sugar ;  but  the 
cloudiness  still  appeared  although  less  obtrusively.  The  great  and 
particular  defect  in  this  method  was  the  fact  that  the  acid  resin  carried 
with  it  a  considerable  portion  of  the  activity.  Later  the  writer  ex- 
tracted the  root  with  acidulated  water  containing  only  enough  alcohol  to 
prevent  fermentation.  Under  these  conditions  the  gelatinous  cloud 
was  yet  manifest,  but  subsiding  rapidly  left  the  supernatant  syrup  clear 
