112    PROPOSED  ECONOMY  OF  ALCOHOL  IN  PERCOLATION,  ETC. 
Hence,  it  became  necessary  to  adopt  some  one  of  the  officinal 
preparations  as  a  model,  and  study  it  out  thoroughly,  not  only 
in  its  pharmaceutical  relations,  but  also  in  the  therapeutic  rela- 
tions involved  in  its  pharmacy.  And  then,  in  the  light  obtained 
from  such  a  model,  to  examine  other  drugs  individually,  to  ascer- 
tain their  points  of  difference  or  similarity. 
In  selecting  a  drug  to  serve  as  a  model,  colchicum  seed  was 
adopted,  first,  because  it  is  an  active  definite  purgative,  and  its 
therapeutic  value  thus  easily  determined  by  taking  it ;  second, 
because  its  extract  can  be  easily  and  perfectly  dried  upon  a 
water  bath  for  weighing,  and  can  afterward  be  perfectly  and 
entirely  redissolved  ;  and,  third,  because  it  presented  a  fair 
average  facility  of  management  in  percolation,  and  represented 
a  large  and  important  number  of  preparations. 
Fluid  extract  of  Colchicum  Seed. 
The  exact  quantities  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  were  adopted  and 
nineteen  separate  percolations  with  these  quantities  were  made. 
At  first  English  colchicum  seed  of  good  quality,  powdered  by 
the  writer,  was  used,  but  fearing  this  might  not  represent  the 
drug  most  frequently  used,  it  was  abandoned,  and  good  German 
seed  purchased  in  powder,  as  ordinary  pharmaceutists  would  do, 
was  substituted.  This  change  exhibited  a  very  marked  differ- 
ence between  these  two  commercial  varieties  of  the  seed,  in  the 
proportion  of  dry  extract  yielded  by  different  parts  of  the  per- 
colate, this  difference  amounting  to  full  six  per  cent,  in  the  ear- 
lier portions  of  the  percolate,  in  favor  of  the  English  seed. 
Whether  this  difference  extended  to  the  therapeutic  effect  was  not 
tried. 
A  critically  accurate  experiment  with  the  officinal  formula 
was  then  made  and  examined  as  a  standard  for  comparison. 
The  pint  of  finished  fluid  extract,  strictly  officinal,  was  found  to 
contain  1452  grains  of  solid  dry  extract,  or  89*5  grains  to  the 
fluidounce.  Of  the  1452  grains  of  extract  1008  or  69*38  per 
cent,  was  contained  in  the  reserved  percolate,  or  the  twelve 
fluidounces  which  first  passed  through ;  and  444  grains,  or  30*62 
per  cent,  in  the  final  percolate,  or  the  four  fluidounces  to  which 
