114   PROPOSED  ECONOMY  OF  ALCOHOL  IN  PERCOLATION,  ETC. 
fore  resuming  the  trials.  When  there  was  any  reasonable  room 
for  doubt  the  trials  were  repeated,  and  therefore  the  results  given 
are  believed  to  be  reliable. 
It  was  first  ascertained  by  repeated  trial,  that,  of  the  identical 
powdered  seed  of  which  the  fluid  extract  was  made,  not  less  than 
eight  grains  at  the  first  dose  and  ten  grains  at  the  second  would 
produce,  on  the  following  morning,  a  distinct  decided  purgative 
effect,  and  this  attended  with  slight  nausea  and  discomfort, 
which  continued  throughout  the  entire  day.  This,  therefore, 
was  adopted  as  the  standard  quantity  for  comparison.  Now, 
the  officinal  formula  for  this  and  other  fluid  extracts  is  based 
upon  their  representing  the  drugs  from  which  they  are  made,  in 
the  convenient  and  definite  proportion  of  a  minim  for  each  grain, 
and  this,  from  the  very  effective  and  perfect  exhaustion  ordered, 
is  doubtless  strictly  true  in  a  pharmaceutical  sense ;  but  whether 
this  is  equally  true  in  a  therapeutic  sense  remains  to  be  tried.  To 
determine  this,  precisely  the  same  number  of  minims,  accurately 
measured  in  a  narrow  pipette,  of  the  finished  fluid  extract,  as 
of  grains  of  the  powdered  seed,  were  taken  at  the  same  time  of 
day  and  under  practically  the  same  conditions  of  regimen,  ex- 
ercise, etc.  The  purgative  effect  on  the  following  morning  was 
distinctly  and  decidedly  greater  than  from  the  powdered  seed, 
but  the  nausea  was  the  same,  or  possibly  a  little  less.  The  fluid 
extract,  therefore,  over  represents  the  drug  from  which  it  was 
made,  and  this  may  be  reasonably  accounted  for  upon  two  good 
grounds.  First,  the  powdered  seed  is  doubtless  more  perfectly 
extracted  in  the  percolator  than  it  can  be  in  the  stomach ;  and, 
second,  because  the  fluid  extract  is  presented  to  the  living  sur- 
faces in  a  liquid  form,  much  better  adapted  to  both  prompt  and 
energetic  action.  This  is  theorizing,  it  is  true,  but  the  reason- 
ing is  after  the  fact,  and  cannot  change  its  force. 
It  next  remained  to  be  tried  whether  the  33  per  cent,  of  the 
total  extract  contained  in  the  25  per  cent,  of  the  total  fluid  ex- 
tract, constituting  the  final  percolate,  was  equal  in  purgative 
effect  to  the  same  quantity  of  extract  contained  in  the  finished 
fluid  extract.  That  is,  the  finished  fluidextract  contained  88-56 
grains  of  dry  extract  to  the  fluidounce ;  the  reserved  percolate 
only  78-806  grains  ;  but  the  final  percolate  contained  112*83 
