220     ECONOMIZING  ALCOHOL  IN  MAKING  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
alcohol  over  any  other  process,  after  the  investment  is  made  in 
the  press,  which  is  always  worth  the  money  it  costs.  The  Fluid 
Extracts  can  be  made  cheaper  and  a  great  deal  better  by  this 
than  by  any  other  process.  I  adopted  and  used  this  process 
extensively  before  the  advance  in  price  of  alcohol.  The  saving 
is,  of  course,  much  greater  since  the  great  advance  in  the  price 
of  that  article. 
In  comparing  the  two  plans,  Dr.  Squibb's  has  the  preference 
in  one  point,  that  is,  it  can  be  carried  out  with  a  much 
cheaper  apparatus  than  mine  can ;  but,  with  the  necessary  press, 
my  plan  will  produce  a  much  more  definite  result,  and  will  save 
menstruum,  time  and  drug,  and  can  be  carried  out  by  a  less 
skilful  hand  than  either  Dr.  Squibb's  or  the  Pharmacopoeia  plan. 
It  is  very  evident,  from  a  study  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  and  also 
from  a  study  of  Dr.  Squibb's  and  other  articles  on  the  Fluid 
Extracts,  that  the  effort,  all  the  way  through,  is  to  accomplish 
exactly  what  my  process  does  effectually  accomplish.  The 
whole  effort  or  aim,  in  almost  every  formula  in  the  Pharma- 
copoeia, is  to  avoid  heat  and  evaporation,  as  shown  by  reserving, 
in  most  cases,  three-fourths  of  the  amount  to  which  neither  is 
applied.  The  Pharmacopoeia  formulae  are  right  as  far  as  they 
can  go  right,  which  is  just  three-fourths  of  the  way — at  least, 
apparently  so — -that  is  to  say,  they  would  be  right,  if  the 
remaining  one-fourth  could  go  on  in  anything  like  same  ratio ; 
but  it  cannot;  therefore,  the  imperfect  plan  adopted  by  the 
Pharmacopoeia  for  obtaining  the  last  one-fourth  was  the  best 
plan  then  known.  The  first  three-fourths  obtained  by  my 
process  will  contain  much  more  of  the  whole  strength  of  the 
drug  than  the  first  three-fourths  obtained  by  displacement ;  this 
leaves  the  last  fourth,  in  my  case,  capable  to  practically  take 
out  all  the  remaining  strength  of  the  drug,  which  cannot  be 
done  by  displacement. 
Dr.  Squibb's  plan  goes  apparently  right  farther  than  the 
Pharmacopoeia  ;  but,  as  it  goes  on  precisely  the  same  plan — that 
is  to  say,  a  plan  of  which  he  says,  himself,  that  no  reasonable 
continuation  will  absolutely  exhaust  the  substance  of  soluble 
matters  or  of  the  alkaloids — it  seems  to  me  that  any  better  plan 
should  be  adopted  in  preference.    Dr.  Squibb's  plan  is  extrava- 
