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222      ECONOMIZING  ALCOHOL  IN  MAKING  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
Fluid  Extracts ;  nearly  all  have  some  way  of  their  own  of 
cheapening  them,  particularly  the  large  operators. 
Dr.  Squibb's  paper  gives  many  valuable  suggestions  which  are 
really  in  favor  of  my  process.  He  arrives  at  the  fact  that  the 
medicinal  virtues  are  easiest  soluble  ;  this  is  certainly  in  favor  of 
a  plan  using  so  small  an  amount  of  menstruum  as  mine.  He 
speaks  of  the  amount  of  alcohol  directed  for  moistening  the  drug 
previous  to  displacement  affecting  the  operation  very  materially, 
and  the  amount  directed  by  the  Pharmacopoeia  not  being  the 
best  quantity.  This  shows  how  small  a  matter  may  affect  the 
result  by  displacement  in  the  hands  of  an  unskilful  operator. 
He  also  speaks  of  the  trouble  in  some  cases  by  impaction  ;  this 
trouble  there  is  no  provision  against,  and  with  an  unskilful 
operator  would  very  seriously  affect  the  result.  This  difficulty 
cannot  occur  with  my  plan.  He  speaks  of  the  point  of  absolute 
exhaustion  never  being  attained  in  displacing.  This  can  be  at- 
tained much  quicker  by  my  plan  than  by  any  other.  By  pressure, 
as  I  propose,  we  have  all  the  advantages  of  displacement  without 
any  of  its  disadvantages.  The  menstruum  with  which  the  drug  is 
first  moistened,  being  about  the  same  either  for  displacing  or 
pressing,  I  believe  that  if  pressed  out  it  carries  with  it  a  much 
larger  amount  of  solid  extract  than  if  displaced  out.  Then  the 
second  addition,  having  a  weaker  drug  to  operate  on,  I  think 
carries  its  strength  out  more  perfectly  than  if  displaced.  If  we 
divide  each  operation  into  fourths,  the  first  fourth  pressed  will  be 
much  stronger  than  first  fourth  displaced  ;  and  from  this  fact, 
when  we  come  to  the  last  fourth,  we  have  a  much  better  chance 
to  clean  out  all  that  is  left  by  pressing  than  by  displacing,  as 
the  action  of  the  press  is  much  more  definite  or  positive  than 
percolation.*    In  what  little  conversation  I  have  recently  had 
*[This  appears  to  be  mere  assertion,  as  does  much  that  the  author 
states  in  reference  to  the  exhaustion  of  drugs  by  pressure,  in  the  absence 
of  actual  results.  What  we  want,  and  what  we  have  always  had,  when  any  • 
great  innovation,  like  percolation,  has  been  introduced,  is  a  tabular  state- 
ment of  actual  careful  trials,  made  in  a  truthful  spirit.  Let  us  have  the 
solid  contents  of  each  fourth  compared  with  the  same  by  percolation.  Our 
own  opinion,  in  the  absence  of  actual  comparative  trial,  is  that  the  first 
percolate  will  be  denser  than  the  first  pressed  liquor,  whatever  may  be  true 
