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221     ECONOMIZING  ALCOHOL  IN  MAKING  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
virtue  of  the  drug,  the  same  solvent  being  necessary  to  hold  in 
solution  that  is  required  to  properly  extract  the  virtues,  and  vice 
versa,  that  is  to  say,  just  the  same  solvent  is  necessary  to  dissolve 
out  the  virtues  of  a  drug  that  is  required  to  hold  the  same  per- 
manently in  solution.  For  the  small  quantities  wanted  by  re- 
tail druggists,  a  powerful  press  of  small  dimensions  can  be  made 
for  about  one  hundred  dollars,  capable  of  fully  extracting  by  my 
process  the  full  virtues  of  any  drug.  So  if  the  revisors  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  should  on  investigation  satisfy  themselves  of  the 
superiority  of  my  plan  over  all  others,  there  would  be  no  reason 
why  pharmaceutists  should  not  be  expected  to  incur  so  reasona- 
ble an  amount  of  expense  for  the  sake  of  carrying  out  properly 
the  best  process  for  making  so  valuable  a  class  of  preparations, 
as  I  now  propose  to  grant  to  any  druggist  or  apothecary  individ- 
ual rights  to  use  my  process  on  agreeing  to  pay  a  small  fee  on 
each  pound  of  the  fluid  extract  when  made.  There  is  no  obsta- 
cle in  the  way  of  its  general  adoption,  except  the  mere  cost  of  a 
suitable  press,  which  is  now,  for  moderate  quantities,  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  dollars,  and  for  small  quantities  the  cost 
will  probably  be  about  one  hundred  dollars.  In  applying  this 
process,  when  I  claim  that  it  is  entirely  practicable  for  all  the 
different  drugs  in  the  list  of  Materia  Medica,  I,  of  course,' would 
have  it  understood  that  the  solvent  or  menstruum  must  in  all 
cases  be  the  proper  one ;  and  that  is  a  matter  that  the  operator 
must  understand.  If  operating  on  substances  for  which  there  is  no 
standard  authority,  the  process  is  perfection ;  but,  of  course,  if  the 
menstruum  be  not  the  proper  one  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
drug,  the  preparation  will  not  be  perfect ;  but  if  the  solvent  used 
be  capable  of  holding  the  virtues  of  the  drug  in  solution,  there 
can  be  no  question  about  its  ability  to  dissolve  it  out  by  my 
mode  of  applying  it,  while  the  same  liquid  merely  running 
through  will  not  and  cannot  be  expected  to  so  thoroughly  and 
quickly  dissolve  out  the  virtues,  particularly  if  any  of  the  parti- 
cles of  the  drug  happen  to  be  a  little  too  coarse,  which,  under  the 
action  of  powerful  pressure,  will  have  the  virtues  removed  from 
the  centre  of  the  particle  that  would  be  passed  by  or  missed  by 
a  percolating  liquid  not  under  pressure. 
