Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
July,  1875.  i 
Fluid  Extract  of  Gossypium. 
291 
tracts  are  prone  to  decompose,  the  remarkable  change  in  color  in  my 
■opinion  is  a  characteristic  of  Gossypium. 
Occasionally  the  chemical  decomposition  proceeds  until  the  extract 
is  completely  disintegrated.  This  is  seldom  the  case,  however,  but  once 
in  awhile  we  come  across  a  specimen  that  has  abruptly  solidified  or 
curdled  (while  samples  I  have  purposely  placed  aside  most  positively  re- 
fuse to  do  likewise,  although  standing  longer  than  some  that  have 
spoiled).  The  property  of  coagulating,  however,  is  possessed  by  fluid 
•extract  of  Geranium  maculatum^  which,  as  regards  color,  is  nearly  like 
Gossypium  after  the  change  to  red.  However,  fluid  extract  of  geranium 
is  red  when  first  made,  and  so  very  astringent  as  to  forbid  its  ever  being 
mistaken  for  fluid  extract  of  cotton-root. 
From  the  foregoing  remarks  it  will  appear  that  a  genuine  fluid  extract 
of  Gossypium  may  at  different  periods  vary  in  color  from  a  brownish- 
yellow  to  a  deep  red,  and  that  the  several  shades  found  upon  the  market, 
perhaps,  are  prepared  from  the  true  Gossypium  ;  however,  if  any  of  the 
specimens  are  not  red,  and  age  fails  to  effect  a  change  to  this  color,  I 
feel  that  I  may  be  warranted  in  saying  they  were  either  prepared  from 
spurious  barks,  or  worthless  Gossypium. 
Fluid  extract  of  cotton-root,  as  I  have  said,  turns  invariably  to  a  deep 
red  after  standing  a  time,  and  occasionally  will  decompose  and  coagulate 
after  reaching  the  above  color,  which,  although  rendering  the  extract 
worthless,  is  a  proof  of  its  having  been  genuine  ;  for  of  the  red  extracts 
Geranium  maculatum  is  the  only  one  that  to  my  knowledge  will  gela- 
tinize, and  Geranium  cannot  be  mistaken  for  Gossypium. 
Regarding  color  alone,  either  the  fluid  extract  of  Pinus  canadensis  or 
Geranium  maculatum  might  be  substituted  for  Gossypium^  but  their  taste 
and  properties  would  forbid,  while  all  of  the  species  of  Populus  I  have 
operated  with  differ  from  the  true  Gossypium  in  every  respect.  Taking 
everything  into  consideration,  the  probabilities  are  that  the  larger  share 
of  worthless  fluid  extract  of  Gossypium  is  prepared  from  Gossypium 
bark,  but  from  the  kind  Wallace  Brothers  speak  of  as  being  dark  brown^ 
for  to  my  experience  we  have  much  of  this  stuff  to  contend  with. 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  June  ist,  1875. 
Note. — The  gelatinous  mass  is  probably  one  of  the  pectin  compounds,  perhaps 
pectosic  acid,  produced  by  what  has  been  termed  the  pectic  fermentation. 
Similar  changes,  the  precise  causes  for  which  are  but  little  understood,  occur  in  many 
concentrated  liquid  preparations  of  vegetable  drugs,  and  it  is  curious  that  occasion- 
ally only  a  portion  of  such  a  liquid  gelatinizes,  while  another  portion  prepared  at  the 
