342  Medicated  IVaters.  {^""-il^Z'^n-^' 
the  volatile  oils  or  their  strong  acoholic  solution  were  agitated  with  the 
distilled  water.  Mr.  G.  G.  Percival  recently  proposed  ("  Amer. 
Journ.  Pharm.,"  1873,  p.  564)  to  dissolve  the  oils  in  boiling  water^ 
and  Mr.  Jas.  Rugan  {Ihid.^  1874,  p.  188),  to  triturate  them  with  pure 
paper  pulp  and  afterwards  with  water. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  in  Great  Britain,  where  formerly  medicated 
waters  were  prepared  by  agitation,  or  by  trituration  with  an  insoluble 
substance,  distillationjs  now  in  all  cases  directed,  with  the  sole  excep- 
tion of  camphor  water  ;  the  fresh  or  dried  drugs  being  used,  or  the  vol- 
atile oils  in  the  cases  of  peppermint  and  spearmint  water.  The  reasons- 
for  the  last-mentioned  exceptions  are  not  apparent ;  at  least  our  expe- 
rience coincides  with  the  observations  made  through  many  years  in? 
Europe,  that  peppermint  (and  spearmint)  water  distilled  from  the  herb 
has  a  better  flavor  than  that  made  from  the  oil,  and  keeps  as  well  as 
most  other  distilled  waters,  and  better  than  some  which  are  officinal  in 
the  various  Pharmacopoeias.  In  our  opinion,  pharmacists  who  have 
been  using  properly  prepared  medicated  waters,  distilled  from  the  drugs,, 
will  not  be  likely  to  discard  the  process  by  substituting  the  volatile 
oils,  which  have  perhaps  in  no  case  the  delicate  fragrance  and  flavor 
of  the  watery  distillates  from  the  drugs. 
Some  medicated  waters  are  little  employed,  and  in  such  cases  it  is 
proper  that  the  pharmacist  should  be  enabled  to  prepare  them,  when 
desired,  at  short  notice  from  the  volatile  oil,  without  contaminating  the- 
product  with  a  substance  which  may  have  an  injurious  influence  on  the 
medicine.  That  magnesium  carbonate  is  not  the  best  that  could  be 
selected  for  this  purpose,  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said  above. 
The  four  essays  to  which  we  have  alluded  confine  themselves  alto- 
gether to  what  may  be  called  the  extemporaneous  preparation  of  med- 
icated waters.  Of  the  processes  mentioned,  Mr.  Percival's  hot-water 
solution  is  regarded  by  Edward  Plummer  and  Thaddeus  Everhart  as^ 
yielding,  rapidly,  unobjectionable  waters,  while  W.  L.  Kutz  expresses 
himself  in  favor  of  using  paper  pulp,  and  Geo.  M.  Shamalia  suggests 
another  material,  which  appears  to  be  deserving  of  some  more  extended 
experiments  ;  this  material  is  purified  animal  charcoal,  which  is  recom- 
mended to  be  substituted  for  the  magnesium  carbonate  directed  by  the 
Pharmacopoeia,  and  is  said  to  produce  excellent  waters,  free  from  the 
objections  that  may  be  urged  against  the  use  of  magnesia. 
Regarding  the  hot-water  process,  it  is  obvious  that  it  cannot  be  well 
adopted  for  chloroform,  the  boiling  point  of  which  is  much  lower  than* 
