LIQUOR  OPII  COMPOSITUS. 
33 
LIQUOR  OPII  OOMPOSITUS.    (COMPOUND  SOLUTION  OF 
OPIUM). 
By  Edward  R.  Squibb,  M.D. 
In  the  early  part  of  1859  the  writer  of  this  note  completed  a 
design  previously  formed  and  less  definitely  executed,  of  offer- 
ing for  general  medical  use  a  liquid  preparation  containing  only 
the  useful  anodyne  and  hypnotic  constituents  of  opium,  and  of 
uniform  strengtjh. 
The  design  originated  in  a  desire  to  improve  upon  the  advan- 
tages of  the  "opium  titr^  "  or  assayed  opium  of  French  phar- 
macy, and  to  imitate,  with  improvement,  if  might  be,  some  of 
the  advantages  claimed  for  the  nostrums  known  as  Battley's 
'Miquor  opii  sedativus,"  and  McMunn's  "  elixir  of  opium." 
Such  a  preparation  was  made,  and,  under  the  name  of  liquo<r 
opii  compositus,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  several  physicians 
who  were  supposed  to  be  intelligent  close  observers,  and  who 
had  been  long  familiar  with  the  various  preparations  of  opium 
and  their  effects  in  use.    These  trials,  though  not  very  numer- 
ous, resulted  in  the  main  so  favorably  that,  after  continuing  them 
through  the  year  1859,  a  paper  was  prepared  upon  "  opium  as  a 
therapeutic  agent,"  containing  a  minutely  detailed  practical 
working  formula  for  the  preparation  of  liquor  opii  compositus, 
and  strongly  recommending  it  for  trial  in  general  use,  and  for 
introduction  into  the  then  approaching  revision  of  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeia,  if  it  should  sustain  its  promised  useful  character. 
This  paper  was  published  in  this  Journal  for  March,  1860,  andi 
may  be  found  in  Vol.  VIII  of  the  third  series  (Vol.  32,  whole 
number),  at  pages  115  and  120  et  seq.    The  preparation  was- 
not  advertised  nor  pushed  in  any  way,  either  publicly  or  pri- 
vately, but  was  simply  announced  for  sale  on  the  writer's  price- 
lists,  with  a  recommendation  for  trial,  and  was  allowed  to  make, 
its  own  reputation,  and  seek  its  own  level  of  value.    In  1862  it, 
had  been  much  more  extensively  tried,  but  was  refused  admission 
to  the  Pharmacopoeia  by  the  Committee  of  Revision, — the  Com- 
mittee adopting  instead  of  it  the  present  formula  for  tinctura 
opii  deodorata.    With  this  latter  preparation  it  was  at  once  put 
in  fair  open  competition,  the  two  preparations  being  offered  side 
3 
