34 
LIQUOR  OPII  COMPOSITUS. 
hj  side,  with  a  fair  statement  that  one  had  been  rejected  and  the 
other  adopted  by  officinal  authority,  and  with  the  no  inconsidera- 
ble inducement  of  20  per  cent,  difference  in  price  in  favor  of  the 
officinal  preparation.  Beside,  the  officinal  tinctura  opii  deodorata 
was  always  made  from  assayed  opium,  and  was  uniform  in 
strength  with  the  liquor  opii  compositus,  with  which  it  was 
placed  in  competition.  The  Pharmacopoeia  does  not  require  the 
tinctura  opii  deodorata  to  be  made  by  assay,  but  this  was  done 
to  secure  the  competition  against  any  disadvantage  through  want 
of  uniformity  in  strength.  The  liquor  opii  compositus  is  always 
made  of  the  strength  indicated  in  the  officinal  tinctura  opii,  or 
laudanum,  if  the  laudanum  be  made  of  good  powdered  opium  as 
it  should  be.  Such  laudanum  always  contains  at  least  four 
grains  of  morphia,  which  is  equivalent  to  about  five  grains  of 
crystallized  sulphate  of  morphia  in  each  fluidounce.  Since  1867 
they  have  been  placed  side  by  side  upon  all  the  price  lists  issued 
by  the  writer,  and  until  recently  with  notes  fairly  setting  forth 
the  characteristic  points  of  each.  Diligent  inquiries  have  been 
made  in  regard  to  the  comparative  value  of  the  preparations, 
and  whenever  these  inquiries  have  been  answered  the  preference 
,has  been  given  to  the  compound  solution.  The  sale  of  both  has 
;increased  steadily  year  after  year,  but  the  sale  of  the  compound 
solution  has  increased  much  more  rapidly  than  that  of  the  de- 
odorized tincture,  and  is  now  more  than  ten  times  greater.  The 
regular  and  steady  increase  in  the  demand  for  the  compound  so- 
lution during  the  past  eleven  years  having  now  increased  its 
production  in  the  writer's  hands  to  over  eight  hundred  pounds  a 
year  ;  and  the  probability  that  many  pharmacists  make  it  for 
themselves,  induces  him  to  undertake  a  revision  of  the  formula, 
in  order  to  remove  some  objections  to  the  present  formula,  which 
appear  to  have  been  established  on  good  grounds. 
The  first  and  principal  objection  to  the  present  formula  is  that 
the  odor  and  taste  of  ether  is  disagreeable  to  most  persons,  and 
to  many  nauseating  and  hurtful.  The  increasing  use  of  ether  as 
an  angesthetic,  and  the  nausea,  vomiting,  and  natural  disgust 
produced  by  it  when  so  used,  and  the  frequent  necessity  for  an 
anodyne  after  anaesthesia,  renders  it  of  some  importance  that 
the  anodyne  should  not  contain  the  agent  which  has  excited  the 
