338 
ON  FLUID  EXTRACTS. 
appearance  of  a  fluid  extract,  showing  the  importance  of  em- 
ploying a  standard  that  shall  not  be  violated  by  the  caprice,  or 
the  more  unworthy  motive  of  avarice,  of  the  vendor.  It  cer- 
tainly is  no  light  matter  to  trifle  with  life  and  health ;  the  laws  . 
of  conscience,  if  not  the  laws  of  the  land,  should  prevent  it,  and 
every  incentive  should  be  presented  that  is  possible,  to  encour- 
age both  the  pharmacist  and  the  manufacturer  to  prepare  and 
sell  only  ofiicinal  preparations,  whenever  formulas  are  supplied. 
In  considering  the  present  oflicinal  formulas  for  fluid  extracts 
it  may  be  asked,  what  is  the  design  or  purpose  of  a  formula? 
The  reply  will  be,  that  pharmacists  may  prepare  the  article  as 
ordered.  Then  it  must  follow  that  all  formulas  should  be  con- 
structed so  as  to  adapt  them  to  general  use.  Such  certainly  was 
the  intention  of  the  revisers  of  our  own  national  pharmacopoeia, 
but  after  a  trial  of  ten  years  are  the  results  satisfactory  with  the 
class  referred  to?  It  will  not  be  denied  that,  with  a/ew  excep- 
tions in  our  larger  cities,  apothecaries  depend  upon  the  manu- 
facturing specialist  for  the  supply  of  fluid  extracts.  In  looking 
for  a  reason  may  we  not  safely  assert  that  nearly  all  the  objec- 
tions met  with  originate  in  the  practically  impracticable  formulas 
of  the  pharmacopoeia,  requiring,  as  they  do,  a  degree  of  skill,  a 
perfection  of  manipulation,  and  an  honesty  of  purpose,  which, 
at  least,  are  none  too  common.  This  charge  made  against  phar- 
macists may  lead  some  to  suspect  that  ordinary  honesty  is  a  rare 
quality  in  the  trade,  but  the  inference  is  not  a  fair  one.  The 
objections  to  the  present  formulas  are  many  and  serious.  The 
extracts  oifered  by  manufacturers  are  recommended  by  leading 
medical  journals  and  appear  satisfactory  to  physicians,  who,  it 
may  be  stated,  have  learned  their  strength  by  experience,  and, 
therefore,  know  what  quantity  to  prescribe,  so  that  wilful  dis- 
honesty is  not  charged,  but  the  fact  remains,  as  the  writer  has 
verified  by  many  inquiries,  that  not  over  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
apothecaries  in  the  U.  S.  prepare  or  sell  fluid  extracts  made  in 
accordance  with  the  formulas  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  It 
may  be  said  that  the  greater  fault  is  with  the  apothecary,  but 
how  shall  it  be  remedied  ?  is  the  serious  question..  No  ordinary 
arguments  or  appeals  for  the  authority  of  the  pharmacopoeia  will 
suffice.    The  difficulty  must  be  met  by  removing  all  excuse  for 
