ON  LIQUOR  AND  EXTRACTUM  TARAXACI. 
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ON  LIQUOR  AND  EXTRACTUM  TARAXACI  AND  OTHER 
EXTRACTS  AND  EXPRESSED  JUICES. 
By  Mr.  R.  W.  Giles. 
The  few  remarks  which  I  have  to  offer  are  so  hastily  arranged 
that  they  ought  to  be  prefaced  by  a  longer  apology,  if  it  were 
not  my  belief  that  the  Pharmaceutical  meetings  would  be  bene- 
fitted if  more  rashness  was  manifested  by  Members.    These  ob- 
servations are  rather  designed  to  suggest  a  subject  for  consider- 
ation, than  to  describe  the  result  of  any  sufficiently  elaborated 
investigation. 
At  the  present  time,  the  first  that  has  ever  offered  to  the  Phar- 
maceutical body  an  opportunity  of  sharing  in  the  preparation  of 
the  Pharmacopoeia  by  which  their  operations  are  to  be  guided,  it 
seems  particularly  desirable  that  our  views  should  be  sufficiently 
comprehensive,  that  we  should  not  commence  our  labors  by  a  se- 
riatim revision  of  preparations  in  an  isolated  condition,  but 
rather  with  a  consideration  of  the  objects  which  the  several 
classes  of  pharmaceutical  preparations  are  intended  to  subserve. 
For  example,  it  might  be  a  subject  for  consideration  whether  the 
tinctures  are  not  inconvenient  from  containing  so  large  a  propor- 
tion of  alcohol  to  the  medicine  intended  to  be  conveyed,  as  often 
to  interdict  their  administration  in  efficient  doses.  This  may 
not  be  the  best  illustration  possible,  but  it  will  serve  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  propriety  of  considering  first  how  tinctures  are 
likely  to  be  employed,  and  afterwards  how  any  particular  tinc- 
ture will  be  best  made. 
The  class  of  preparations  to  which  I  wish  now  to  refer,  are 
"Extracts  "  and  I  would  propose  it  as  a  subject  worthy  of  se- 
rious thought :  «  What  is  the  object  in  view  in  the  preparation 
of  extracts  ?" 
This  form  of  medicine  is  obviously  intermediate  between  the 
crude  drug  and  the  alkaloid,  resin,  or  what  not,  to  which  the  ef- 
ficacy of  the  drug  is  supposed  to  be  due.  In  some  cases  the  ac- 
tive principle  is  obscure,  as  in  hyoscyamus,  and  the  extract  is  a 
convenient  approach  to  that  which  cannot  be  easily  obtained. 
In  other  cases,  as  of  nux  vomica  and  aconite,  the  alkaloids  are 
too  deadly  to  be  manipulated  without  anxiety,  and  the  alcoholic 
extract  is  preferred  as  being  more  tractable. 
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