0 
ON  LIQUOR  AND  EXTRACTUM  TARAXACX.  133 
applies  with  increased  force  to  the  corresponding  extracts — the 
ordinary  P.  L.  extract,  which  is  so  notoriously  contaminated 
with  glucose,  being  represented  by  the  liquor  taraxaci,  and  that 
other  form  of  opaque  extract  which  has  recently  been  proposed 
as  its  substitute  agreeing  with  the  inspissated  juice — the  sugar 
of  the  P.  L.  extract  renders  it  objectionable,  and  the  large  pro- 
portion of  the  endochrome  present  in  the  other  dilutes  it  in  a 
manner  that  mitigates  against  the  intention  of  an  extract. 
The  application  of  these  observations  is  in  determining  the  best 
means  of  getting  in  the  form  of  a  fluid  or  an  extract,  the  largest 
amount  of  the  active  agency  of  taraxacum  in  the  smallest 
volume,  and  I  am  inclined  (though  with  insufficient  experience) 
to  think  that  two  ways  offer  the  means. 
First,  by  allowing  the  roots  to  become  somewhat  flaccid  by 
exposure,  by  which  means  I  anticipate  that  less  endochrome 
would  be  separable,  and  then  to  bruise  and  press  them,  sprink- 
ling with  water  if  found  advantageous. 
Second,  to  operate  upon  dry  roots  by  cold  maceration. 
By  neither  of  these  processes  could  we  obtain  the  pulpy-look- 
ing inspissated  juice  which  we  have  learned  to  desire,  but  in  my 
opinion  this  is  no  loss,  as  I  have  before  stated  my  belief  that 
this  appearance  is  the  measure  in  point  of  thickness  of  the  inert 
matter  present,  and  in  point  of  color  of  the  small  extent  to 
which  concentration  has  been  carried. 
We  may  further  apply  these  considerations  to  extracts  gene- 
rally, and  reflect  whether  we  ought  not  to  reduce  their  volume 
as  much  as  possible,  in  order  to  make  them  fulfil  their  purpose, 
one  part  being  of  course  the  administration  of  an  average  dose 
in  a  pill,  and  whether  it  should  not  be  our  aim  in  the  new  P.  L. 
to  exclude  inert  matter,  such  as  starch  and  albumen,  from  all  of 
them.  By  these  means  the  extracts  even  from  drugs  originally 
very  different  in  quality  would  be  assimilated,  and  one  of  the 
difficulties  of  adjusting  their  doses  would  be  surmounted.  A  step 
in  this  direction  was  taken  in  the  P.  L.  of  1851,  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  cold  maceration  for  boiling  in  several  cases,  due,  I  sus- 
pect, to  the  suggestions  of  Mr.  Battley  ;  but  it  is  still  .a  ques- 
tion whether  much  more  does  not  yet  remain  to  be  done  by  si- 
milar means,  and  by  the  further  employment  of  alcohol  and 
