ON  SOME  PHARMACEUTICAL  PREPARATIONS.  805 
latitudes,  it  would  be  corrected  by  increasing  the  proportion  of 
officinal  syrup.  I  have  made  the  preparation  of  different  degrees 
of  consistence  :  in  the  foregoing  formula  the  proportion  of  syrup 
is  reduced,  perhaps,  to  its  lowest  practicable  point  to  retain  the 
character  of  a  syrup.  If  it  is  desirable,  sometimes,  to  have  a 
solution  free  from  saccharine  matter,  it  is  probable  that  a  more 
permanent  preparation  could  be  obtained  than  the  present 
officinal  one,  simply  by  the  addition  of  Hoffman's  Anodyne  to  it. 
But  in  this  case  there  would  be  an  obvious  precipitation  of  the 
ethereal  oil  of  Hoffman's  Liquor,  which  appears  scarcely  to  dis- 
turb the  transparency  of  the  Syrup,  and  there  would  be  also  the 
increased  facility  of  evaporation  of  the  protective  fluid.  Expe- 
rience, however,  will  best  determine  the  feasibility  of  this  aqueous 
preparation. 
I  have  labelled  this  preparation,  for  my  own  convenience  in 
prescribing,  Syrupus  Morphia;  Sulphatis  Oompositus.  The  com- 
pound spirit  of  sulphuric  ether  is  added  in  order  to  preserve  the 
thin  syrup  from  decomposition;  in  much  larger  quantities  it 
would  have  the  advantage  of  co-operating  with  the  salt  of  mor- 
phia as  an  anodyne,  but  as  in  each  fluid  drachm  of  the  syrup 
there  is  but  one  thirty-third  part  of  it  Hoffman's  liquor,  it  can 
exert  but  little  power  as  a  co-adjuvant  of  the  morphia. 
Gralbanum  It  is  stated  in  our  excellent  U.  S.  Dispensatory, 
that  this  gum  resin  "  in  the  United  States  is  never  prescribed 
internally."  And  under  the  head  of  Tincture  of  G-albanum  a 
similar  observation  is  made  concerning  this  preparation.  And 
I  believe  the  tincture  is  not  recognized,  either  in  the  U.  S.,  the 
London,  or  the  Edinburgh  Pharmacopoeia. 
From  my  own  observation,  I  judge  that  the  above  quotation 
from  our  Dispensatory  is  substantially  correct,  having  never 
known  the  medicine  to  be  prescribed  by  others,  except  in  a  few  in- 
stances at  my  own  instigation.  I  may  say,  however,  that  I  have 
prepared  and  used  the  Tinctura  Gralbani,  made  according  to  the 
Dublin  Pharmacopoeia,  from  an  early  period  of  my  medical  prac- 
tice, and  I  should  now,  after  a  length  of  twenty-seven  years  in 
the  profession,  be  at  a  loss  to  find  a  substitute  for  it. 
It  is  by  no  means  a  potent  remedy,  as  we  find  the  article  in 
this  country,  but  it  properly  belongs  to  that  class  of  milder  the- 
rapeutic agents  which  we  cannot  well  dispense  with,  while  they 
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