AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  PRACTICAL  PHARMACY. 
13 
The  generators  and  washers  are  copper,  solidly  tinned ;  the 
fountains  cast  iron,  enamelled  on  the  inside.  The  cost  of  the 
whole  apparatus,  Mr.  Parrish  states,  varies  according  to  size,  &c, 
from  $235  to  $400.  The  fountains  are  necessarily  too  heavy 
to  be  readily  portable,  consequently  the  apparatus  can  only  be 
used  to  advantage  where  the  mineral  water  is  made  on  the  pre- 
mises at  which  it  is  sold. 
«  Nichols'  Patent  Mineral  Water  Apparatus,"  is  also  figured 
and  described.    This  is  on  a  smaller  scale  and  less  costly. 
We  observe  that  the  author  has  omitted  altogether  the  im- 
portant subject  of  coolers  for  mineral  water.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  block  tin  pipe,  coiled  in  an  ice  box,  as  described  in  the 
last  volume  of  this  Journal,  page  409,  forms  the  best  arrangement 
for  this  purpose,  which  has  yet  been  introduced,  being  efficient, 
economical  and  free  from  any  danger  of  communicating  deleteri- 
ous qualities  to  the  water. 
From  the  chapter  on  "  Evaporation  and  the  Extracts,"  we 
take  the  following  : — 
Extracttim  Ignatice  Amarce  Alcoholicum. 
"■  This  preparation  has  been  proposed  as  a  <  remedy  *  for  dyspepsia,  at- 
tended with  nervous  depression,  and  extensively  advertised  as  such  by  a 
clergyman  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who,  having  been  cured  by  it,  makes  it 
known  to  others  for  the  benefit  of  humanity.  The  recipe,  as  here  given,  is 
an  improvement  upon  his,  and  is  offered  for  the  benefit  of  apothecaries,  who 
may  be  called  upon  to  make  it. 
The  beans  of  St.  Ignatius,  likenux  vomica,  have  a  very  horny  and  tough 
kernel  (due  to  bassorin  and  fixed  oil),  which  renders  it  difficult  to  powder 
them  so  as  to  extract  their  soluble  matter.  Professor  Procter  recommends 
the  following  process  for  their  extraction.  The  beans  are  bruised  in  an 
iron  or  brass  mortar,  until  reduced  to  small  fragments  or  very  coarse 
powder;  they  are  then  moistened  with  water  in  a  covered  vessel,  and  heated 
until  the  tissue  of  the  pieces  has  become  soft,  and  can  be  bruised  into  a 
pulpy  mass.  This  is  then  mixed  with  twice  its  bulk  of  alcohol,  sp.  gr.  '835, 
and  allowed  to  macerate  in  a  close  vessel  in  a  warm  place  for  24  hours,  and 
then  treated  by  displacement  until  8  or  10  times  the  weight  of  the  drug  is 
obtained.  The  alcohol  is  then  distilled  off  and  the  residue  heated  in  a 
water  bath  until  reduced  to  the  consistence  of  a  soft  extract.  By  this  pro- 
cess, about  10  per  cent,  of  a  brown  colored,  intensely  bitter  extract  may  be 
obtained.  This  extract  is  much  stronger  than  extract  of  nux  vomica,  and 
is  directad  to  be  made  into  a  mass  with  gum  Arabic,  in  the  proportion  of 
30  grains  of  the  extract  to  10  of  the  gum,  and  divided  into  40  pills  (f  grain 
in  a  pill),  one  of  which  is  to  be  taken  three  times  a  day. 
