14 
AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  PRACTICAL  PHARMACY. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  the  free  use  of  a  medicine  of  such 
power,  containing  one  of  the  most  poisonous  of  alkaloids,  as  a  popular 
remedy,  to  he  given  without  the  advice  and  care  of  a  physician,  is  most 
dangerous  and  unjustifiable." 
Bean  of  St.  Ignatius  afforded  to  Pelletier  and  Caventou,  1»2 
per  cent,  of  strychnia,  from  which  the  alcoholic  extract  would  con- 
tain in  the  quantity  directed  to  be  taken  daily  (2\  grs.),  about 
i  gr-  of  strychnia,  beside  the  brucia  which  is  associated  with  it. 
At  the  first  blush,  it  appears  to  indicate  an  unusual  amount  of 
philanthropic  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  "  clergyman "  of 
Brooklyn,  that  he  should  be  willing  to  subject  himself  to  the 
heavy  expense  of  advertising  this  remedy  extensively  throughout 
all  parts  of  the  country,  the  recipe  to  be  furnished  gratuitously  by 
mail  to  any  applicant  ;  but  on  enquiring  a  little  more  closely,  we 
find  that  the  40  pills  are  furnished  at  one  dollar  per  box,  and 
as  almost  every  invalid  who  applies  for  and  receives  the  recipe, 
orders  a  box  of  the  pills,  the  clergyman  is  probably  well  paid 
for  both  his  benevolence  and  his  outlay.  We  observe  that  there 
is  now  an  opposition  "  clergyman  "  in  New  York,  who  supplies  a 
recipe  for  similar  complaints,  and  within  a  week  or  two  another 
in  this  city  has  commenced  advertising  a  remedy  for  rheumatism, 
to  be  sent  in  like  manner  by  mail.  As  this  method  of  introduc- 
ing a  medicine  seems  likely  to  become  a  favorite  expedient  of 
quackery,  it  is  proper  that  it  should  be  understood. 
Under  the  head  of  «<  Concentrated  or  Resinoid  Extracts,"  in 
this  chapter,  the  author  has  included  an  account  of  certain  pre- 
parations used  by  the  "  Eclectic  "  practitioners,  viz  : 
Stillingin,  Leptandrin,  Hydrastin,  Sanguinarin,  &c. 
In  the  chapter  headed  "  Lignin  and  its  derivations," 
is  a  very  full  account  of  collodion,  its  preparation,  &c. 
A  convenient  arrangement  for  keeping  collodion  ready 
for  use,  consisting  of  an  ounce  vial,  with  a  camel's  hair 
pencil  connected  with  the  cork,  is  exemplified  in  the 
figure  which  we  copy  from  page  241.  From  this  chapter 
we  quote  as  follows  in  regard  to  creasote: — 
"  The  article  now  generally  sold  as  creasote,  is  quite  different  from  what 
was  formerly  met  with  under  that  name.  It  is  imported  from  Germany, 
and  is  much  cheaper  than  the  old  kind,  which  came  from  England,  and  wao 
obtained  from  wood  tar  as  above.  The  present  article,  which  is  remark- 
able for  readily  assuming  a  brown  color  on  exposure  to  the  light  and  air,  U 
chemically  a  hydraled  oxide  of  phenyle,  or  carbolic  acid,  C12  H5  0,  and  ie 
