ON  COMPOUND  SYRUP  OF  IPECACUANHA  AND  SENEKA.  205 
ON  COMPOUND  SYRUP  OF  IPECACUANHA  AND  SENEKA. 
By  Frederick  Stearns. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : — 
Dear  Sir, — Among  the  many  non-officinal  remedial  agents 
of  a  local  origin  and  use,  some  of  them  are  fully  worthy  of  more 
extended  notice.  In  view  of  this  fact,  and  knowing  the  active 
influence  exercised  by  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  in 
bringing  into  notice  preparations  of  this  kind,  I  am  led  to  sub- 
mit to  your  consideration  (and  to  the  readers  of  your  journal,  if 
deemed  worth  the  room  it  would  occupy  in  its  pages,)  the  follow- 
ing formula  for  "Jackson's  Pectoral  Syrup,"  as  it  is  called  here, 
but  which  bears  but  little  resemblance  to  that  preparation  as 
published  in  Parrish's  Practical  Pharmacy,  page  196. 
Its  ingredients  suggest  "  compound  syrup  of  ipecacuanha  and 
seneka,"  as  a  proper  name  for  it. 
The  formula  given  me  was  as  follows : 
Take  of  ipecacuanha,  one  ounce  ;  seneka,  three  ounces  ;  refined 
sugar,  two  pounds  •  sulphate,  or  muriate  morphia,  sixteen  grains  ; 
oil  sassafras,  ten  minims  ;  make  two  pints  of  syrup. 
In  making  it  I  pursued  the  following  plan,  which  I  deemed 
best  suited  to  the  nature  of  the  materials  used,  and  succeeded  in 
forming  a  bright  clear  syrup,  permanent  and  possessing  in  an 
active  degree  all  of  their  medical  efficacy.  Using  the  officinal 
weights,  macerate  the  ipecacuanha  in  coarse  powder,  for  fourteen 
days,  in  one  pint  diluted  alcohol,  XL  S.  P.,  express,  filter,  and 
evaporate  to  six  fluid  ounces  and  set  aside.  Next  digest  in  a 
suitable  apparatus  the  seneka  in  coarse  powder,  with  ten  fluid 
ounces  of  water  and  two  fluid  ounces  of  .  alcohol,  85  per  cent.,  at 
a  heat  not  exceeding  104°  F.,  for  six  hours,  strain,  express  and 
filter,  adding,  if  necessary,  enough  water  to  make  ten  fluid 
ounces.  Mix  with  this  the  tincture  first  obtained,  and  dissolve 
in  it  the  sugar,  at  a  gentle  heat ;  strain,  and  while  yet  warm  add 
the  morphia  and  oil  sassafras,  dissolved  in  a  very  little  warm 
alcohol. 
The  maximum  dose  is  from  one  to  two  teaspoonfuls.  It  is  a 
favorite  prescription  with  very  many  of  our  physicians  as  an 
anodyne  and  expectorant  in  coughs,  etc.,  the  combine;]  effect  of 
