18 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
a yellowish fiocculent precipitate; a solution of protosulphate 
of iron, a black fiocculent precipitate; and a solution of nitrate 
of silver, a whitish precipitate, which becomes grey on stand- 
ing; solutions of the tartrate of antimony and potassa, hy- 
drate of potassa, bichloride of mercury and tincture of iodine 
have no effect on it. 
The only officinal form of administration of dulcamara, is 
that of the decoction, which is made by boiling §j. of dulca- 
mara in one and a half pints of water to one pint strained, and 
taken in doses of f. §ij. each. 
A tincture was made by digesting §iv. of dulcamara in two 
pints of diluted alcohol in a warm temperature (occasionally 
putting it for a short time in a water bath,) for 14 days, and 
filtering. This produces a tincture of a yellowish-red colour, 
tasting very similar to the plant; the dose of this tincture is 
f- .!)• 
But a much better form of administration than either of the 
above, is the extract; the decoction is very frequently inactive 
on account of the liability of the twigs to deteriorate by keep- 
ing, and the tincture would be objectionable in many cases on 
account of the stimulating properties of the menstruum used 
in preparing it, while the extract can have none of these ob- 
jections, if prepared from the twigs when first collected, and 
the practitioner can (when it is properly prepared) depend 
upon having a medicine of uniform strength. 
The following is the recipe for preparing the extract: 
J& Dulcamara, (recently dried twigs, bruised) 3viij 
Diluted alcohol iv. pints. M. 
Digest in a water bath, (low temperature) for fourteen days, 
express, filter, and evaporate in a water bath to a proper pillu- 
lar consistence, yields 384 grains of a brownish-red coloured 
extract possessing, in a marked degree, the properties of the 
plant, producing severe headache, nausea and giddiness. The 
dose of it is from six to eight grains, repeated at proper inter- 
vals. 
