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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt:...and decant the overlying liquid. Add to the magma sufficient alcohol to produce the original bulk, and repeat the operation. Repeat the maceration with a third portion of alcohol and decant as before. Mix these decanted liquids, and after twelve hours filter them, washing the filter paper with a little alcohol. Add to the filtrate one-third its bulk of officinal sulphuric ether, and then hydrochloric acid to the extent of three-tenths, and sulphuric acid to the extent of one-tenth the weight of the hydrastis employed. Place the liquid, after mixing well, in a cool place, and after fortyeight hours collect the crystalline precipitate on a filter paper and wash it with a mixture of equal parts of sulphuric ether and alcohol until the crystals are free from uncombined acid; then dry it at a temperature of i250 Fah. and weigh it. Since this sentence was in type, the investigations of eminent medical authorities have drawn attention particularly to Hydrastine, and the indications are that this alkaloid may become the most important constituent. t The berberine is not as completely extracted by this as by a process that we shall introduce at a future day; but for simplicity this process is desirable. This process practically abstracts from the hydrastis its berberine, and precipitates it almost completely and as a nearly pure salt. It is true that some may prefer to employ percolation, but to our experience, in unskillful hands the process of maceration is less likely to be followed by variation in product. We do not deny that some berberine remains in the drug, for by another process the extraction is more perfect; but this process will answer as a method of comparison. The addition of the sulphuric ether to the alcoholic solution produces a menstruum in which,...