4749. Compound Spirit of Ether

4749.      Compound Spirit of Ether. This preparation is known by the name of Hoffmann's Anodyne, and consists of 1/2 pint ether, 1 pint alcohol, and 6 fluid drachms ethereal oil.

4750. Moore's Extract of Black Cohosh

4750.    Moore's Extract of Black Cohosh. Moisten black cohosh root (black snake-root, or cimicifuga racemosa) in No. 50 powder, with 95 per cent, alcohol, and pack closely in a displacer; add gradually more of the alcohol until the resinous portion is exhausted ; evaporate the alcoholic portion to dryness, powder the product and pass it through a fine sieve. Proceed to displace with diluted alcohol (1 part alcohol to 2 of water) until the root is perfectly exhausted, evaporate the resulting product over a water-bath until it is of nearly the required consistence of a good extract, then mix the powdered resinous portion, while the fluid is still warm, and stir constantly until cold. In this way the resin is intimately and smoothly mixed with the extractive portion; is much more readily rubbed down with aqueous solutions, and contains all the active ingredients of the root; but, however carefully prepared, change of temperature is liable to separate the resin more or less from the extract.

4751. Procter's Alcoholic Extract of Arnica

4751.    Procter's Alcoholic Extract of Arnica. Take arnica flowers, 12 ounces, troy; alcohol, 3 pints; water, 1 pint. Mix the alcohol and water, and pour 2 pints of the mixture over the arnica, previously finely bruised. Allow it to stand for 48 hours, pack it firmly in a percolator, and pour on the remainder of the mixture until 3 pints are obtained. Evaporate this tincture in a water-bath (or still) till reduced to a soft resinous extract.

4752. Medicated Oils

4752.    Medicated Oils. These are prepared by infusion or decoction. The bruised ingredients are either simply digested in 2 to 4 times their weight of olive oil for some days, or they are gently boiled in it until they become dry and crisp, care being taken that the heat towards the end of the process is not greater than that of boiling water. As soon as either process is complete, the oil is allowed to drain from the ingredients, which may be, if necessary, submitted to the action of a press. The product is usually strained through flannel or a hair sieve while still warm, and, after standing a week or 10 days to settle, the clear portion is decanted from the dregs. Green plants are usually employed for this purpose, but in many cases the dried plants, reduced to powder, and digested for 6 or 8 hours in the oil at the heat of hot water, with frequent agitation, yield a much more valuable product. These' oils are nearly all employed as external applications only.

The oil is obtained from the following, in the green state: Balsam apple, the seeds first taken out; belladonna leaves; elder flowers; fox glove leaves; garden nightshade leaves ; fox glove leaves; garlic; hemlock leaves; henbane leaves; juniper hemes, crushed; white lilies; poison oak leaves; roses, the petals of the flowers; fresh rue; St. John's wort flowers ; fresh tobacco leaves.

Others are used dry, and reduced to powder, such as: Cantharides (Spanish flies); capsicums; dried chamomile flowers; fenugreek seeds; marsh-mallow root; mudar bark; opium ; pellitory root; black pepper, etc..