Another circumstance may be noticed. The Pharmacopœia directs the use of powdered gum and of boiling water, whereas gum, in its ordinary condition or coarsely broken, and cold water make a clearer solution. Cold water is directed for the solution of the gum by the Edinburgh process, and in our present formula for “Syrup of Gum Arabic;”—if appropriate for the latter, it is quite as much so for the forming of mucilage. When the gum has been ground in a mill it appears to have been a little charred and forms a somewhat turbid solution; if powdered by hand, and rather more coarsely, its solution is clearer.
Upon the whole it seems desirable that there should be a uniform strength for the mucilage of gum arabic, prescribed by physicians in mixtures, which the officinal preparation evidently is not. Our mucilage does not enter into any other officinal preparations, and if it did, the combination of gum and water had better be made in the general process, as in our almond mixture.
“COMPOUND SPIRIT OF LAVENDER” appears to be but seldom { 99} made according to the officinal directions, owing to the difficulty of procuring the simple spirit of lavender. On this account most apothecaries use a proportion of the oil of lavender and of spirit, variable no doubt in different private recipes. The oil makes a decidedly inferior preparation, separating upon admixture with water, and even the best English oil—which is probably never used—is less congenial to the stomach than the distilled spirit. But the difficulty may be overcome, and an excellent preparation, essentially the same and perhaps quite equal in quality and flavor to that of the Pharmacopœia, may be made by the employment of recently dried flowers. The following is the formula I have used for several years, with an entirely satisfactory result:―
Take of Lavender flowers twelve ounces, Rosemary leaves, Cinnamon, bruised, each four ounces and a half, Nutmegs, bruised, Cloves, bruised, each six drachms, Coriander seed, bruised, Red Sanders each three ounces, Powdered Turmeric one drachm, Alcohol six pints, Water five pints and a quarter. _Mix, digest for fourteen days, express and filter._
THE “SYRUP OF GUM ARABIC,” unaccountably withdrawn from the Pharmacopœia in 1840, when it had become a familiar favorite, comes to us again in the new revision, not at all improved by seclusion. It is changed in its proportions, but not for the better, as it now has too little gum and too much sugar in its composition. Of numerous formulæ by which I have made this syrup, I have always found that from our Pharmacopœia of 1830, the best in proportions, consistence and flavor. It is defective however, in one point of construction, and incorrect in the use of boiling water to make the solution of gum. The syrup is probably not better in any essential particular, but it is clearer, and therefore more pleasing in { 100} appearance, when it is constructed by making the solutions of gum and sugar separately, that of the gum in half the water cold, and that of the sugar in the remainder of the water boiling, then immediately combining the two and bringing to the boiling point. It may then be easily filtered through flannel.