[375] It may be regarded as a purified alcoholic solution of meconate of morphia, with a little excess of acid, and of about the same strength as laudanum.—Taylor.
Black Drop (known also by various names, such as Armstrong’s Black Drop) is essentially an acetic acid solution of the constituents of opium. It is usually considered to be of four times the strength of laudanum. The wholesale receipt for it is: Laudanum, 1 oz., and distilled vinegar 1 quart, digested for a fortnight. The original formula proposed by the Quaker doctor of Durham, Edward Tunstall, is—Opium, sliced, 1⁄2 lb.; good verjuice,[376] 3 pints; and nutmeg, 11⁄2 oz.; boiled down to a syrup thickness; 1⁄4 lb. of sugar and 2 teaspoonfuls of yeast are then added. The whole is set in a warm place for six or eight weeks, after which it is evaporated in the open air until it becomes of the consistence of a syrup. It is lastly decanted and filtered, a little sugar is added, and the liquid made up to 2 pints.
[376] Verjuice is the juice of the wild crab.
“Nurse’s Drops” seem to be composed of oil of caraway and laudanum.
Powell’s Balsam of Aniseed, according to evidence in the case of Pharmaceutical Society v. Armson (Pharm. Journ., 1894), contains in every oz. 1⁄10 grain of morphine.
Dalby’s Carminative—