We should prefer, if we could, to make all preparations which the Pharmacopœia contains, in accordance with it. But when a preparation has been in such general and favorite use, for several years, as to be considered indispensable before it becomes officinal; and in such form is reduced to a third or a fourth of what is felt to be an eligible strength, not only without any compensating advantage, but with the positive disadvantages of greatly diluting its remedial influence, and increasing the quantity required to be taken of a nauseous medicine, there is naturally an unwillingness to yield well settled convictions of utility, and replace an important remedy, that has proved quite satisfactory, with a preparation believed to be of comparatively little value. It is not probable that, in New York, the present officinal syrup of ipecacuanha, can ever supersede the efficient and reliable one we have so long been accustomed to, nor answer the wishes and expectations of the medical profession. I append the formula proposed in a paper read before the Board of Trustees in 1835, seven years before one for this syrup appeared in our Pharmacopœia. I have not found cause to change it in any respect. It affords about three pints of syrup, which keeps well for years at the ordinary temperatures of the shop, and of dwellings; the proportion of sugar proves to be just what is wanted for a proper consistence without cry­stal­li­za­tion, and, as a medicine, it gives entire satisfaction to the prescriber. It is as follows:—

Mix, to form a tincture. Digest for ten days, filter, and add one pint of water, by way of displacement, evaporate in a water bath to two pints, add immediately:

Refined sugar three pounds and a quarter.

And bring to the boiling point.

The “COMPOUND SYRUP OF SQUILL” is presented in the {102} Pharmacopœia with two processes for its preparation. The first is liable, though in a less degree, to the same objection which has rendered the original form, given by Dr. Coxe, obsolete, that it produces a turbid syrup, and one that will not keep. The second process is better, but scarcely adequate, I should think, to extract the full strength of the roots so well as by the employment of a greater proportion of alcohol, and longer digestion. The following produces three and a half pints of syrup from the same materials, apparently stronger than if the boiling, which is only for a few minutes, were continued down to three pints, retaining a portion of honey, for the sake of the flavor, and with as large an addition of sugar as the syrup will bear without cry­stal­li­za­tion. The proportion of tartar emetic is, of course, the same:

Mix, to form a tincture. Digest ten days, filter, and add twelve ounces of water, by way of displacement, evaporate by water bath to two pints, add:

Boil to three pints and a half, in which dissolve while hot: