THE PREPARATION OF MEDICINES. The remedies which we shall mention for domestic use are mostly vegetable. Infusions and decoctions of these will often be advised on account of the fact that they are more available than the tinctures, fluid extracts, and concentrated principles, which we prefer, and almost invariably employ in our practice. Most of these medical extracts are prepared in our chemical laboratory under the supervision of a careful and skilled pharmaceutist. No one, we presume, would expect, with only a dish of hot water and a stew-kettle, to equal in pharmaceutical skill the learned chemist with all his ingeniously devised and costly apparatus for extracting the active, remedial principles from medicinal plants. Yet infusions and decoctions are not without their value; and from the inferior quality of many of the fluid extracts and other pharmaceutical preparations in the market, it may be questioned whether the former are not frequently as valuable as the latter. So unreliable are a majority of the fluid extracts, tinctures, and concentrated, active principles found in the drug-stores, that we long since found it necessary to have prepared in our laboratory, most of those which we employ. To the reliability of the preparations which we secure in this way we largely attribute our great success in the treatment of disease. Tinctures and fluid extracts are often prepared from old and worthless roots, barks, and herbs which have wholly lost their medicinal properties. Yet they are sold at just as high prices as those which are good. We manufacture our tinctures, fluid extracts, and concentrated, active principles from roots, barks, and herbs which are fresh, and selected with the greatest care. Many of the crude roots, barks, and herbs found in the market are inactive because they have been gathered at the wrong season. These, together with those that have been kept on hand so long as to have lost all medicinal value, are often sold in large quantities, and at reduced prices, to be manufactured into fluid extracts and tinctures. Of course, the preparations made from such materials are worthless. Whenever the dose of fluid extracts, tinctures, and concentrated, active principles, is mentioned in this chapter, the quantity advised is based upon our experience in the use of these preparations, as they are made in our laboratory, and the smallest quantity which will produce the desired effect is always given. When using most of the preparations found in the drug-stores, the doses have to be somewhat increased, and even then they will not always produce the desired effect, for reasons already given.