DIGITALIS ABSTRA.CT.—This is merely a dried solid extract powdered and mixed with some material to prevent its sub sequent firm agglutination, and should be made without heat by the substitute process. It presents a green color and the characteristic digitalic odor. Within a few days after making and placing in a bottle, the powder contracts very much and adheres in a fairly-solid mass that is, however, easily broken up by means of a stiff spatula, and then readily rubbed to powder again. The abstracts in market, however, vary in strength and are obsolescent.
The solid extract possesses the same odor, somewhat intensified, as the ab stract, and properly made is of so dark green a hue when seen in mass as to be nearly black; but, when thinly spread, the green is very marked and intense. A brownish solid extract is suspicious and suggestive of too much heat employed in manufacture, in which case it is apt to prove inert.
INFUSION.—The infusion requires to be made with great caution and from carefully-selected leaves of bright color and distinctive odor, also without undue heat. That of the U. S. P. is only about half the strength prescribed by the B. P.: a fact that is to be taken into ac count according to the residence or locality of prescriber or patient. Fresh leaves are nearly one-third more active than the infusion.
When an infusion of digitalis is given to individuals with normal circulatory apparatus in quantities equal to that ad ministered to persons with valvular dis ease, there is no increase in the blood pressure uor in the quantity of urine excreted, while the reverse is true of persons who have heart disease. Ernst von Czyhlarg (Wiener klin. Ruud., Apr. 15, 1900).