The pharmacopeial tincture may be given in doses of five to fifteen minims, and the infusion has the unusually small dose of two to four drachms - the dose of other infusions being an ounce or more.
In the United States of America and Canada, in some portions of Europe and of Asia, and along the north of Africa, there is a free use made of green or unfermented teas with pale, pungent infusions.
In the first place, the ancient question of " spontaneous generation " received fresh impetus from the difficulty of keeping such minute organisms as bacteria from reaching and developing in organic infusions; and, secondly, the long-suspected analogies between the phenomena of fermentation and those of certain diseases again made themselves felt, as both became better understood.
Needham in 1745 had declared that heated infusions of organic matter were not deprived of living beings; Spallanzani (1777) had replied that more careful heating and other precautions prevent the appearance of organisms in the fluid.
Nevertheless, instances were adduced where the most careful heating of yolk of egg, milk, hay-infusions, &c., had failed, - the boiled infusions, &c., turning putrid and swarming with bacteria after a few hours.
