Legal Term: DECOCTION

Definition: med. jurisp. The operation of boiling certain ingredients in a fluid, for the purpose of extracting the parts soluble at that temperature. Decoction also means the product of this operation.

2. In a case in which the indictment charged the prisoner with having administered to a woman a decoction of a certain shrub called savin, it appeared that the prisoner had administered an infusion (q. v.) and not a decoction, the prisoners counsel insisted that he was entitled to an acquittal, on the ground that the medicine was misdescribed, but it was held that infusion and decoction are ejusdem generis, and that the variance was immaterial. 3 Camp. R. 74, 75.

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