Decoction

The operation of boiling certain ingredients in a fluid for the purpose of extracting the parts soluble at that temperature. The product of this operation. 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, and not a decoction. The prisoner's 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 Campb. 74, 76.