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NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. MAY, 1852.

NOTES IN PHARMACY, No. 2. BY BENJAMIN CANAVAN.

TINCT. FERRI AETHEREA.—At the in­stance of one of our phy­si­cians, I made some of the above pre­par­a­tion for a lady pa­tient of his, who, after having used the other pre­par­a­tions of Iron “ad nauseam,” had taken it with benefit in Europe under the name of “Bestucheff’s tinc­ture,” as which, it at one time enjoyed great popularity, so that a very large sum was given to the author in purchase of it by the Czarina Catharine. After the com­po­si­tion became known it fell into disuse, almost justifying us in reversing the quotation from Celsus,—

“Morbos autem, non remediis, sed verbis curari.”

It presents the metal in a different chemical state from what it is in the muriated tincture, viz: a very soluble deuto chloride; no acid is present and there are besides the anodyne and anti-spasmodic properties of the ethereal spirit, rendering it peculiarly appropriate in hysterical affections; and being pleasant to the taste and miscible with water, it is not at all repulsive.—Supposing it may prove useful elsewhere and to others, I subjoin the formula I have used, and to which I give the preference, as being the most complete. It is original in the Austrian Pharmacopœia of 1820, whence it has been copied into many French formularies, under the name of “teinture étherée de {130} chlorure de fer,” and may be found with a number of other formulæ for the same preparation in the “Pharmocopée Unverselle” of Jourdan.

Add the iron filings very gradually, and in small quantity at a time to the acids mixed together, in a porcelain mortar of ten or twelve inch diameter, and allow each portion to be dissolved before another is added, and so proceed until saturation is complete. Decant; evaporate to dryness in a sand bath; dissolve the residue in a quantity of water equal in weight to itself, and to each ounce of this solution add six ounces of sulphuric ether, agitate them well together and separate the supernatant ethereal solution, to which add four times its bulk of alcohol; finally, expose it to the action of the sun’s rays until the color is altogether discharged. The dose is twenty to thirty drops.

MUCILAGO (GUMMI) ACACLÆ.—Among the many useful hints which have appeared in the New York Journal of Pharmacy, in relation to several formulæ of the U. S. P., I perceive the preparation mucilage of gum arabic has been deemed worthy of a supervisory notice, and having experienced some annoyance with regard to it, arising simply from the fact that the officinal preparation has been heretofore entirely overlooked by apothecaries generally, each one instituting a formula for himself, I have been very much gratified by the result of adhering strictly to the formula of the Pharmacopœia, and would take the liberty to say that as the formulæ of all the Pharmacopœias of countries wherein our language is spoken are alike, it surely would not be productive of any advantage to introduce an exception to this conformity, to suit a local peculiarity, arising, to say the least, from inadvertence. Besides the thickness of the officinal mucilage is not much greater than that of syrup of gum, and is even absolutely necessary for the chief proposes for which it is intended or prescribed, viz: the suspension of weighty metallic {131} oxydes, &c., and the holding balsams, oils, &c., in mixtures,—much benefit then would, so far as my experience goes, accrue from the apothecary confining himself strictly to the officinal mucilage, and as individual formulæ are based upon it, the re-compounding them from transcribed versions would be rendered more accurate. This “whittling” away of standards, to make them correspond to the shortcomings of negligence or parsimony, has only the effect of rendering “confusion worse confounded.”