THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



13 



ly prolific, and a French firm now puts 

 on the market the following : 



Electrargol . Colloidal silver stabilized 



Electraurol " gold " 



Elcctroplatinol " platinum 



Elcctropalladiol " palladium " 



Elcctrocuprol " copper 



Elcctrosclenium " selenium " 



Electromartiol " iron " 



They are also investigating, at the 

 present time, the physiological activities 

 of 



Electrotellurol Tellurium 



indiol Indium 



uraniol Uranium 



vanadiol Vanadium 



'* manganese Manganese 



cobalt Cobak 



nickel Nickel 



Also, Thallium 

 Cadmium 

 Lead 



Aluminum 



Oxides of heavy metals and 

 fcrrocyanides, etc., all in 

 the colloidal state. 



The larger pharmaceutical manufac- 

 turers of England, Germany and the 

 United States have also taken up 

 the manufacture of such preparations. 

 Names like Collargol, Lysargin, Protar- 

 gol, etc., are familiar to us. Collargol is 

 prepared by reducing silver nitrate with 

 ferrous citrate in the presence of dextrin, 

 which act? as a stabilizer. Lysargin 

 contains metallic silver protected by the 

 sodium salt of lysalbinic acid. As to the 

 action of these preparations, we may say 

 in general that they have the same phy- 

 siological activity as their salts would 

 have in diluted solution, viz., colloidal 

 silver is used as an antiseptic, colloidal 

 iron is recommended for the different 

 forms of an?emia. One of the prominent 



features of their activity is a certain cat- 

 alytic action which they exert. Palla- 

 dium colloid, for example, is now used 

 for obesity. It seems to stimulate the 

 oxidation processes of the body and it 

 has been found that intravenous injec- 

 tion of this colloidal metal is followed 

 by a considerable loss in weight. No 

 bad side-efifects whatsoever have been 

 reported. 



Considering next the time-honored 

 remedies prepared by the pharmacist, I 

 believe that I do not overstate matters 

 when I say that fully 80 per cent, of all 

 of our pharmaceutical preparations are 

 colloidal. Our gums, resins, and many 

 alkaloids will form colloidal solution by 

 simply mixing with a solvent. We use 

 gelatine, gum acacia, tragacanth, etc., to 

 stabilize pre])arations. Emulsions, most 

 liniments, our collodions are colloidal 

 preparations. All of our fiuidextracts, 

 most of our tinctures and syrups, as well 

 as glycerites, are colloidal preparations. 



I will cite s])ecific cases, which show 

 that the pharmacist has made and is mak- 

 ing daily use of colloid chemistry. 



You prepare Peppermint Water by 

 rubbing u]) the oil with purified talcum — 

 you increase the surface of the oil so 

 that it may be dissolved in the water — 

 this is a colloidal solution — a colloidal- 

 chemical process has been made use of. 

 You make an emulsion by shaking up in 

 a dry bottle some oil of turpentine with 

 tragacanth and then add water and again 

 shaking. This is colloid-chemistry — the 

 system, oil-water, is stabilized by the 

 tragacanth, which is adsorbed at the 

 boundary lines of the two liquids and 

 thereby forms, a covering around the 

 globule of oil. The stability of an emul- 

 sion is directly proportional to the dis- 

 persion of the oil. You prepare liniment 



