198 IlSrOEGANIC AGENTS 



Properties. — Thin, transparent scales, of a reddish- 

 brown color, without odor, and having a bitter, mildly 

 ferruginous taste; slowly deliquescent in damp air; slowly 

 but completely soluble in cold water and but partially solu- 

 ble in alcohol. 



Feeei et QniiiNE CiTEAs SoLTTBiLis. Solublc Iron and 

 Quinine Citrate. (U. S. P.) 



Occures in thin, greenish-yellow, transparent scales. 

 Very rapidly and completely soluble in cold water. 

 .Dose.—D., gr.v.x. (.3-.6.). 



GEISTEEAL ACTIOW OP lEON" AND ITS SALTS. 



External. — The local action of iron salts — like those of 

 the other heavy metals — depends upon coagulation of the pro- 

 teids of the tissues through the formation of albuminate com- 

 pounds with the metal and the setting free of the acid ions 

 of the salt. Certain salts of iron, depending upon their acid 

 constituent, are strongly astringent and more or less irritant 

 — as the chloride, perchloride, sulphate, persulphate, and ni- 

 trate. They contract tissue when applied to raw surfaces or 

 mucous membranes, by coagulating albumin, and through 

 this means, by compressing the blood vessels from without and 

 plugging them from within with clotted blood, arrest heemor- 

 rhage. The astringent salts may also induce some contrac- 

 tion of the vessels besides. Iron — in the form of liquor ferri 

 chloridi or liquor ferri subsulphatis — is the most powerful 

 of the metallic hemostatic agents we possess. 



• Internal. — Alimentary Canal. — Iron is a food ratber 

 than a medicine. It exists as a natural constituent of vege- 

 table foods and of the body, and is found particularly in the 

 htemoglobin of the blood — to the extent of about half an 

 ounce in that of the horse. Tjiere is a sufficient quantity in 

 the food to support healthy animals. If iron is ingested by a 

 normal animal in ordinary doses, it has little effect imless 

 continued for a long time in considerable quantity, when it 

 may produce indigestion and constipation. Large doses of 



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