THE ARSENICAL SOLUTIONS 
No. 1. Liquor Potassii Arsenitis 
(Fowler’s Solution) 
H. A. LANGENH AN. 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 
The history of arsenic therapy is of considerable interest in the 
evolution of the materia pharmaceutica. Natural compounds of 
arsenic, such as realgar and auripigment were used during anti¬ 
quity, 1 but primarily for external purposes. Because of the change 
which they produced in the color of copper, arsenical compounds 
have played an important role during the alchemistic period of 
chemical history. 2 As a result, new derivatives of arsenic were 
discovered, 3 some of which at least were destined to play a role in 
the battles between the iatrochemists and the representatives of the 
old or Galenical School of Medicine. 4 A larger increase to the 
number of arsenic compounds, however, did not come until the 
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
1 For a concise statement of the knowledge of the ancients, see Kopp, 
Geschichte der Chemie, vol. 4, p. 89. 
Berendes, Des Pedanios Dioskurides Arzneimittellehre, p. 531 (Chap. 120 : 
Arsenikon ; and Chap. 121: Sandaracha.) 
Pliny, Natural History (Bohn’s Classical Library, vol. 6, p. 104 (Orpiment) 
and p. 220 (Sandarach and Arrhenicum). 
Scribonius Largus (Felix Rinne, Das Receptbuch des Scribonius Largus, vol. 
5 of R. Robert, Historische Studien aus dem Pharmakologischen Institute der k. 
Universitat Dorpat, p. 79 (Auripigmentum) and p. 84 (Sandaraca.) 
For a more detailed account see, “Historical Notes on Arsenic and its prin¬ 
cipal combinations: by G. F. Babcock, New Remedies, vol. 12, (1883) pp. 98, 
131 and 170. 
2 Comp. E. v. Meyer, History of Chemistry (3rd ed.) p. 58: “On account 
of this behaviour, the pseudo-Geber calls arsenic Medicina Venerem dealbans”. 
See also Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie, vol. 4, p. 94. 
3 The arsenicum album (As 2 0 3 ) of the alchemists; the arsenicum fixum of 
Paracelsus (arsenic acid or its potassium salt). Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie, 
vol. 4, p. 95. 
4 Meyer, History of Chemistry (2d ed.) p. 94. 
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