53(5 PREVENTION OF OXIDATION OF SULPHATE OF IRON. 
this, one fluid ounce, from which iodine was evolved during its evaporation, gave 
a residue weighing T ^\fyths, or nearly one quarter of a grain, and of a brownish 
colour. 
My experiments lead no further than the objects sought, viz. whether the 
compound formed on mixing solution of strychnine with tincture of iodine be 
soluble and poisonous; the composition of the precipitate operated upon was 
undetermined, and the results cannot be taken to indicate correctly the propor¬ 
tionate solubility of iodide of strychnine or its poisonous power as compared 
with that of the pure alkaloid. They show, however, that iodine given internally 
is probably worthless as an antidote for strychnine, and that the resulting com¬ 
pound, slightly soluble in water at a moderate temperature, is, most likely, 
rendered still more so by the free acids occurring in the juices of the stomach. 
Dr. Fuller’s suggestion is not exhausted ; it is still open to proof whether by 
inhalation or subcutaneous injection iodine, either per se or in combination (as 
iodoform), may not exert some controlling influence over the tetanic convulsions 
caused by strychnine. 
Nor should the other part of the communication to the ‘ Lancet,’ and evidently 
the principal motive for its publication, be forgotten. Pharmaceutists are very 
greatly indebted to the author for calling the attention of the medical profession 
to one of the many difficulties that arise in compounding remedies. Every dis- 
jxmser knows that time and trouble are not unfrequently wasted in endeavour¬ 
ing to fulfil, honestly and literally, the orders of the prescriber with ingredients 
not readily compatible, and how difficult he finds it to lead the patient from 
imagining there must be either a lack of skill on his part or want of forethought 
on the part of the prescriber. These are so essentially matters of practice that 
it is only by availing himself of the technical knowledge of the pharmaceutist 
that the physician is enabled to avoid what often proves to him a very perplex¬ 
ing matter, if not one of more serious import. When gentlemen occupying the 
position of Dr. Fuller do not hesitate to take up the practical view of the case, 
they render to us dispensers, and the cause of medicine generally, an amount of 
good it is not easy to over-estimate. 
The title of the paper also seems to me to give undue weight to what, though 
highly important, is simply thrown out as a suggestion, whilst it conveys no idea 
of the practical facts the paper contains; evidently this is an oversight, as Dr. 
Fuller, to whom I forwarded a note of my results, writes me in reply :—“ The ob¬ 
ject of my paper was simply to call attention to the fact that when iodine and qui¬ 
nine or strychnine are prescribed together in an acid mixture, an insoluble or quasi 
insoluble precipitate of the two active ingredients takes place, and that such a 
method of prescribing these drugs must therefore be very provoking to the 
chemist who has to dispense them, and disappointing to the physician who 
hopes to obtain the characteristic effect of the drugs. One of two things is ob¬ 
vious : if the precipitate is insoluble, the mixture is useless ; if it is soluble, it 
must necessarily be dangerous, as the few last doses of a concentrated mixture 
are certain to contain an undue proportion of the precipitate.” 
THE PREVENTION OF OXIDATION OF SULPHATE OF IRON. 
BY MR. GEORGE WELBORN. 
In the Pharmaceutical Journal of December, 1857, there occurs the following 
quotation from the ‘ Gazette Medicale de l’Algerie— 
“ It is extremely difficult to prevent the oxidation of sulphate of iron, never¬ 
theless in chemical research, and for use in pharmacy, it is important to have a 
pure protosulphate of iron.” 
