570 
LECTURES ON THE BRITISH PHARMACOPEIA. 
shown (Pliarm. Journ.vol. iii. p. 250) from many experiments that cold or warm, 
water is inadequate to extract all the virtues from sarsaparilla, and recommended 
diluted alcohol for that purpose. In effect, he suggested that the extract should 
be a concentrated tincture instead of a concentrated infusion ; and a committee 
on his paper, while stating that cold water in a considerable degree extracted 
the virtues from sarsaparilla, yet agreed that diluted alcohol was a more eligible 
menstruum. 
Extractum Stramonii. This is an evaporated tincture. Practical men (Whip¬ 
ple, Pharm. Journ. vol. xiv. p. 345) say that the production of such an extract 
is a tedious operation, on account of the large quantity of oil the stramonium 
seeds contain, and recommend pressure of the seeds before percolation with proof 
spirit. Confirmation of this statement would probably result in an easier process 
being introduced into a future Pharmacopoeia. 
Extractum Taraxaci. This is essentially Hill’s process (Pharm. Journ. 2nd 
ser. vol. i. p. 401). 
Ferri Carr on as Sacciiarata.— The process for the preparation of this 
substance now includes two or three little practical details, having for their 
object the preservation of the iron in the state of protosalt. That of using boiling 
distilled water, which contains less air dissolved in it than in cold, and which 
therefore obviates some oxidation that would otherwise take place, was first sug¬ 
gested by Phillips (Pharm. Journ. vol. iii. p. 577), and was adopted in the last 
London Pharmacopoeia. That of placing the mixed hot solutions of sulphate of 
iron and carbonate of soda in an accurately covered deep vessel, in order to ex¬ 
clude air as far as possible, was suggested by Bastick ("Pharm. Journ. vol. x. p. 
541) soon after the last Pharmacopoeia was published 
Ferri et Quince Citras.— This preparation is now very properly made an 
officinal article. It is prepared from the magnetic oxide of iron, by a process 
which, according to Garrod (Med. Times and Gaz. 1864, vol. i. p. 359), was 
supplied by some eminent makers of that salt. It has been staved, however, 
that the process does not yield scales of the usual colour. Probably some de¬ 
tail of manufacture has been omitted, for Braithwaite found (Pharm. Journ. 
2nd ser. vol. i. 409) that recently precipitated and moist magnetic oxide of iron 
yielded a citrate which possessed the peculiar colour, except that it was slightly 
darker ; he also found that the addition of a small quantity of potash to the 
solution of the percitrate produced the desired effect, and was, he believed, the 
method generally adopted. In the accompanying directions for the preparation 
of the quinine necessary to the formation of the double citrate, ammonia is di¬ 
rected to be added to a solution of the liydrochlorate of quinine, and the preci¬ 
pitated quinine to be washed until the washings give no sensible precipitate on 
the addition of chloride of barium. This obviously must be a slip of the pen, 
and doubtless, as suggested by the ‘ Lancet,’ nitrate of silver intended, for there 
is nothing to be washed away that could give a precipitate with chloride of ba¬ 
rium, whereas the chloride of ammonium formed would of course give a white 
precipitate of chloride of silver, on the addition of nitrate of silver, so long as 
any remained unremoved by the wash-water. [This error is corrected in the 
smaller edition of the Pharmacopoeia recently published.] 
Ferri Perciiloridum. —See Liquor Ferri Percldoridi. 
Ferri Peroxidum, Fe 2 0 3 , HO, and Ferri Peroxidum Hydratum, 2 Fe. 2 
0 3 ,3H0.—There is inexcusable bungling in the chemical names and formulae 
of these compounds. The name Ferri Peroxidum , as well as the process for 
making it, seems to be taken from the Dublin Pharmacopoeia, except that the 
precipitated peroxide is to be exposed to a heat of 212° instead of an obscure red- 
heat. The name was quite applicable to the Dublin peroxide, for at an obscure 
red-heat hydrated peroxide of iron loses all its water; but it is not applicable to 
oxide prepared according to the process of the British Pharmacopoeia, for at a 
