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BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
from its elements, as cheap as by any other method. From its tendency to 
absorb moisture it should be dissolved in water as soon as made, and sent into 
commerce in the state of solution. 
The experiments on which most of these statements concerning perchloride of 
iron are founded, are detailed in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal’ of February, 
1865 (second series, vol. vi. p. 896). Specimens of each preparation mentioned 
were exhibited to the meeting. 
ON SPIRITUOUS SOLUTIONS OF PERCHLORIDE OF IRON, 
SUCH AS TINCTURA FERRI PERCHLORIDI, B. P. 
BY J. ATTFIELD, PH.D., F.C.S. 
Why is a spirituous solution of perchloride of iron used in medicine at all ? 
Why are spirituous solutions of any kind used ? The answer to this second 
question is, that, firstly, some substances ar'e only soluble in spirit, or better 
dissolved by spirit than by water ; and, secondly, that spirituous solutions 
(tinctures) of many vegetable substances can be kept without spoiling for a 
far longer period than aqueous ones. But perchloride of iron is more readily 
soluble in water than in spirit; and spirit, so far from preserving perchloride of 
iron, decomposes it with precipitation of a basic chloride of iron,—in fact, in 
common language, spoils it. Tincture of perchloride of iron will not keep at all 
unless it is acid, and not then, for any length of time. Why, then, is it ordered 
in the British Pharmacopoeia ? Because there is a demand for it by medical men. 
And why do medical men use it ? Because their fathers used it before them, and 
because they do not know that an aqueous solution is as good and better. On 
representing these facts to the apothecaries of the great metropolitan hospitals, 
I was glad to find that in two cases (King’s and Middlesex) an aqueous solution 
of perchloride of iron had already been long used instead of the old spirituous 
one, or tincture. In several other cases the gentlemen said they should at once 
propose the substitution to their respective committees. Only in one case was a 
spirituous solution preferred to an aqueous, “because it has a pleasant, slightly 
pungent taste and odour.” I recommended this gentleman to put his bottle of 
tincture out in the sunlight for a couple of months, when he would have the old 
“ ethereal spirit of chloride of iron ” of former north-German pharmacopoeias ; 
it would apperar of a pale-green tint, and have full flavour and bouquet, only it 
would no longer be a solution of perchloride of iron.* But this is a matter of 
taste, (to prescriber only, not to patient,) and is trivial. 
Tincture of perchloride of iron is now ordered to be made by diluting one 
volume of an aqueous solution of perchloride of iron with three volumes of spirit; 
let it be diluted with water instead, and the good spirit saved for administra¬ 
tion when needed. 
The above remarks are partly in abstract of a paper already published in the 
‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ of February, 1865 (2nd series, vol. vi. p. 396). 
The President said that the meeting ought to be grateful to Dr. Attfield for his 
elucidation of the mysterious and troublesome changes that occurred in solutions of per¬ 
chloride of iron. It was to be hoped that the aqueous solution would be generally adopted 
by the medical profession. The introduction of medicines that could be prepared cheaply 
might tend to increase the profits of chemists. At present, when a box of pills had to be 
sold for sixpence, the cost of the drugs, the box, the label, and the Avrapper, left an 
absurdly small amount to remunerate the chemist for the trouble involved in preparing the 
* Specimens of tincture of perchloride of iron, which had become almost colourless by ex¬ 
posure to direct sunlight, were exhibited to the meeting. 
