336 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
average skill in manipulation ; and if my professional brethren find it as effica¬ 
cious as I have done,—and I do not see why they should not,—of course there 
is an end to the cumbrous paraphernalia of small bottles and parchment paper, 
storing in the window, and the very objectionable addition of either phosphoric 
or other acids, which addition, I am glad to see, meets with no favour from 
Pharmaceutists. 
Mr. Carteighe thought an apology was almost needed for recurring to this 
subject, inasmuch as they were told in some quarters that the syrup should al¬ 
ways be used within a fortnight at the utmost from the time of making it. How¬ 
ever, there were, no doubt, many chemists in the country who required to keep it 
a much longer time than that, and therefore any suggestions on the subject might 
be useful. With regard to the first paper, he thought probably the same results 
would have been obtained without the addition of the citric acid, the result being 
due in his opinion to the bleaching action of the rays of light and heat, the ac¬ 
tion of which was very likely increased in a slight degree by the addition of the 
white paper round one half of the bottle. With regard to the conclusions of the 
writer of the second paper, he could only say that it was still a moot point whe¬ 
ther the syrup should possess any colour or not; but this gentleman used the 
word colour in a somewhat remarkable way, as he said the syrup had no colour, 
except a pale green. No doubt, however, a much paler colour was obtained when 
the. syrup was made in the way described than in the ordinary manner. 
Mr. Haselden said that after perusing Mr. Carteighe’s paper, read at the 
Conference at Exeter, he had tried the experiment of exposing to the light in a 
clear glass bottle, some syrup of iodide of iron which had been made about six 
months, and had been put on one side as being useless in consequence of being 
so much discoloured. The result was that in about ten days it became almost 
white, whilst that which was kept in the dark wrapped up in brown paper, re¬ 
mained discoloured. The fact was that light appeared to act very differently 
on different preparations of iodine. Ointment of iodide of potassium exposed 
to the light became decidedly yellow, but if placed in the dark it regained its 
original white hue. This was proved at the Exhibition of 1862, when he exhi¬ 
bited several specimens of ointment, amongst others the one alluded to. On 
his going there one day, the gentleman who had the care of the collection told 
him he had removed the iodide of potassium ointment because it had become 
quite yellow. He thanked him for his attention and asked to look at it, but to 
his surprise, when they looked at it, it was quite white. After the Exhibition 
was closed he tried the same experiment over and over again, and always with 
the same result. 
Dr. Redwood remarked that in the discussion of this subject two statements 
had been made ; one to the effect that the syrup, if carefully made according 
to the instructions of the Pharmacopoeia, could not be kept for any length of 
time without a change of colour taking place, which generally commenced on 
the surface, whilst, on the other hand, it was said by other gentlemen that, pre¬ 
paring the syrup in the same way, they never failed in keeping it for any 
reasonable time up to five or six months without any change of colour taking 
place. Pie had been in the habit of making and keeping this syrup for a great 
number of years, and his experience was that if properly made and preserved it 
could be kept without change for several years. He had samples of syrup of 
iodide of iron made without any extraordinary precautions, which had been 
kept for six years or more, without any change of colour taking place. He had 
requested the curator to bring down two specimens from the Museum, both of 
which had certainly been made for above a year, one he believed for three or four 
years. They had been kept in ordinary white stoppered bottles, without any par- 
