420 
ON SYRUP OF IODIDE OF IKON. 
In conclusion, I would suggest to those who care to use this formula, that it; 
be known and prescribed as “ liquor chloromorphise comp., 1 ’ which explain? 
sufficiently well its essential constituents, and is a name which cannot be con¬ 
fused with any advertised or quack compounds. 
PEACTICAL EEMAEKS ON THE PEEPAEATION AND PEE- 
SEEYATION OF THE SYEUP OF IODIDE OF IEON. 
BY MR. J. T. PORTER. 
During the last two years I have been making experiments on the prepara¬ 
tion and preservation of this syrup. I have tried every process that has ap¬ 
peared in the Pharmaceutical and other journals, with a view of ascertaining if 
any of them practically superseded the process ordered in the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia. It may be as well to state at once I never entertained the idea of 
introducing anything that is not ordered in the Pharmacopoeia, such as citric, 
tartaric, or phosphoric acids. 
I only wish to state, in as concise a manner as I can, the mode of manipulat¬ 
ing and the precautions experience has induced me to adopt. 
In the first place, I select good iron wire, bright and clean, of about the 
thickness of fine twine, i. e. No. 20, preferring wire because it is the purest 
form of iron; the filings and turnings, even when well washed, contain many 
impurities, especially sulphur. The wire being cut into suitabe lengths is in¬ 
troduced into an eighty-ounce flask. A large flask is used, because it can be 
shaken more thoroughly, without the danger of spilling the liquid or losing the 
iodine vapour, the latter condensing in the upper part of the flask. I then add 
the water and the iodine, set the flask aside, and, while the action is going 
on, prepare the syrup. In making the syrup I prefer English refined sugar, 
and dissolve it without boiling, as I have found that sugar crystallizes out 
abundantly from a solution that has been boiled; then, having strained the 
syrup into a weighed jug, I return to the flask; agitate it until the combina¬ 
tion is completed, or, as the Pharmacopoeia states, till the froth becomes white, 
which I have always found the best indication. The solution is then filtered 
into a separate bottle, and poured carefully into the syrup, that it may sink to 
the bottom, and the weight of the whole is made up with freshly-boiled dis¬ 
tilled water. The distilled water is boiled to ensure the absence of carbonic 
acid or oxygen gases. Now I stir the contents of the jug, so as to mix the 
syrup and the solution, and finally bottle it off, filling the bottles to the brim, 
so that when the syrup cools there is as little air in the bottles as possible. 
The precautions necessary to be taken to keep the syrup are very simple, viz. 
to well cork the bottles when the syrup has cooled, and to shake them after a 
few hours, so that the water (which may have condensed in the necks) may be 
well mixed with the syrup. If this latter precaution be neglected, the conse¬ 
quent layer of water on the surface will soon deepen in colour, and act (as ob¬ 
served by Mr. Gale some time ago) as a starting point for the whole to become 
coloured. 
Syrup made according to this process will keep in diffused light, as on the 
shop shelf, for more than a year, one sample being dated as far back as Sep¬ 
tember 29th, 1868, that is fourteen months, yet it is as good in colour as when 
first made. 
For pharmacists whose consumption is regular the above process is the 
best one I know, having made by it large quantities. I have tried many other 
methods of making syrup of iodide of iron. That by Mr. Hustwick I have 
tried twice, but have not succeeded §ven in making a syrup of the right colour. 
