547 
ON LIQUOR HYDRARGYRI PERCIILORTDI, B.P. 
The solution having been made with common water on one occasion, he no¬ 
ticed the precipitate, and further examination led to the above-detailed re¬ 
sults. The solution in the dispensary is now made without the chloride of 
ammonium, a little spirit of wine being employed to assist in dissolving the 
perchloride, although this, except in the way of economizing time, is quite 
unnecessary it is, in reality, injurious, as it causes the deposit which JVXr. 
Phillips mentions. This deposit will be again referred to. 
The fact of a double salt being formed in the B. P. solution, although it 
will influence, may not eventually alter its medicinal action so much as at 
first sight it would appear, provided distilled water be always used, as, the 
perchloride having always a tendency to form double salts, one might suppose 
that this would occur when given by itself in solution in distilled water, and 
meeting with other soluble chlorides in the system, and this, very probably, 
before it was even swallowed, as the saliva always contains sufficient chloride 
of sodium for this purpose, when the perchloride is given in medicinal doses, 
—were it not that it has a still greater tendency to form an albuminate. This 
being the case, the experiment with albumen will tend to show that the ra¬ 
pidity of its action in the system will be materially lessened when administered 
as a double salt. 
Taking all these points into consideration, they prove, conclusively, the in¬ 
expediency of using chloride of ammonium as a solvent for perchloride of mer¬ 
cury to be used as a medicine. The old formula was undoubtedly the better of 
the two. The slight deposit, which Mr. Phillips states is formed when the 
solution is kept for any length of time, is calomel. Its formation is due to 
the action of the spirit on the perchloride. When it has formed in any per¬ 
ceptible quantity, the solution should be rejected, and at no great sacrifice, as 
its intrinsic value is scarcely nominal when compared with its action as a 
medicine and a poison. But this decomposition of the perchloride may be en¬ 
tirely obviated, as a simple solution in distilled water is quite stable. For 
convenience in dispensing, such a solution, of the strength of one grain in two 
drachms, is kept prepared in most pharmacies, as the Pharmacopoeia solution 
is too bulky, and dispensers think they are not justified in using it where 
perchloride of mercury alone is ordered, because it contains the chloride of 
ammonium as well. Foreseeing the consequences that might arise, I almost 
dread to make the suggestion, but why not recognize such a strength P It is 
generally made, in this respect, to be uniform with liquor arsenicalis, liquor 
morphias hydrochioratis, etc.* 
In our dispensary such a solution is kept in a poison bottle among the other 
dispensing bottles, as it is so frequently used. It is labelled “ Sol. Hydrarg. 
Perchlor. gr. j in fl 5ij, not B. P. Liquor,” by way of distinction. Of course, 
it is not in a bottle of the same size as that containing the ordinary liquor. 
The examination of this Pharmacopoeia solution tends to show the truth of 
Sir Thomas Watson’s remarks in his farewell address as President of the 
Clinical Society. He said, the administration of medicine should be simple ; 
“ they should be mixed as little as possible with other substances which might 
confuse and vitiate the conclusions to be drawn from their actual operation.” 
Chlorodyne .—If the responsibility is to rest with us pharmacists, shall we 
then permit the admission into the next Pharmacopoeia of a formula for such 
an ollajoodrida as chlorodyne? Assuredly not; we should not be parties to 
such a retrograde movement. Chlorodyne—which has been proved to be a 
disguised preparation of morphia, as mithridate or Damocrates’ confection 
was of opium—belongs to the same class of remedies whose “ wild exuber- 
* 1 per cent., as I have before stated, would be preferable. 
