November 30, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
423 
potassium, which attacks only the metallic iron ; any 
larger proportion of magnetic oxide than that allowed 
being thus detected. 
In accordance with the pliarmacopoeial directions, 
ten grains were digested in the solution of 50 grains 
of iodine and 50 grains of iodide of potassium for 
about fifteen minutes and filtered ; the residue was 
then dried, and in order to ensure uniform results 
slightly ignited, dissolved in hot hydrochloric acid, 
sufficient nitric acid being added to oxidize any 
protosalt; the solution was boiled, and ammonia 
added in excess ; the precipitated ferric hydrate was 
then dried and ignited, and from the resulting ferric 
oxide the weight of magnetic oxide originally present 
■was calculated. By this method the following per¬ 
centage amounts of magnetic oxide were obtained:— 
No. 1. 49-16; No. 3. 58-40. No. 5. 69-75 
„ 3. 52-60. „ 4. 59-32. „ 6. 90*75 
or negatively, the percentage amounts of uncombined 
iron (the standard being 50 per cent.) were as 
follows :—- 
No. 1. 50-84. No. 3. 41-60. No. 5. 30*25 
„ 2. 47-40. „ 4. 40-68. „ 6. 9*75 
Nos. 1 and 2 agree with the Pharmacopoeia in being 
of a greyish-black or slate colour; Nos. 3, 4, and 6 
are of a dull black, and No. 5 of a chocolate brown 
colour. 
If, in the manufacture of Ferrum Redactum, the 
temperature be not raised sufficiently high, the re¬ 
duction of ferric oxide to metallic iron does not take 
place, which probably accounts for the brown colour 
of No. 5. 
Traces of sulphates, chloride, sulphides, and car¬ 
bides were found in each. Cyanide of potassium, 
an impurity mentioned in the ‘ Year Book of Phar¬ 
macy,’ as resulting from the reprehensible practice of 
preparing Ferrum Redactum from the residue of the 
ferrocyanide of potassium manufactories could not 
be detected. Lead, also mentioned as an impurity, 
w T as absent’. 
The colour of the majority of those samples which 
have come under my notice is distinctly black, which, 
if my experiments be correct, is due to the increased 
admixture of magnetic oxide of iron; hence, most 
reliance is to be placed in those specimens of a slate 
or greyish-black colour. An excessive proportion 
of magnetic oxide in any sample is readily shown by 
dissolving a little of the suspected substance in 
dilute sulphuric acid, filtering if necessary, and 
adding ammonia in excess ; if the specimen contain 
much magnetic oxide, it dissolves with very feeble 
effervescence and gives a black precipitate on the 
addition of ammonia, but if prepared according to 
the B.P. it effervesces briskly, and ammonia pro¬ 
duces a dirty green precipitate. Ferrum Redactum, 
from its liability to become oxidized, should be pre¬ 
served in well-stoppered bottles. 
WOMEN AS CHEMISTS.* 
If there is one thing more than another which may 
be predicated with tolerable certainty it is that com¬ 
merce, with agricultural and other scientific industries, 
is destined to attain to a comparatively greater import¬ 
ance than the professions, and will he preferred to them 
or to salaried service as affording a more ready outlet for 
energy and application, as being more elastic in develop¬ 
ment, and as promising larger and quicker pecuniary 
>» __ . . 
* Reprinted from the ‘ Pall Mall Gazette,’ Nov. 11. 
returns. As instruction becomes more general, it will be 
less distinction than it now is to be known as an educated 
man, and the difference between employments which are 
“ genteel ” and those which are supposed to be otherwise 
will cease to be sharply defined. Perhaps we may attain 
to the condition of things which prevails among the 
Vril-ya, and our retail shops will be served by children 
of all ranks “ exceedingly intelligent and courteous, but 
without the least touch of importunity or cringing.” 
Many young men of birth have done very rough work 
indeed in the colonies, and have enjoyed doing it, and 
there is even now a good deal of blue blood engaged in 
wholesale trade. If mental cultivation is worth any¬ 
thing, it ought to fortify the reasoning powers and de- 
velope the habit of sagacious foresight. It is, therefore, 
probable that while the sons and daughters of butchers, 
bakers, agents, etc., will still continue to swell the ruck 
of needy professionals, clerks, secretaries, or salaried 
Government employes and governesses, where, in the 
nature of things, incomes are fixed and hope lags behind, 
those who are poor, but better born and more highly 
educated, will apply themselves to trade, agriculture, and 
industrial pursuits. 
We noticed lately that a new business, at once scien¬ 
tific, privileged, and profitable, is open for the accept¬ 
ance of educated women who choose to avail themselves 
of the opportunity. The Pharmaceutical Society has 
voluntarily offered to admit women to its lectures 
and examinations. As the subjects treated of are 
botany, chemistry, and the knowledge of drugs, there 
are no objections worth naming against the sexes being 
instructed together. Henceforth any young woman 
who passes her examination obtains her first-class phar¬ 
maceutical certificate, and is free to establish herself in 
business as “ Pharmaceutical chemist and druggist. 
It is true that this calling, which may be described as 
science and trade combined, requires method, exactitude, 
knowledge, great carefulness, and sense of responsibility; 
on the other hand, it is lucrative, and sufficiently scientific 
to be highly interesting to intelligent persons. But the 
shop P Whether woman’s good sense will float her over 
that obnoxious word remains to be seen ; and yet between 
penurious gentility and education, respectability and an 
established independence in trade, there seems to us no 
sort of comparison. Of shops kept by druggists and 
chemists there are two kinds. Those who study the 
physiognomy of our streets must have observed that in 
poor and densely populated districts druggists’ shop3 
spring up with amazing rapidity, and appear to meet 
with a tolerably uniform success. One which is at first 
represented by a few bottles, plasters, and half-a-dozen 
tooth brushes may be seen before long adorned with 
plate-glass, coloured jars, etc. This is an “over-the- 
counter business.” Proprietary or patent medicines, 
pills, plasters, horse medicine, rat poison, and specific 
remedies for every known disease are sold ; but the 
pennyworth or two-pennyworth of physics are paid for 
on the spot, and form the staple of the trade and profits. 
The men who keep these shops are often exceedingly 
ignorant; but they, nevertheless, prescribe largely for 
the poor, the advice being as it were thrown in gratui¬ 
tously with the medicine, and paid for in ready money, 
it need hardly be said that young and needy medical 
men are in this way very heavily handicapped. But by 
the recent change in the law certain drugs may not.be 
sold at these shops, nor may the owners assume the title 
of pharmaceutical chemists. The other, class is that 
presided over by those who pass the prescribed examina¬ 
tion of the Pharmaceutical Society, and is chiefly em¬ 
ployed in compounding and dispensing the prescriptions 
ordered by medical men. To these persons certain 
privileges are secured, and they are legally entitled to 
announce themselves as pharmaceutical chemists. 
Women are generally very neat and handy dispensers. 
They may be supposed to have more sense of responsi¬ 
bility than the doctor’s apprentice or the druggist’s boy 
