June 8, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
QS9 
the removal of the muffle. In doing other work these 
holes are closed by means of iron plugs lined with clay. 
Another objectionable feature of the commercial fer- 
rum redactum, is the amount of sulphur it contains. It 
must be conceded that, if the product is to have any 
advantage over the ordinary powdered iron, it must con¬ 
sist in its freedom 'from carbon and sulphur, so as to 
dissolve in the stomach without the development of 
hydrogen charged with hydric sulphide and carbide. 
The exhibition of so expensive a preparation as the 
ferrum redactum, becomes inadmissible when it contains 
ferrous, sulphide, and developes the hydric sulphide upon 
dissolving. The almost universal existence of this iron 
contaminated with ferrous sulphide, is best shown by 
the assertion of one of the largest manufacturers in 
Berlin, Mr. Schering: “I have never yet succeeded in 
producing an iron, reduced by hydrogen, free from 
sulphur.” 
I would say, that ten years ago such a preparation, 
free from sulphur, had been prepared in my laboratory 
by way of experiment; and I take the liberty of pub¬ 
lishing my formula for the same, which increases its cost 
a trifle over the old method. 
If we inquire into the origin of the ferrous sulphide I 
in the reduced iron, we may trace it to two different 
sources, namely, 1. The ferric oxide used for the reduc¬ 
tion may be contaminated by sulphates; and 2. The 
hydrogen employed in the reduction may have con¬ 
tained hydric sulphide. 
As to the first point, it is well known how greatly the 
precipitate of ferric hydrate is inclined to carry down 
other substances present in the solution. If the pre¬ 
cipitate, as frequently happens now, is produced by con¬ 
tact of ferric sulphate with sodic carbonate or with 
ammonia, it will invariably contain basic sulphate that 
cannot be removed by simple washing. Even a ferric 
hydrate precipitated from ferric chloride may contain 
sulphates, if the muriatic or nitric acids employed in 
the preparation of the former contained sulphuric acid, 
or if the sodic carbonate employed in the precipitation 
contained sulphate. 
The sulphate contaminating the precipitate is reduced 
by the hydrogen to sulphide. 
Secondly, it is well known that hydrogen produced 
by the action of dilute sulphuric acid upon zinc, may be 
contaminated with hydric sulphide if the temperature 
during its development surpasses 30° C. This hydric 
sulphide is generated by the reduction of the sulphuric 
acid by means of the nascent hydrogen; the former 
undergoes such a decomposition into sulphur and hydric 
sulphide under various other conditions. 
These observations at once point out the conditions 
requisite for the production of a pure ferrum redactum, 
namely, the employment of ferric oxide free from sul¬ 
phates, and of hydrogen free from hydric sulphide. 
The. first I obtain by heating ferrous oxalate in an 
iron dish with access of air: the oxalate is produced 
by precipitation of ferrous chloride with neutral potassic 
oxalate ; and the ferrous chloride is made by dissolving 
iron nails in pure muriatic acid. 
During the disengagement of hydrogen the vessel is 
to be placed in cold water, the sulphuric acid being 
diluted with eight parts of water. Should the reaction 
cease, dilute, but never concentrated, sulphuric acid 
should be added. The hydrogen is next passed through 
two tubes, one of which is filled with small pieces of 
pumice-stone, moistened with a solution of plumbic 
nitrate, and the other with pieces of potassic hydrate. 
I must add, that by passing the hydrogen over hot 
ferrous oxalate I obtained pure iron; but the other 
method is generally preferable for the preparation of 
ferrum redactum,—first, because, in the shape of the 
compact oxide, more iron can be placed in the tube than 
when the ferrous oxalate is used; and secondly, because 
I fear, though it has not occurred to me in practice, that 
during careless operations part of the carbon derived 
from the oxalate may remain behind as ferrous carbide. 
The latter subjected to the action of acid would again deve- 
lope badly-tasting hydrogen.— The Chicago Pharmacist. 
PHARMACOGNOSTICAL NOTES.—AMERICAN 
INDIGENOUS PLANTS. 
BY JOHN M. MAISCH.* 
Many interesting questions connected -with the United 
States indigenous materia medica require investigation, 
and it is in most cases not easy to obtain the desirable 
information. The various inquiries instituted within the 
past few years, in different sections of the States, into the 
statistics of this branch of the drug trade have resulted 
in total failures; and, except to the initiated, very little 
is known of the localities where many of the staple 
articles of the indigenous materia medica are collected 
for the general commerce, the information being usually 
limited to the geographical section of the country. The 
difficulties encountered in such investigations have been 
well pointed out by Mr. C. Lewis Diehl, in a paper pub¬ 
lished in the Proceedings of the American Pharmaceuti¬ 
cal Association, 1870, p. 137. The knowledge we pos¬ 
sess on this particular point appears merely to indicate 
that the wholesale market has now to depend on the 
Southern, South-Western and Western States for a 
supply of drugs which were formerly supplied in suffi¬ 
cient quantities by the Eastern and Middle States. 
While this may undoubtedly be in part accounted for by 
the increased demand, it must be also to some extent due 
to injudicious collection, whereby some medicinal plants 
have become nearly or entirely extinct in certain locali¬ 
ties where formerly they were frequently met with. 
The same cause appears to have had already similar 
results in some Western localities. In Professor Diehl’s 
paper, cited above, we find the following passage, which 
seems to point in this direction:—“ Formerly there was 
a lively trade in indigenous drugs in New Albany, 
Lid. (gathered among a range of hills known as ‘the 
Knobs ’), but such is not now the case, and the drugs 
gathered in its neighbourhood find their markets no 
further than our city (Louisville, Ky.).” Apparently 
the same wasteful practice, satisfied with the results of 
to-day, without looking to the demands of the morrow, 
prevails among the drug gatherers of North as in 
South and Central America, and it is not improbable 
that the time may not be far distant when a few of the 
leading drugs may require to be cultivated to ensure a 
full and continuous supply of the market. 
Although many of the indigenous plants have been 
used in domestic and in regular practice, the use of some 
seems to be confined altogether to certain localities, 
beyond which their medicinal properties are unknown or 
not appreciated. It would be very interesting to obtain 
reliable information concerning them. 
The following notes are intended to direct attention to 
a few articles of the indigenous materia medica, nearly 
all of which deserve to be further investigated:— 
Cypripedium. —The secondary list of the Pharmacopoeia 
of the United States directs the rhizome and rootlets of 
Cypripedium pubescens , Willdenow. Under the common 
names of ladies’ slipper and American valerian, two en¬ 
tirely distinct rhizomes, with the rootlets attached, are 
met with in commerce, both of monocotyledonous origin. 
The only species of this genus which I have met with in 
the neighbourhood of Philadelphia is Cypripedium acaule y 
Aiton, the radical portion of which has not been ob¬ 
served by me among the commercial ladies slipper root. 
The officinal species appears to grow as far south as 
(Georgia, and west to Wisconsin. Gray t states that it 
is common northward and westward, and southward in 
the Alleghanies. Dr. Porche r j says it occurs near New- 
* Read before the Philadelphia College of 1 harmacy, 
April 16th. _ . . 
f 4 Manual of the Botany of the Northern Lnited States.* 
T ‘Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, p. 603. 
