ON THE PREPARATION OF AN IMPROVED WINE OF IRON. 
BY HARRY NAPIER DRAPER, F.C.S., AND MR. JAMES WHITLA. 
(Read at the Rath Meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference , Sept. 1864.) 
If an apology be needed for bringing before the Pharmaceutical Conference 
a note upon a subject which has been already accepted by one of its members, 
we would request that ours be found in the pharmaceutical interest of the 
subject itself, while at the same time we think it probable that the direction 
of our experiments may be different to that marked out by the gentleman 
who has especially undertaken the research. We wish, however, to occupy 
as little as possible the time of the Conference, and will state our results as 
concisely as possible. 
We have endeavoured to effect in a simple and practical manner an im¬ 
provement upon the formula of the British Pharmacopoeia for iron wine. 
The present formula is as follows :— 
Take of tartarated iron 160 grains. 
,, sherry 1 pint. 
Dissolve. 
It has been pointed out by Mr. Squire that tartarated iron does not readily 
dissolve in sherry which is already saturated with bitartrate of potash, and 
that indeed, used in the above proportion, it will not all dissolve. We have 
not found this to be accurately the case. The potassio-tartrato readily dis¬ 
solves in the wine, but part of it is almost at the same instant decomposed, 
forming a brown precipitate, which renders the solution turbid. This de¬ 
composition is apparently due to the action of the bitartrate of potash con¬ 
tained in the wine, and the separation of an acid tartrate of iron. If solu¬ 
tion of potash be added to neutralization, the precipitate is at once redis¬ 
solved and the solution becomes clear. In a mixture of spirit and water of 
the same alcoholic strength as the wine, the tartrate dissolves without any 
trace of this decomposition. 
If after solution of the tartrate the wine be filtered, it will remain trans¬ 
parent for some time, but sooner or later it again invariably deposits, becom¬ 
ing turbid and unsightly. 
In making these experiments, it was soon observed that the action of solar 
light affected in a very marked degree the permanence of the preparation. 
Kept completely in the dark, the wine could be preserved for some time with¬ 
out precipitation ; but if exposed to direct sunlight a deposit occurred in a 
few hours. In diffuse daylight the same change takes place more slowly. 
This is evidently due to the well-known deoxidizing action of solar light 
upon organic salts of iron, and is not, even as regards the potassio-tartrate, 
an original observation, the fact having been pointed out more than twenty 
years since by Sir John Herschel (vide Hunt’s ‘Manual of Photography,’ 
third edition, p. 54). By exposure to light an insoluble prototartrate is 
formed, and if the solar action be prolonged, nearly the whole of the iron 
may be withdrawn from the solution. 
In attempting to produce a permanent iron wine several salts of iron were 
tried, but that which afforded the best results was the ammonio-citrate. A 
solution of this salt in sherry in the proportion of one grain to each fluid 
drachm is, in the first instance, perfectly transparent. If it be exposed to 
the light a precipitate is produced as in the case of the potassio-tartrate, but 
it is considerably less in quantity, and requires for its formation much more 
prolonged insolation. On the other hand, if excluded from light, the wine 
thus prepared will retain its transparency for an indefinite period. 
A preparation, however, which required complete protection from light 
