358 
Beef,  Wine  and  Iron. 
f  A.m.  Jour.  Ptaarm 
\      August,  1908. 
under  his  own  name,  so  that  practically  there  are  as  many  nomi- 
nally different  brands  as  there  are  druggists.  The  results  presented, 
therefore,  do  not  mean  that  the  Connecticut  druggists  are  selling  a 
lower-grade  article  than  those  of  other  States,  for  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  samples  were  made  elsewhere.  In  fact,  some  of  the 
highest-grade  preparations  analyzed  were  made  by  local  druggists 
and  some  of  the  lowest  grade  by  wholesale  houses  of  wide  reputa- 
tion. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  give  the  detailed  analyses  ot  all  the  samples 
in  this  place,  and  only  typical  ones  and  the  average  of  the  ninety- 
two  samples  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  table.  The  first  thir- 
teen samples  were  sold  under  the  name  of  the  wholesalers,  the  others 
under  the  name  of  the  local  druggists. 
It  is  seen  that  the  variations  in  composition  are  very  wide  in  every 
ingredient.  Attention  at  this  time  will  be  called  only  to  the  nitro- 
gen and  iron  content.  The  Formulary  states  that  M  4  c.c.  (1 
fluidrachm)  represent  0-13  gramme  (2  grains)  of  extract  of  beef, 
and  01 28  c.c.  (2  minims)  of  tincture  of  citro-chloride  of  iron." 
Translated  into  metrical  and  chemical  terms,  if  a  high-grade  meat 
extract  is  used  as  directed,  one  fluidrachm  should  contain  0-0122 
gramme  of  nitrogen  and  0  0058  gramme  of  metallic  iron,  provided 
that  there  is  no  loss  entailed  by  the  method  of  preparation.  My 
own  preparations  contained  in  one  fluidrachm  as  follows: 
No.  1,  unfiltered  .  .  .  io-2  milligrammes  N,  5*0  milligrammes  Fe 
No.  2,  filtered   ....   7*2  "  "  0-4  "  " 
No.  3,  unfiltered  .  .  .  12T  "  "  5*0  "  " 
No.  4,  filtered  ....  11*4  "  "  4-4  "  " 
No.  5,  filtered  ....   8-9         "  "  ro 
The  figures  obtained  on  preparations  of  known  origin  show  the 
difficulty  of  establishing  standards  particularly  for  iron.  In  the 
light  of  the  above  data  the  use  of  the  word  "  represent  "  in  the 
Formulary  is  explainable,  and  while  the  makers  of  the  Formulary 
doubtless  intended  to  convey  no  false  impression  by  their  phrase- 
ology, it  has  certainly  opened  the  way  for  gross  misrepresentation 
in  the  sale  of  beef,  wine  and  iron.  Where  the  tincture  of  iron  is 
used,  followed  by  filtration,  nearly  all  the  iron  is  removed  and  about 
one-third  of  the  nitrogen.  If  as  much  as  one  milligramme  of 
metallic  iron  is  present  in  a  fluidrachm,  therefore,  it  is  impossible 
to  assert  with  certainty  that  the  preparation  is  not  made  by  the 
