254 
Pharmacopccial  Preparations. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1897. 
saccharated  carbonate  of  iron,  mixture  of  iron,  Blaud's  pill,  and 
iodide  of  iron  pill.  It  also  preserves  lime  in  solution,  as  in  the 
well-known  liquor  calcis  saccharatus,  of  a  strength  about  sixteen 
times  that  of  the  official  lime  water ;  if  a  pure  marble  lime  be  used, 
I  find  as  much  as  1-77  per  cent,  is  dissolved,  or  816  grains  in  a  fluid 
ounce.  This  preparation  is  more  conveniently  made  by  using  an 
equivalent  weight  of  syrup,  i.e.,  three  ounces  in  place  of  two  of 
sugar,  and  adding  it  to  nineteen  ounces  of  distilled  water  containing 
the  lime  in  suspension.  The  "  caking  "  which  is  apt  to  occur  is  thus 
avoided. 
Salicylic  Acid. — The  well-known  uses  antiseptically  of  this  for  sur- 
gical purposes,  although  prohibited  from  being  used  for  preserving 
wines  in  France,  have  rendered  it  servicable  in  preserving  the  offi- 
cial solution  of  hydrochlorate  of  cocaine,  which  contains  Ij4  Per 
mille  of  the  acid,  with  10  per  cent,  of  the  cocaine  salt.  I  find  that 
this  solution,  even  if  diluted  with  four  times  its  volume  of  water,  still 
keeps  free  from  fungoid  growths.  The  use  of  this  acid  might  be 
objected  to  in  the  solution,  because  salicylic  acid  forms  with  cocaine 
an  indefinite  compound  rather  than  a  salt,  the  so-called  salicylate  of 
cocaine ;  but  it  appears  not  to  throw  the  hydrochloric  acid  out  of 
combination,  and  has  proved  very  serviceable  in  preserving  the  solu- 
tion of  this  cocaine  salt,  which  has  a  great  tendency  to  develop 
fungoid  growths.  The  salicylic  compound  appears  to  be  allied  to 
the  benzoic  compound,  benzoyl- ecgonine.  It  forms  a  pasty  mass 
which  has  not,  that  I  am  aware  of,  been  studied.  If  any  defence 
were  needed  for  using  a  preservative,  perhaps  this  official  solution  of 
cocaine  is  a  typical  case.  The  use  of  this  solution  of  salicylic  acid, 
1*4  per  mille,  which  is  nearly  saturated,  as  a  vehicle,  might  be  ex- 
tended to  other  solutions,  for  example,  the  official  solution  of  sul- 
phate of  atropine,  but  I  have  not  found  this  solution,  if  made  with  a 
well-crystallized  salt,  prone  to  grow  fungi.  Its  use,  however,  cannot 
be  extended  to  the  hypodermic  injection  of  morphine ;  if  a  solution 
of  tartrate  of  morphine,  I  in  12,  or  even  1  in  20,  be  prepared  in  it,  a 
crystallized  salicylate  of  morphine  separates;  16^  tartrate  keeps 
well  alone. 
Of  the  salts  of  morphine  suitable  for  hypodermic  injection,  the 
tartrate  seems  to  be  now  favored ;  the  acetate  solution,  prepared 
by  dissolving  pure  morphine  in  just  enough  acetic  acid,  has  till 
lately  been  mostly  used,  but  it  has  the  objection  of  possessing  a 
