THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY, 
mTbTc  HfT86TT 
REMARKS  ON  THE  SYRUP  AND  SOLUTION  OF  SESQUI-NITRATE 
OF  IRON. 
By  Joseph  Laidley,  Richmond,  Va. 
Solutions  and  syrups  of  nitrates  of  Iron. 
A  nitric  solution  intended  to  be  of  the  sesqui-oxide  of  iron  was 
proposed  as  a  remedial  agent,  by  Mr.  Kerr  of  Scotland,  in  1832.* 
His  formula  was  modified  and  a  syrup  proposed,  in  1846,  by  the 
late  Mr.  Augustine  Duhamel.f 
With  a  slight  variation  in  Mr.  Kerr's  formula  for  the  solution, 
it  was  introduced  into  the  last  edition  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia, 
but  the  preparations  afforded  by  these  formulas  are  all  liable  to  one 
great  objection,  want  of  permanence;  the  cause  of  which  was  ex- 
hibited, a  remedy  indicated,  and  another  ferruginous  preparation 
proposed  by  Professor  Procter,  in  vol.  xxiii.  pp.  312,  15,  of  this 
Journal. J  As  the  formulas  there  suggested  meet  the  former  dif- 
ficulty, affording  preparations  that  keep  unimpaired,  for  apparently 
any  length  of  time,  it  is  unnecessary  now  to  dwell  longer  upon 
them.  My  object  at  present  is  to  call  attention  to  an  important 
fact  in  reference  to  the  syrup  of  ternitrate  of  iron,  namely,  the  for- 
mation of  oxalic  acid  therein. 
Ever  since  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Duhamel's  paper,  above  re- 
ferred to,  "  syrup  of  pernitrateof  iron  "  has  been  a  favorite  remedy 
with  many  of  our  practitioners  ;  consequently,  it  became  the  duty 
of  the  pharmaceutist  to  furnish  the  medicine  if  possible  ;  but  know- 
ing that  it  would  not  keep  for  any  length  of  time,  and  wishing  to 
supply  several  inquirers  for  it  with  a  permanent  and  efficient 
syrup  of  this  salt,  as  soon  as  Professor  Procter's  formula  for  the 
*  Journal  Philada.  Cull.  Pharmacy,  vol.  iv.  p.  169. 
t  Am.  Jour,  Pharmacy,  vol.  xvii.  p.  92. 
+  Several  specimens  of  these  preparations  now  in  my  possession  are  fifteen 
months  old,  and  except  a  very  small  deposit  in  some  of  the  solution  of  per- 
nitrate  of  iron,  no  change  whatever  is  perceptible. 
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