^"Apdrissr"""}  Syrupus  Ferri  Frotochloridi.  163 
a  very  unstable  combination,  will  readily  be  reduced  by  the  action  and 
heat  of  the  blood  to  the  combination  of  iron  and  oxygen  which  it  is 
able  to  assimilate. 
Syrupus  ferri  protochloridi  is  prepared  by  me  on  the  same  principle 
as  the  tinctura  nervina  Bestuscheffi  or  tinct.  ferri  chlorati  setherea  of  the 
German  Pharmacopoeia,  which  is  a  highly  valued  and  much- prescribed 
iron  preparation.  In  this  tincture  the  ferric  chloride  is  reduced  to 
ferrous  chloride  in  the  rays  of  the  sun  by  the  ether  forming  chloride 
of  ethyl,  leaving  the  ferrous  chloride  as  a  colorless  solution.  In  syr. 
ferri  protochl.  the  sugar  will,  by  the  action  of  the  iron,  lose  two  atoms 
of  hydrogen,  giving  them  to  the  chloride  of  the  re2Cl3  and  reducing 
it  to  FeCl,  forming  HCl  and  saccharic  acid,  no  grape  sugar  or  glu- 
cose being  formed  by  the  reduction. 
This  is  the  case  in  the  syrupus  ferri  chlorati  of  Hager's  Pharmac. 
Manual,  which  is  about  five  times  the  iron  strength  of  my  prepara- 
tion and  made  by  ebullition,  which  will  form  grape  sugar  and  make 
the  whole  preparation  changeable  and  unreliable. 
The  slight  changes  I  have  remarked  in  my  preparation  are  the  for- 
mation of  very  small  quantities  of  oxychloride,  causing  the  liquid  to 
assume  a  yellowish  tint  and,  in  very  high  summer  temperature, 
the  assumption  of  the  syrup  of  a  slightly  brownish  color,  caused 
probably  by  the  absorption  of  oxide  of  nitrogen,  which  is  a  quality 
possessed  by  all  the  ferrous  salts. 
In  making  this  syrup  I  was  guided  principally  by  the  idea  that  this 
preparation,  made  on  the  same  principle  as  tinct.  ferri  chlorati  setherea, 
might  be  just  as  valuable  as  an  iron  preparation  and  more  useful,  con- 
taining the  iron  in  a  palatable,  active  and  easily  absorptive  state, 
Greenville,  March  14,  1882. 
Remarks  on  Syrup  of  Ferrous  Chloride.— In  making  the 
brief  editorial  remark  on  page  129,  our  object  was  simply  to  direct 
attention  to  the  only  officially  recognized  formula  for  such  a  prepara- 
tion;  that  quoted  has  been  adopted  by  the  Paris  Pharmaceutical 
Society  and,  we  presume,  is  used  sufficiently  there  to  warrant  tljc  offi- 
cial adoption  of  a  formula.  Many  other  formulas  have,  from  time  to 
time,  been  suggested,  one  of  the  latest  being  that  proposed  l)y  Mr. 
Wm.  Gilmour,  in  the  "Chemist  and  Druggist,'^  June,  1881,  ]).  251, 
which  directs  288  grains  of  officinal  hydrochloric  acid,  diluted  with 
1|  oz.  of  water,  to  be  saturated  with  iron,  the  hot  solution  to  be  fil- 
