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TARTRO-CITRIC  LEMONADE. 
TARTRO-CITMC  LEMONADE. 
[Liquor  Sodce  Tartras.) 
By  Prof.  J.  Lawrence  Smith, 
There  is  nothing  new  in  the  use  of  tartrate  of  soda  as  a  purga- 
tive, and  it  is  only  surprising,  that  once  known,  it  ever  gave 
place  to  the  citrate  of  magnesia,  to  which  there  are  several  ob- 
jections well  known  to  practitioners.  Among  these  I  would 
enumerate  the  not  unfrequent  irregularity  of  its  operation,  some- 
times not  acting  as  promptly  as  desired,  at  other  times  with  too 
great  and  continued  energy,  requiring  anodynes  to  arrest  its 
operation.  Again,  owing  to  the  manner  in  which  it  is  made, 
and  the  want  of  uniformity  in  the  composition  of  the  commercial 
carbonate  and  calcined  magnesia,  the  amount  of  free  acid  in  the 
solution  varies  much,  when  made  at  different  times  by  different 
operators,  and  with  different  lots  of  materials.  There  being 
sometimes  two  or  three  drachms  of  free  acid  present  in  a  bottle, 
and  besides,  under  all  circumstances,  the  mixture  must  be  quite 
acid  in  order  to  retain  for  any  length  of  time  the  citrate  of 
magnesia  in  solution.  Mitscherlich  and  Bence  Jones  have  both 
made  experiments  on  citric  acid,  and  they  consider  it  a  poison 
analogous  to  oxalic  acid. 
Yet  another  objection  to  citrate  of  magnesia  is  the  certainty 
of  its  undergoing  decomposition,  resulting  in  the  deposition 
of  an  insoluble  citrate  of  magnesia,  a  change  that  takes  place 
very  rapidly  when  the  bottle  is  opened. 
With  these  facts  before  me,  I  compounded  a  preparation  of 
tartrate  of  soda  with  lemon  syrup  and  water,  (at  first  I  intro- 
duced a  small  portion  of  citric  acid,  calling  the  mixture  Tartro- 
Citric  Lemonade.) 
It  is  free  from  the  objections  of  the  citrate  of  magnesia,  is  a 
prompt  and  certain  purgative,  without  excessive  action,  and  uni- 
form in  composition,  does  not  undergo  decomposition  even  after 
the  bottle  is  opened,  even  more  agreeable  to  the  taste  and  less 
costly  than  citrate  of  magnesia.  It  was  first  manufactured  by 
T.  E.  Jenkins  &  Co.,  and  is  now  also  manufactured  to  a  large 
extent  at  the  Louisville  Chemical  Works. 
The  formula  adopted  by  Messrs.  T.  E.  Jenkins  &  Co.,  at  the 
Louisville  Chemical  Works,  which  is  under  my  direction,  is 
