EDITORIAL. 
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them  a  note  of  exclamation  in  a  parenthesis,  thus  (!)  :  thus  implying,  without 
asserting  a  doubt. 
Now,  sir,  we  do  claim  our  preparation  to  be,  openly  and  unequivocally,  that 
very  desideratum  in  medicine,  a  solution  of  pure  iodine  in  water,  and  nothing  else. 
We  have  the  certificates  of  some  of  the  ablest  analytical  chemists  in  the  coun- 
try to  that  effect. 
You  also  state  that,  "  admitting  the  amount  of  iodine  averred,  it  is  most  pro- 
bably held  in  solution  by  traces  of  hydriodic  acid,sand  not  by  pure  water." 
Dr.  James  R.  Chilton,  the  distinguished  Chemist  of  this  city,  contradicts  you 
somewhat  emphatically.    He  observes  in  his  certificate — 
"  I  have  analyzed  the  '  Iodine  Water,'  prepared  by  Dr.  Anders,  and  find  it  to 
be  a  solution  of  pure  iodine  in  water.  It  has  long  been  a  desideratum  to  pre- 
pare iodine  so  that  it  can  be  administered  in  its  uncombined  state  ;  this  prepa- 
ration, by  Dr.  Anders,  enables  us  to  effect  that  object." 
Prof.  James  C.  Booth,  of  your  city  (U.  S.  Mint)  also  differs  materially  front 
you  in  this  opinion  ;  he  observes  : 
"  Dr.  Henry  Anders  : — The  sample  of  Iodine  Water,  tested  by  me,  I  find  to 
be  iodine  dissolved  in  pure  water." 
We  might  furnish  you  with  many  more  proofs  equally  satisfactory  upon  this 
head,  but  conceive  it  unnecessary.  We  are  quite  willing  to  leave  you  most 
probably  in  the  per  contra  to  positive  statements  of  facts  made  by  gentlemen  of 
such  standing  in  the  world  of  science. 
You  next  suggest  another  doubt  in  regard  to  the  strength  of  our  solution, 
but  qualify  it  with  the  remark  that  "  the  specimen  tried  had  been  kept  some 
time  in  a  warm  room." 
Permit  us,  in  reply,  to  observe  that  our  preparation  loses  none  of  its  strength 
whatever  in  a  warm  room.  Dr.  Chilton,  in  his  analysis  of  it,  states,  "  Each 
fluid  ounce  of  the  water  contains  about  half  a  grain  of  iodine."'  Other  chemists, 
after  analyzation,  have  certified  to  the  same  effect,  and  some  of  the  Iodine 
Water  thus  tested,  had  been  standing  upon  our  shelves  in  a  warm  room  over 
two  years. 
But  your  most  serious  charge  is  that  of  "presumption  and  effrontery"  in  us 
for  daring  to  assert  that,  "  in  view  of  its  actual  composition,  {  Anders'  Liquid 
Iodine,  or  Pure  Iodine  Water/  always  effects  a  cure  "  in  cases  of  consumption, 
palsy,  rheumatism,  scrofula,  liver  complaints,  heart  diseases,  and  disorder? 
arising  from  impurities  of  the  blood. 
It  seems  to  us  that  "presumption  and  effrontery,"  if  their  be  any  in  the  pre- 
mises, might  much  more  readily  be  found  in  the  gratuitous  denial  of  the  efficacy 
of  our  preparation  by  one  who  has  never  yet  seen  it  tried,  and  whose  view  of 
its  composition  is  wholly  apocryphal.  Our  affirmation  of  the  remedial  effects 
of  the  "  Liquid  Iodine"  is  based  upon  the  direct  testimony  of  experience,  and 
is  corroborated  by  the  faith  of  over  two  hundred  grateful  men  and  women,  who. 
by  its  instrumentality,  have  been  restored  to  perfect  health. 
The  "  absurdity,"  as  you  think  proper  to  term  it,  of  "  supposing  that  this  solu- 
tion has  more  merit  than  Lugol's,  is  simply  the  "  absurdity"  of  supposing  that 
iodine  dissolved  in  water  only  will  exhibit  more  specifically  the  effects  of  that 
element  than  if  dissolved  in  combination  with  potassium — an  u  absurdity"  ad- 
mitted by  Lugul  himself,  as  well  as  by  many  other  medical  writers  an  "  ab- 
surdity "  admitted  even  by  such  respectable  authority  as  the  U.  S.  Dispensatory. 
It  is  well  known  that  iodine,  when  combined  with  potassium,  is  rarely  ex- 
hibited with  a  satisfactory  result ;  with  some  systems  it  disagrees  altogether, 
and  with  others  the  consequences  are  strikingly  mischievous,  nor  is  the  pre- 
scription improved,  as  you  seem  to  suggest,  by  the  addition  of  the  sweet  spirit 
of  nitre.  Two  grains  of  pure  iodine  dissolved  in  one  ounce  of  the  latter  may 
be  diluted  with  eight  ounces  of  water,  and  the  iodine  held  in  solution  will  be 
found  to  reach  the  seven-thousandth  part,  the  remainder  will  chiefly  be  dis- 
covered in  precipitation  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel;  a  common  solution  of  iodine 
in  water  holds  just  as  much  ;  of  what  use,  then  is  the  nitre  ?  A  quart  of  such  ft 
mixture  would  contain  about  two  grains  of  iodine ;  the  same  quantity  ©f  onr 
