T H E 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OP 
PHARMACY. 
APRIL, 184:0, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. I.— REMARKS ON HYDRATED PER-OXIDE OF IRON. 
By William R. Fisher, M. D. Late Professor of Chemistry and 
Pharmacy in the University of Maryland, &c. &c. 
The peroxide of iron has recently acquired an importance in 
its therapeutical and pharmaceutical relations, from its use as an 
antidote against arsenious acid, which renders any apology for 
the notice here intended to be taken of it altogether unneces- 
sary. Indeed, some notice of its properties as an antidote, mode 
of preparation, and preservation, seems to me to have become 
indispensable, from at least one erroneous view in regard to it, 
which appears still to prevail, and which may in some degree 
restrict its use and diminish its value. This error consists in 
the belief that the antidote, to be effectual, must be freshly 
prepared: a dictum which reached our shores simultane- 
ously with the knowledge of the peculiar properties, as regards 
arsenious acid, of the oxide itself. Subsequently, each one 
who has written upon this subject has attached value to this 
italicised caution, and has thus perpetuated, at all events 
until now, a direction which has a tendency to banish or ex- 
clude a valuable remedy from the shops, and to compel the 
unfortunate victim of malice or accident to await the hurried 
preparation of the means by which his pangs may be allevi- 
VOL. VI. — NO. I. 1 
