ON THE USE OF LACTATE OP IRON. 
119 
state that it may readily be attacked by the acids of the gastric 
juice. But the labors of MM. Berzelius, Tiedman and Geme- 
lin, Dumas, Leuret, and Lassaigne, have shown that the gas- 
tric juice contains lactic acid in so great a proportion, that to 
its presence may be attributed the very energetic solvant 
property of this juice, which does not appear to contain any- 
thing else except traces of hydrochloric acid. It is then to 
the formation of lactate of iron in the stomach that the efficacy 
of the ferruginous preparations are due. 
MM. Gelis and Conte cite, in support of this assertion, the 
results of several experiments, which they have made for the 
purpose of testing the action of the lactic acid upon some of 
the ferruginous preparations most employed . They perceive, 
that among these preparations, those which dissolve most readi- 
ly in this acid are precisely the most active. They hence re- 
gard it as probable that the iron taken into the stomach is 
changed into lactate of iron, and only acts after being combin- 
ed with lactic acid. This theory gives rise to the idea of ad- 
ministering the lactate of iron ready formed. With this new 
remedy, the action of the stomach is reduced to the simple 
process of absorption, and the effect of the remedy no longer 
depends upon the greater or less acidity of the gastric juice. 
Nevertheless, however well founded these presumptions ap- 
pear, they cannot be admitted with confidence until they have 
been verified by clinical practice. 
MM. Fouquier, Bally, Bean, Rayer, Nonat, and Bouillaud 
have experimented with the lactate of protoxide of iron, and 
have collected a large number of observations on chlorosis 
treated with success by this new medicine. 
MM. Gelis and Conte prepare the lactate of iron by treat- 
ing pure iron filings with lactic acid diluted with water ; they 
then introduce it into lozenges in which the sugar prevents the 
super oxidation of the iron, and preserves the medicine at 
the same time that it gives a facility of administration. Each 
lozenge contains seven or eight centigrammes of lactate of iron ; 
four, six, or even ten may be given during the twenty-four 
