^mp^mt^'}    Solution  of  the  Citrate  of  Magnesium.  215 
an  excellent  officinal  formula,  the  officinal  article  should  alone  be  sold 
under  the  officinal  name,  and  if  a  modification  from  it  be  necessary, 
-the  fact  should  be  stated  on  the  label. 
It  should,  however,  be  recollected  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  de- 
signed to  meet  the  wants  of  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  profes- 
sions, and  not  to  direct  preparations  for  popular  use,  although  it  is 
far  better  to  conform  in  every  respect  to  its  requirements,  with  spe- 
cific directions  for  its  use  accompanying  each  bottle  or  package.  The 
solution  of  tartrate  of  sodium  would  make  a  good  cathartic  for  popu- 
lar use,  and,  if  once  introduced  and  sold  at  its  relative  cost,  no  doubt 
it  would,  in  a  larger  measure,  supersede  the  more  elegant  and  costly 
titrate.  Phosphate  of  sodium,  dissolved  in  eight  times  its  weight  of 
water  and  flavored  with  an  aromatic  syrup,  forms  a  preparation  ther- 
apeutically superior  to  either  the  magnesium  citrate  or  the  sodic  tar- 
trate, and  but  very  little  more  disagreeable,  acting  as  a  stimulant  to 
the  functions  of  the  chylopoetic  viscera,  and  exciting  the  biliary  secre- 
tion.   The  following  is  a  good  formula  : 
1^.    Sodii  Phosph.,  gi 
Aquae,     .....  ^viii 
Syrup.  Acidi  Citrici,  .  .  .  ^iss.  M. 
Take  at  once. 
Citrate  of  sodium  could  also  be  used  as  a  pleasant  cathartic.  A 
solution  is  quite  permanent,  and  is  equally  as  agreeable  as  the  mag- 
nesium citrate,  but  it  presents  no  inducement  in  point  of  economy,  and 
consequently  offers  no  advantages  that  especially  recommend  it  to  our 
consideration  over  the  present  officinal  formula  for  the  latter. 
In  conclusion,  I  will  add,  the  weaker  solution  by  me  furnished  to 
the  Druggist's  Circular  answers  very  well  as  a  mild  cathartic,  as 
hundreds  of  cases  to  whom  I  had  prescribed  it  evince,  and  as  several 
druggists,  were  they  disposed,  could  verify  ;  but  that  it  was  not  de- 
signed to  take  the  place  of  the  officinal  one  is  indicated  by  the  accom- 
panying formula  for  a  solution  of  greater  strength,  recommended  as 
its  superior,  and  which  furnishes  a  more  agreeable  preparation  than 
I  have  ever  seen  furnished  by  any  other  formula,  but  the  deficiency 
in  acid  impairs  its  permanence.  Stability,  however,  has  never 
been  attained  by  any  formula  yet  adopted  ;  previous  to  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  I  was  working  out  a  formula  by  which  the 
magnesium  solution  would  be  held  more  entirely  in  solution  by  the 
