412  Abuses  of  Elegant  Pharmacy.       \  ^^ShT 
until  quite  recently,  and  not  until  this  salt  had  unfortunately  been 
made  officinal  in  our  Pharmacopoeia,  and  designated  as  ferri  pyro- 
phosphas. 
The  scales  constituting  the  officinal  salt  were  supposed  by  Robiquet 
to  be  merely  a  mixture  of  ammonium  citrate  and  ferric  pyrophosphate. 
This  probably  is  erroneous,  for  in  the  preparation  of  this  salt  the 
addition  of  solution  of  ammonium  citrate  to  the  ferric  pyrophosphate 
decomposes  the  latter,  and  the  elements  being  interchanged,  pyro- 
phosphate of  ammonium  and  citrate  of  iron  and  ammonium  are  formed, 
thus  : 
2  (Fe'"2  3  S04)  +  3  Na4P207  =  Fe'"4  (P207)3  +  6  Na2  S04. 
Fe'"2  (Pa07)4  +  8  (NH4)3  C6H507  =  4  (Fe'"  (NH4)3  2  C6H507)  + 
3  (NH4)4  P207. 
The  tendency  of  late  years  is  to  concentrate  medicines.  We  can 
see  no  advantage  in  administering  iron  and  ammonium  citrate  in  this 
form,  diluted  so  largely  with  the  ammonium  pyrophosphate.  Why 
not  use  the  required  quantity  of  ferric  citrate  at  once,  and  discard 
the  use  of  the  officinal  44  ferric-pyrophosphate  ?" 
For  years  the  demand  for  elegant  pharmaceutical  preparations  has 
been  steadily  increasing,  giving  rise  to  the  "  specialties"  of  various 
manufactures  with  which  our  markets  are  flooded.  It  is  probably 
this  demand,  coupled  with  a  taste  for  chemistry,  that  led  Mr.  J.  A. 
Creuse  into  the  experiments  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  a  class 
of  scale  salts  analogous  to  the  ferri  pyrophosphas  (U.  S.  P.)  noticed 
above,  and  which,  for  a  time,  bid  fair  to  rob  us  of  the  most  valued  of 
our  chalybeates,  and  substitute  a  comparatively  worthless  series  in 
their  stead. 
This  discovery  was  at  once  seized  upon  by  prominent  manufac- 
turers, and  elixir  of  gentian  with  tincture  of  chloride  of  iron  prepared 
with  solution  of  potassium  citrate,  ' 4  tasteless,  inodorous  and  palat- 
able," was  heralded  forth,  by  advertisement  and  circular,  with  com- 
mercial travellers,  along  every  main  line  and  branch  road  in  the  coun- 
try, and  physicians  were  liberally  sampled  and  egregiously  humbugged. 
The  writer  is  a  strong  advocate  of  "  elegant  pharmacy,"  but  is  not 
a  believer  in  sacrificing  the  medicinal  virtue  of  any  drug  or  chemical 
for  its  palatable  effect;  therefore  notices  with  regret  a  recent  article, 
by  Dr.  C.  G.  Polk,  on  "  Sesquisalts  of  Iron"  {Druggists  Circular, 
April,  1874),  from  which  we  quote.    Speaking  of  scarlatina,  etc.  : 
