THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY, 
FEBRUARY,  1893^ 
A  RAPID  ASSAY  OF  HYDROGEN  PEROXIDE. 
By  Frank  X.  Moerk,  Ph.g. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  Jan.  17. 
Hydrogen  peroxide  as  a  therapeutic  agent  has  been  known  for 
many  years,  but  its  ready  decomposition  for  a  long  time  proved 
a  barrier  to  its  general  introduction ;  this  decomposition  into  water, 
and,  for  the  time  being,  active  oxygen,  upon  which  its  medicinal 
use  depends,  takes  place  so  readily  at  moderate  temperatures  that 
it  is  impossible  to  guarantee  the  strength  of  the  solution,  even  if 
taken  from  a  freshly  opened  bottle. 
Hydrogen  peroxide  has  been  called  a  specific  in  diphtheria,  and 
other  throat  affections,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  pharmacist  is 
apparent  when  the  so-often  fatal  termination  of  these  affections  is 
considered  ;  as  a  proof  of  this  may  be  cited  a  case  in  which  a  phy- 
sician prescribed  an  original  four-ounce  bottle  of  this  remedy,  the 
druggist,  however,  dispensing  four  ounces  from  a  pound  bottle 
opened  a  few  days  previously  ;  the  disease  proving  fatal,  enabled 
the  physician,  apparently  without  an  examination  of  the  dispensed 
hydrogen  peroxide,  to  insinuate  that  if  the  prescription  had  been 
dispensed  as  written,  the  patient  might  have  recovered.  Had  the 
hydrogen  peroxide  by  assay  been  found  of  good  quality,  the  drug- 
gist could  not  have  been  reproached  for  dispensing  the  remedy  from 
a  pound  bottle. 
The  practice  of  prescribing  portions  only  of  remedies  put  up  in 
larger  sized  bottles,  results  in  filling  the  shelves  of  the  store,  as  so 
often  the  first  prescription  for  a  special  remedy,  also  happens  to  be 
the  last.    The  majority  of  cases  in  which  hydrogen  peroxide  was 
I65) 
