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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
make comparative experiments on the salts prepared with 
these acids, and to communicate the results which he obtains. 
A. G. V. 
Journ. de Pharm. 
ART. XL.— REPORT MADE TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF 
MEDICINE UPON THE NEW FERRUGINOUS PILLS OF 
M. VALLET. Soubeiran, Reporter. 
MM. Planche, Martin Solon, and myself, have been com- 
missioned by the Academy, to draw up a report upon the 
new ferruginous preparation which M. Vallet presented to it, 
in February, 1837. 
Its base is carbonate of the protoxide of iron. M. Vallet 
proposes to make a preparation stable, and always constant 
in its composition from this salt, which is remarkably un- 
stable. 
The carbonate of iron, for medical purposes, has advantages 
which are not possessed to the same degree by other ferrugi- 
nous preparations. It has not a strong cohesion, or feeble af- 
finities, which present an obstacle to its solution, as is the 
case with the oxides of iron. The oxide at the minimum is a 
powerful base, and the carbonic acid which is associated with 
it can be displaced without difficulty by the acids contained 
in the digestive passages. This facility of decomposition gives 
it equally the advantage over the other insoluble salts of iron; 
and there is no ground to fear that it traverses the canal without 
producing the effect. On the other hand it is often preferable 
to the more soluble salts; for its solution by the acids of the 
stomach is slow and gradual, and gives rise to little apprehen- 
sion that the disagreeable and dangerous styptic impression 
of the salts of iron will be produced. 
The employment of the carbonate of the protoxide of iron 
in medicine is not new; nearly all the formulae proposed for 
its administration have for their base a mixture of the sulphate 
