Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
February.  1903.  I 
Syr  up  of  Ferrous  Iodide. 
73 
to  an  8-ounce  bottle  and  stoppered  with  an  ordinary  unprotected 
cork.  Since  the  time  of  its  preparation,  the  syrup  has  been  fre- 
quently used  and  the  bottle  containing  it  repeatedly  opened  for  the 
sake  of  experiment. 
The  syrup  was  not  exposed  to  direct  sunlight ;  it  was  simply 
placed  aside  where  it  would  be  least  in  the  way — on  the  uppermost 
of  a  series  of  shelves,  located  on  one  side  of  a  space  about  3x3 
feet,  between  the  store  and  the  adjacent  room  in  the  rear.  The 
result,  as  you  see,  is  all  that  could  be  desired. 
The  slight  coloration  which  you  notice  in  the  syrup  is  undoubt- 
edly due  to  the  action  of  the  syrup  upon  the  unprotected  cork,  and 
not  to  free  iodine.  A  month  ago  the  writer  had  occasion  to  carry 
this  bottle  of  syrup  in  his  pocket,  when  it  was  subjected  to  rather 
severe  agitation  ;  on  removing  the  bottle  from  the  pocket  it  was 
found,  to  the  writer's  dismay,  that  it  had  assumed  this  shade  of 
color.  However,  that  was  good  warning,  and  the  cork  was  at  once 
replaced  with  one  that  was  thoroughly  paraffined. 
That  no  free  iodine  is  present  in  the  syrup  is  shown  by  the  nega- 
tive results  obtained  on  applying  starch  T.S.  That  the  amount  of 
hypophosphorous  acid  present  in  this  sample  does  not  interfere  with 
the  starch-iodine  reaction  is  evidenced  by  the  fact,  that  on  adding  a 
trace  of  iodine  to  the  mixture  of  syrup  and  starch  T.S.  the  charac- 
teristic blue  color  is  at  once  displayed.  To  further  prove  that  the 
amount  of  hypophosphorous  acid  present  in  this  sample  does  not 
interfere  with  the  starch-iodine  reaction,  some  simple  syrup  was 
mixed  with  hypophosphorous  acid  in  the  proportion  of  8  fluid 
ounces  of  the  former  to  1  fluid  dram  ot  the  latter ;  enough  of  a 
weak  solution  of  iodine  in  potassium  iodide  and  water  was  then 
added  to  this  mixture  to  impart  to  it  a  color  corresponding  to  the 
one  possessed  by  the  sample  of  syrup  of  ferrous  iodide  here  exhib- 
ited. Upon  the  addition  of  starch  T.S.  to  this  prepared  mixture 
the  presence  of  free  iodine  was  immediately  revealed. 
The  first  person  on  record,  so  far  as  the  writer  was  able  to 
find,  to  suggest  the  use  of  hypophosphorous  acid  in  connection  with 
syrup  of  ferrous  iodide  is  Prof.  J.  F.  Judge,  of  Cincinnati,  O.  In  a 
paper  read  before  the  Cincinnati  College  of  Pharmacy  in  1876 
(Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1876,  p.  158)  Professor  Judge  recommended, 
as  a  result  of  his  experiments,  the  use  of  hypophosphorous  acid  as  a 
means  of  restoring  discolored  syrup  of  ferrous  iodide,  in  preference 
