3§4 
Bashaw's  Mixture. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1      August,  1903. 
The  work  that  Dr.  Murrell  refers  to  is  doubtless  Dr.  Basham's 
book  on  "  Dropsy,"  the  1 866  edition  of  which  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Medical  Library  of  the  Philadelphia  Hospital.  On  page  218  the 
following  statements  are  made  : 
"  The  preparations  of  iron  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  are  numerous, 
but  there  is  one  which,  in  cases  of  renal  dropsy,  stands  pre-eminent  for 
its  efficacy  and  should  be  preferred  before  all  others.  It  is  the  tincture 
of  the  sesquichloride  (of  iron).  But  it  is  not  as  a  sesquichloride  that 
its  efficacy  is  most  perceived.  It  is  as  an  ammonio-chloride  kept  in 
solution  by  acetic  acid  that  its  beneficial  influence  becomes  most 
apparent.  It  is  a  very  simple  preparation  ;  a  few  drops  of  the  tinc- 
ture, according  to  the  age  of  the  patient,  are  added  to  a  drachm  of 
the  liquor  ammonii  acetatis  previously  acidulated  with  acetic  acid." 
By  "  a  few  drops  of  the  tincture  "  Dr.  Basham  evidently  meant 
a  small  dose,  or  5  to  10  minims,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  fol- 
lowing statement  on  page  193  : 
"  In  cases  of  renal  dropsy  no  preparation  answers  as  well  as  the 
tincture  of  the  sesquichloride  (of  iron).  Small  doses  are  better  than 
large,  and  5  or  10  minims  three  times  a  day  will  answer  all  the 
purposes  designed  in  its  administration." 
It  will  be  observed  that  Basham  gave  no  specific  formula  for  the 
mixture  bearing  his  name,  and  it  may  be  possible  that  the  working 
formula  was  originated  by  someone  else.  I  have  searched  a  num- 
ber of  English  pharmaceutical  books  and  journals  published  prior 
to  1876  for  formulas  of  Basham's  Mixture,  but  have  searched  in 
vain.  A  few  years  ago  Peter  MacEwan,  while  editor  of  the  Chemist 
and  Druggist,  of  London,  wrote  me  that  Basham's  Mixture  was 
not  much  used  in  Great  Britain. 
The  first  formula  given  for  Basham's  Mixture  in  an  American 
pharmaceutical  journal  appears  to  have  been  published  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  for  March,  1876,  and  was  reprinted 
from  the  "  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  Philadelphia  Hospital "  being 
named  "  Mistura  Ferri  Chloridi  Composita  "  (Basham's  Mixture). 
As  the  first  portion  of  this  little  formulary  was  printed  in  the  Febru- 
ary issue  of  the  Journal,  and  as  the  city  appropriations  to  the  Board 
of  Guardians  of  the  Poor  (the  then  governing  body  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Hospital)  were  scarcely  available  for  use  so  early  in  the 
year,  it  is  reasonably  sure  that  the  formula  must  have  been  employed 
at  the  Hospital  in  1875  or  earlier. 
