Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
August,  1903.  / 
Basharri s  Mixture. 
387 
(therapeutically)  compound.  From  this  the  absurd  weakness 
of  the  U.S.P.  product  may  be  seen.  In  an  attempt  to  secure 
pharmaceutical  elegance  and  permanency  of  product,  therapeu- 
tical efficiency  has  been  sacrificed  or  largely  nullified.  And  this 
attempt  has  been  as  unnecessary  as  it  was  ill-judged,  because  by 
proper  procedure  the  preparation  can  be  made  both  attractive  and 
permanent  for  months.  The  most  necessary  factor  is  simply  to  see 
that  the  solution  of  ammonium  acetate  used  is  neutral,  or,  better, 
faintly  acid  in  reaction,  and  the  acidity  should  not  be  that  of  the 
freed  carbonic  acid  gas,  but  of  the  free  acetic  acid.  Unless  the  gas 
be  first  eliminated  before  testing,  litmus  paper  is  of  no  value  in 
showing  acetic  acidity.  Practically,  the  best  guide  in  obtaining 
neutrality  or  faint  acidity  is  the  sense  of  taste. 
There  are  reasons  for  believing  that  the  weakness  of  the  official 
product  has  given  weak  therapeutic  results,  and  that  this  has  lessened 
the  use  of  the  mixture  and  prevented  general  growth  in  its 
favor  especially  in  the  Western  States,  where  the  older  formula  is 
not  widely  known  and  the  official  one  is  followed. 
The  chemistry  of  Basham's  Mixture  is  interesting.  The  iron 
present  is  in  the  form  of  an  acetate,  and  there  is  also  formed,  as  one  of 
the  products  of  decomposition,  a  certain  amount  of  ammonium 
chloride,  the  larger  proportion  of  ammonium  acetate  remaining 
unchanged.    The  reaction  is  as  follows  : 
Fe2Cl6  +  6NH4C2H30.2  =  Fe2(C2H302)6  +  6NH4C1 
324  462  466  320 
Calculations  will  show  that  in  the  38^  minims  of  the  official 
solution  of  ferric  chloride  (s.  g.  1-387;  37-8  per  cent,  anhydrous  salt) 
used  for  1  pint  of  the  official  "  Liquor  Ferri  et  Ammonii  Acetatis  " 
there  are  about  20  grains  of  ferric  chloride  represented,  and  that  this 
requires  28  grains  of  ammonium  acetate  to  decompose,  yielding  28 
grains  of  ferric  acetate  and  20  grains  of  ammonium  chloride;  the 
amount  of  ammonium  acetate  remaining  undecomposed  is  about  80 
grains.  In  other  words,  each  dessertspoonful  dose  of  the  official 
Basham's  Mixture  contains  about  ]/2  grain  of  ferric  acetate,  ^  grain 
of  ammonium  chloride  and  1  y£  grains  of  ammonium  acetate,  quanti- 
ties entirely  too  small  to  be  of  much  therapeutic  value.  The  older 
formulas  represented,  practically,  twice  as  much  iron  and  two-and-a- 
half  times  as  much  ammonium  acetate. 
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