214  Value  of  Certain  Salts  of  Iron,  etc.  Jigg?* 
The  Pharmacist  wants  a  fluid  extract  of  ipecac  that  will  not  pre- 
cipitate when  in  the  form  of  the  officinal  syrup. 
The  formula  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1870  does  not  supply  this 
want. 
ON  THE  COMPARATIVE  THERAPEUTICAL  YALUE  OF  SALTS 
OF  PROTOXIDE  AND  SESQUIOX1DE  OF  IRON,  AND  ON  A 
NEW  SERIES  OF  TASTELESS  IRON  COMBINATIONS* 
By  J.  L.  A.  Creuse,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
It  is  not  my  intention  here  to  treat  on  the  medical  properties  and 
uses  of  ferruginous  compounds  as  a  class  ;  this  has  been  done  before 
me  by  more  competent  persons.  My  purpose  is  only  to  discuss  the 
relative  physiological  and  chemical  properties  of  the  various  iron 
combinations  and  describe  a  new  series  of  tasteless  ferruginous  com- 
pounds. 
Iron  has  been  used  in  medicine,  it  may  be  said,  from  time  imme- 
morial. Metallic  iron,  green  copperas,  iron  rust,  carbonate  of  iron, 
bole  armenia,  etc.,  are  mentioned  in  the  oldest  authors  on  medicine 
and  pharmacy.  It  seems  also  that  in  former  times  little  importance 
was  attached  to  the  peculiar  form  in  which  iron  was  administered. 
Some  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  however,  a  decided  preference  began 
to  be  shown  for  metallic  iron,  finely  comminuted,  and  for  the  proto- 
salts  of  iron.  It  was  thought,  then,  that  the  easy  solubility  of  those 
preparations  in  the  stomach  was  a  great  advantage,  and  that  theory 
gave  rise  to  a  number  of  officinal  remedies  like  iron  by  hydrogen, 
Vallet's  mass,  proto-iodide  of  iron,  etc.,  etc.,  well  known  to  all  Phar- 
macists. 
But  of  late  years,  especially  since  the  discovery  of  the  citro-am- 
monical  pyrophosphate  of  iron,  by  Robiquet,  my  old  master,  salts  of 
sesquioxide  of  iron  have  been  steadily  growing  into  favor.  It  has 
been  argued,  with  reason,  that,  since  iron  in  human  economy  is  in- 
variably found  in  the  shape  of  sesqui-salts,  such  compounds  should 
be  preferred  to  all  others  whenever  iron  is  indicated.  I  may  add, 
also,  that  it  is  always  in  the  form  of  sesqui-salts  that  iron  exists  in 
all  vegetable  and  animal  substances  which  compose  human  food,  and 
that  metallic  iron  or  its  proto-salts  cannot  be  mixed  with  the  simplest 
aliments  without  completely  decomposing  them.    Protoxide  of  iron 
*  Read  at  the  second  annual  meeting  and  published  in  the  annual  report  of 
the  Alumni  Association  of  the  Colllege  of  Pharmacy  of  the  city  of  New  York. 
