^""May^isss^''"''}     Practical  Notes  from  Foreign  Journals.  241 
PRACTICAL  NOTES  FROM  FOREIGN  JOURNALS. 
By  the  Editor. 
Sacoharated  ferric  oxide. — Experiments  made  by  W.  Stromeyer,  lead 
to  the  conclusions^  1,  that  ferric  hydroxide  dissolves  in  sugar  solution 
in  small  quantity,  varying  somewhat  with  the  cond  itions  of  the  pro- 
cess ;  2j  that  the  solubility  of  ferric  hydroxide  is  increased  with  the  in- 
crease of  the  quantity  of  sugar  in  the  aqueous  solution  ;  and,  3,  that 
the  solubility  of  ferric  hydroxide  in  sugar  solution  is  augmented  by 
the  addition  of  caustic  potassa. 
Further  experiments  made  by  Ernst  Schmidt,  showed  that  the  brown 
granular  precipitate  produced  by  boiling  water  in  the  solution  of  a 
ferric  salt,  containing  sugar  and  rendered  alkaline  by  caustic  soda,  may 
be  almost  absolutely  freed  from  sodium,  but  not  from  sugar,  by  wash- 
ing with  boiling  water ;  and  with  hydrochloric  acid  yields  a  brown  red 
solution,  passing  gradually  into  the  yellowish  brown  of  ferric  chloride. 
Prepared  according  to  Hornemaun's  method  (ferric  chloride,  syrup^ 
and  caustic  soda,  sufficient  to  redissolve  the  precipitate,  then  boiled), 
the  ferric  oxide  varied  between  62  and  71  per  cent.,  and  the  NagO 
present  between  0.07  and  l.lJ  per  cent.  Only  two  of  the  four  pro- 
ducts, containing  about  65  per  cent.  FcgOg  were  soluble  in  water ;  in 
one  of  the  insoluble  products  (71  per  cent.  FcgOg),  the  molecular  pro- 
portion of  ferric  hydrate  to  sugar  was  approximately  as  30  :  1. 
Prepared  according  to  the  German  pharmacopoeia  the  molecular 
proportion  was  nearly  as  16  :  1,  in  the  water  soluble  products,  containing 
about  68  per  cent.  FcgOg  and  from  0.5  to  2.08  percent.  NagO  ;  in  one 
or  two  of  these  the  addition  of  a  little  alkali,  besides  sugar  was  neces- 
sary to  effect  complete  solution,  and  the  same  was  the  case  with  a  pro- 
duct containing  75.8  Fe203  and  0.3  NagO,  which  became  soluble  in  the 
presence  of  sugar  after  the  proportion  of  Fe203  to  NaaO  had  been 
changed  to  68  :  0.6. 
It  is  thus  shown  that  ferric  saccharates,  suitably  mixed  with  sugar, 
must  contain  a  certain  amount  of  alkali,  possibly  as  sodium  sacchar- 
ate,  in  order  to  yield  clear  solutions  with  water ;  the  amount  of  NagO 
necessary  for  this  purpose,  is  rather  less  than  1  per  cent,  of  the  FcgO^ 
present.  The  chemical  reactions,  when  following  the  process  of  the 
Phar.  Ger.,  may  be  explained  thus :  sodium  carbonate  precipitates 
from  ferric  solutions,  ferric  hydrate  containing  soda,  which  with  NaO 
and  sugar  forms  a  water  soluble  ferric  saccharate  ;  boiling  water  pre- 
cipitates from  the  solution  ferric  saccharate  of  variable  composition 
