44 
Churchill's  Tincture  of  Iodine.      (Al?-  J°ur-  Pharm- 
•'  January,  19 19. 
pared  in  such  a  way,  after  standing  one  week  16.47  Per  cent-  of  the 
iodine  was  dissolved.  A  tincture  was  then  made  with  3.5  per  cent, 
of  potassium  iodide  in  enough  water  to  make  a  saturated  solution 
and  all  the  iodine  went  in  solution. 
Therefore  if  a  tincture  is  prepared  according  to  the  following 
formula : 
Formula  No.  3. 
Iodine   ,   16.5  Gm. 
Potassium  iodide    3.3  Gm. 
Water   3  mils. 
Alcohol,  to  make    100  mils. 
it  will  be  found  to  be  stable  and  can  be  made  more  readily  than  the 
tincture  containing  the  25  mils  of  water  because  the  alcoholic  per- 
centage has  been  increased  which  greatly  helps  to  dissolve  the 
iodine. 
This  last  tincture  should,  of  course,  not  be  sold  as  Churchill's 
tincture  of  iodine  as  Dr.  Churchill's  original  formula,  as  well  as 
the  present  one,  contains  75  per  cent,  alcohol,  but  the  slight  changes 
in  it  could  easily  be  explained  by  the  pharmacist  to  the  various 
physicians  in  his  neighborhood,  who  would  understand  the  improved 
formula,  and  in  a  'short  time  they  would  begin  to  write  prescrip- 
tions for  it  and  a  large  amount  of  such  a  tincture  could  be  dispensed. 
Conclusion. 
The  author  has  covered  the  three  subjects,  namely: 
1.  How  much  iodine  is  dissolved  in  the  present  formula? 
2.  How  much  potassium  iodide  is  needed  to  dissolve  completely 
the  prescribed  amount  of  iodine? 
3.  What  other  changes  could  be  employed  to  make  a  satisfactory 
tincture  ? 
The  answers  to  these  questions  are  fully  presented  in  the  thesis. 
In  conclusion  the  author  hopes  that  his  feeble  efforts  to  correct  the 
faults  of  the  present  tincture  will  lead  to  more  research  work,  and 
that  a  satisfactory  formula  will  be  published  in  the  next  edition  of 
the  National  Formulary.  This  tincture  has  a  large  sale  throughout 
various  parts  of  the  United  States  and  work  upon  it  cannot  be 
neglected.  Furthermore,  inasmuch  as  the  National  Formulary  is 
now  a  legal  standard  it  is  essential  that  its  preparations  are  above 
criticism. 
