Am 'aIai,'  i9^m'  )       The  Pharmaceutical  Chemist.  225 
Specific  examples  of  some  of  the  interesting  questions  that  arise, 
which  in  some  instances  are  very  easy  of  solution  and  in  other  cases 
give  us  problems  that  promise  to  remain  unsolved  for  an  indefinite 
time  in  the  future,  will  serve  to  give  a  more  concrete  conception  of 
the  requirements  of  the  man  who  has  to  do  with  the  development 
and  production  of  medicinal  substances  in  their  widest  scope. 
Remember  also  that  sometimes  the  solution  of  the  simplest  prob- 
lems may  involve  the  saving  of  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of 
dollars  to  the  manufacturer  who  is  producing  medicinal  substances  on 
a  very  large  scale.  A  question  that  may  be  of  no  particular  moment 
when  the  quantity  involved  is  only  a  few  ounces  becomes  of  intensest 
interest  when  it  may  mean  the  difference  between  entire  loss  or  the 
satisfactory  distribution  of  hundreds  of  pounds  or  thousands  of 
pints  of  medicinal  compounds  of  properly  high  quality. 
Take  so  simple  a  thing  as  the  almost  universally  used  mild  tonic, 
Beef..  Iron,  and  Wine.  Why  should  continual  trouble  be  experi- 
enced with  the  development  of  pressure  in  the  bottles,  the  evolution 
apparently  of  carbon  dioxide,  and  continual  breaking  of  packages 
and  consequent  loss  ?  "  Fermentation,  of  course,'''  will  be  your  first 
answer,  and  the  fact  that  carbon  dioxide  is  evolved  seems  excellent 
evidence  that  this  supposition  is  correct,  but  fermentation  is  not 
likely  to.  occur  in  a  product  that  contains  18  per  cent,  alcohol,  and 
furthermore,  this  explanation  is  impossible  when  the  trouble  con- 
tinues after  the  product  has  been  thoroughly  sterilized  in  an  auto- 
clave and  proven  sterile  by  bacteriological  tests.  The  solution  when 
found  is  very  simple  and  is  that  due  to  the  action  of  the  actinic  rays 
of  light  the  ferric  citrate  in  the  slightly  acid  solution  is  reduced  to 
a  ferrous  salt  with  liberation  of  carbon  dioxide.  If  a  ferrous  salt 
is  originally  used,  there  is  no  such  trouble,  and  if  the  ferric  salt  is 
employed,  the  product  must  be  carefully  protected  from  bright  light, 
especially  direct  sunlight. 
Take  another  case:  Why  should  breakage  in  ampoules  contain- 
ing cacodylates  be  very  much  greater  than  with  any  other  of  the 
solutions  usually  prepared  in  this  form?  There  was  no  pressure 
developed  and  no  decomposition  of  the  solutions  could  be  detected. 
The  fact  that  the  breakage  occurred  largely  at  the  extreme  end  of 
the  capillary  tip,  where  the  ampoule  is  finally  sealed  in  a  blowpipe 
flame,  gave  a  clue,  and  the  solution  of  the  problem  was  that  traces 
of  the  cacodylate  solution  adhering  to  the  glass  were  decomposed 
just  at  the  tip  where  the  flame  is  used  for  sealing;  the  arsenic  com- 
