104  Bismuth  and  Iron.  {AmA™  S^™' 
following  for  obtaining  a  more  permanent  tincture,  and  one  which 
fully  represents  the  active  constituents  of  the  drug : 
Take  of  capsicum,  in  fine  powder,  one  troy  ounce  ;  alcohol  a  sufficient 
quantity,  moisten  the  powder  with  alcohol,  pack  firmly  in  a  cylin- 
drical percolator,  and  gradually  pour  alcohol  upon  it  until  2  pints  of 
tincture  are  obtained. 
Pottsville,  Pa.,  January  20,  1876. 
Note  by  the  Editor. — The  German  Pharmacopoeia  directs  to 
prepare  tinctura  capsici  by  macerating  for  eight  days  one  part  of  finely 
cut  capsicum  with  ten  parts  of  alcohol  spec.  grav.  0*830  to  0*834. 
BISMUTH  AND  IRON. 
BY   R.  ROTHER. 
The  normal  bismuthous  salts  are  very  definite  chemicals,  and  most 
of  them  can  be  quite  easily  prepared.  There  are,  though,  a  number  of 
bismuthous  oxysalts,  which  in  general  present  great  difficulty  of  pre- 
paration, owing  to  the  variable  nature  of  their  composition.  As  several 
of  these  basic  compounds  are  used  in  medicine,  a  certain  regularity  is 
aimed  at  in  their  constitution.  But  none  of  the  various  methods  in  use 
always  yield  exactly  the  same  product  by  the  same  course  of  procedure. 
Of  the  normal  salts,  the  citrate  has  been  the  most  troublesome  to 
produce  in  a  desirable  shape  and  of  constant  composition.  The  writer 
believes  to  have  made  the  first  advance  towards  a  satisfactory  method 
of  preparing  it.  The  process  was  published  in  the  Pharmacist  for  Sep- 
tember, 1872,  and  consisted  in  crystallizing  the  citrate  from  a  moder- 
ately dilute  and  not  too  strongly  acidulated  solution  of  the  ammonio- 
citrate.  Since  then,  the  writer  has  adopted  an  entirely  new  method, 
which,  for  simplicity,  rapidity  and  precision,  ranks  the  process  as  abso- 
lutely perfect.  The  astonishing  simplicity  is  so  remarkable  that  one 
is  surprised  the  process  was  not  discovered  long  before  this,  since  it  is 
nature  almost  directly  synthetic. 
If  the  ordinary  bismuthous  oxynitrate  is  heated  for  a  few  moments 
with  a  concentrated  solution  of  an  equivalent  of  citric  acid,  the  normal 
citrate  is  generated  as  a  heavy  crystalline  powder,  and  the  nitric  acid 
entirely  freed  and  easily  washed  away  by  decantation.  10  parts  of  bis- 
muthous oxynitrate,  7  parts  of  crystallized  citric  acid,  and  30  to  40 
parts  of  water  are  heated  together  for  a  few  minutes,  until  a  drop  of 
