Am-  fc  xP876arm' }    So-  Called  Tasteless  Iron  Compounds.  1 7 1 
the  "  Pharmacopoeia  "  are  taken  as  given,  it  will  require  about  3  fl.  ozs- 
of  water  of  ammonia  for  neutralization  of  the  free  acid,  and  rendering 
the  salt  soluble,  the  product  weighing  about  8  ozs.  avoi.  It  requires 
about  the  same  quantity  for  the  others,  but  litmus  paper  is  the  surest 
and  best  test. 
N.  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  March  19th,  1876. 
THE  INVERSE  SYNTHESIS  OF  THE  SO-CALLED  TASTELESS  IRON 
COMPOUNDS. 
BY  R.  ROTHER. 
The  theory  that  a  ferric  salt,  as,  for  instance,  the  chloride,  should 
directly  combine,  upon  the  principle  of  salification,  with  a  normal 
monad  salt  of  a  polybasic  vegetable  acid,  conflicts  with  all  chemical 
laws,  and  neither  the  old  dualistic  hypothesis  or  the  new  typal  theory 
can  embrace  or  comprehend  it.  It  is  equally  a  failure  on  the  plan  of 
the  compound  salts,  since  double,  triple  and  quadruple  salts,  properly 
so  called,  are  respectively  derived  from  dibasic,  tribasic  and  tetrabasic 
acids  when  each  unit  of  equivalency  is  separately  saturated  by  a  distinct 
basilous  radical.  It  is  likewise  inadmissible  of  classification  with  an- 
other category  of  compound  salts,  the  reverse  of  the  preceding,  which 
the  writer  denominates  secondary,  tertiary  and  quarternary,  according 
to  the  atomicity  of  the  basic  radical,  whose  independent  units  of  equiv- 
alency are  separately  saturated  by  corresponding  acid  radicals. 
By  the  laws  of  chemical  affinity,  ferric  chloride  in  aqueous  contact 
with  normal  potassium  citrate,  can  no  longer  exist  as  such,  because  the 
ferric  molecule,  feebly  replacing  the  basic  hydrogen  of  the  chlorhydric 
acid,  finds  itself  superseded  by  a  more  perfect  base,  whose  affinity  is 
greater  for  the  stronger  chlorous  than  citric  radical.  Therefore  potas- 
sium chloride  and  ferric  citrate  must  result.  A  mixture  of  ferric  chlo- 
ride and  tripotassic  citrate  in  certain  proportions  becomes  green,  and  it 
was  found  that  twice  the  equivalent  amount  of  monad  citrate  was 
required  to  produce  that  result.  Nothing  was,  however,  mentioned  of 
the  intermediate  change,  and  the  belief  was  permitted  to  prevail  that 
the  final  green  is  the  only  color  that  appears.  The  writer  has,  how- 
ever, noticed  that  the  pale  yellow  ferric  chloride  solution  assumes,  in 
contact  with  the  citrate,  a  preliminary  red,  which,  by  continued  addi- 
tion of  the  citrate,  gradually  and  completely  changes  into  green.  Ow- 
ing to  the  rather  strong  character  of  the  citric  radical  and  its  tendency 
