SYRUP  OF  PROTOCARBONATE  OF  IRON. 
459 
sorry  I  have  not  time  at  present  to  enter  more  fully  into  par- 
ticulars, but  shall  endeavor  to  do  so  completely  in  one  of  my 
earliest  letters.  The  hyposhosphite  of  soda  having,  when  pur e, 
nearly  the  same  taste  as  common  salt,  may  be  given  in  any 
form.  I  usually  prescribe  each  dose  to  be  taken  in  a  tumbler-full 
of  sweetened  water,  or  sweetened  milk,  or  wine  and  water,  or 
broth,  or  any  other  drink  that  can  be  taken  at  breakfast  or 
dinner.  I  use  no  other  treatment  of  any  hind,  unless  required 
by  the  existence  of  complications,  such  as  intercurrent  inflamma- 
tion of  the  lungs,  diarrhoea,  cardiac  disease,  &c. 
I  remain,  &c,  J.  Francis  Churchill. 
17  Boulevart  de  la  Madeleine,  Paris,  April  24,  1858 
American  Druggists'  Circular,  and  Med.  Circ. 
SYRUP  OF  PROTOCARBONATE  OF  IRON. 
The  facility  with  which  protocarbonate  of  iron  dissolves  in 
organic  acids,  and  its  perfect  harmlessness  in  irritable  subjects, 
render  it  one  of  the  most  valuable  agents  in  therapeutics ;  ac- 
cordingly, all  the  new  preparations  into  which  sugar  has  been 
introduced,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  stability  to  this  saline 
compound,  have  been  adopted  in  practice. 
M.  Dannecy,  a  distinguished  pharmacien  in  Bordeaux,  having 
ascertained  that  the  precipitate  of  protocarbonate  of  iron,  ob- 
tained by  mixing  sweetened  and  boiled  solutions  of  carbonate  of 
3oda  and  of  protosulphate  of  iron,  possesses  the  singular  property 
of  dissolving  in  simple  syrup  without  becoming  colored,  conceived 
the  idea  of  thus  preparing  a  new  ferruginous  syrup. 
This  preparation  being  permanent,  will  be  employed  in  cases 
in  which  the  form  of  syrup  is  preferable  to  that  of  pills ;  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  treatment  of  children. 
The  following  is  the  process  for  making  M.  Dannecy's  new 
preparation : 
Take  of  purified  protosulphate  of  iron,  two  ounces  ;  distilled 
water,  sixteen  ounces  ;  white  sugar,  two  ounces ;  dissolve  with 
ebullition,  and  filter.  Secondly,  take  of  crystallized  carbonate 
of  soda  two  and  a  half  ounces ;  distilled  water,  sixteen  ounces  ; 
white  sugar,  two  ounces ;  dissolve  with  ebullition,  and  filter. 
When  the  two  solutions  have  cooled,  mix  them  in  a  glass  vessel 
and  shake  for  a  moment ;  a  precipitate  is  formed,  which  is  at 
