PREPARATION  AND  USE  OF  PERCHLORIDE  OF  IRON. 
63 
and  intestines  more  effectually  than  it  would  be  in  the  form  of  pill, 
and  the  action  of  the  medicine  is  therefore  more  certain. 
When  the  quantity  of  gum-resin  prescribed  is  very  large,  the 
addition  of  yolk  of  egg  will  improve  the  emulsion,  by  preventing 
reunion  of  the  resinous  portion.  A  small  quantity  of  powdered 
gum-arabic  might  also  be  added  to  the  gum-resin  after  the  combus- 
tion of  the  alcohol  has  ceased,  in  order  to  render  the  emulsion 
more  perfect,  but  this  would  generally  be  an  unnecessary  precau- 
tion. 
The  resins  afford  results  equally  satisfactory.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary to  add  to  them  what  they  require  to  convert  them  into  gum- 
resins,  and  powdered  gum-arabic  answers  this  purpose.  To  the 
resin,  balsam  of  tolu,  for  instance,  twice  its  weight  of  gum-arabic 
is  to  be  added,  not  forgetting  the  alcohol  in  the  same  dose  as  before, 
the  mode  of  operating  being  also  the  same  as  for  gum-resins. 
Balsam  of  tolu  may  be  thus  perfectly  suspended,  forming  an  emul- 
sion, the  taste  of  which  is  very  agreeable,  and  has  nothing  repug- 
nant to  the  patient. 
As  these  processes  are  not  described  in  any  work  on  Pharmacy, 
I  thought  they  might  be  deemed  worthy  of  the  notice  of  Pharma- 
ceutists, being  simple  and  expeditious,  and  affording  satisfactory 
results. 
The  heat  produced  by  the  combustion  of  the  alcohol  over  the 
gum-resins  and  resins,  is  not  sufficient  sensibly  to  alter  the  quali- 
ties of  the  product,  for  although  some  of  the  aromatic  principles 
of  the  medicine  must  be  volatilized,  the  quantity  appears  to  be 
very  small,  the  peculiar  taste  and  odor  remaining  apparently  undi- 
minished in  the  emulsion.  The  loss  must  be  considered  as  almost 
nothing. — London  Pharm.  Jour.,  from  Journal  de  Pharmacie. 
ON  THE  PREPARATION  AND  USE  OF  PERCHLORIDE  OF  IRON. 
By  M.  Goblev. 
Perchloride  of  iron  had  been  almost  abandoned  as  a  therapeu- 
tic agent,  when  M.  Pravaz,.  a  distinguished  surgeon  at  Lyons, 
proposed  a  new  mode  of  applying  it  in  the  treatment'  of  aneu- 
rism and  varicose  veins,  which  consists  in  injecting  into  the  ar- 
teries or  veins  a  few  drops  of  a  concentrated  solution  of  the  salt. 
