4 PHARMACEUTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
of it in large billets was pointed out by Lamark in France 
and Lindsay in England. 
In France an insipid wood is said to be substituted for 
the genuine. 
ART. II. — PHARMACEUTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
By R. H. Stabler, of Alexandria. Va. 
Iodide of Potassium. 
The difficulty experienced in my first efforts to prepare 
this salt pure, and free from colour, by the adopted formula 
of our Pharmacopoeia, has led me to examine each of the 
processes by which it is prepared, in order to select one 
capable of furnishing a uniformly good article, easy of 
execution, and attended with as little loss of material as 
possible. 
The pharmaceutist finds it difficult to execute the United 
States process, owing to the necessity of first forming an 
iodide of iron, which is to be exactly decomposed by the 
solution of carbonate of potassa; to do this requires much 
care, and even when accomplished he will find the product 
very apt to be coloured by a portion of adhering oxide of 
iron of which it cannot be wholly freed unless exposed to a 
dull red heat, dissolved, filtered, and re-crystallized, thus 
rendering it necessary to multiply the number of steps to 
the process. 
The London and Edinburgh processes have several 
objectionable points, which are fully commented on in the 
United States Dispensatory and need not be mentioned 
further here. 
The mode of preparing this salt which I would submit, 
