blancard's  pill  of  the  iodide  of  ikon. 
39 
lield  opened,  requiring  many  scientific  and  practical  laborers,  and 
which,  once  fully  worked,  will  yield  a  ten  fold  crop  of  uses. 
Pure  glycerine  will  then  take  its  proper  place  among  the  most 
valued  of  modern  products  ;  and,  produced,  as  it  will  be,  in  great 
quantities,  it  will  be  recognized  in  the  arts  as  well  as  in  medi- 
cine, as  a  new,  real  blessing  to  mankind  London  Pharm. 
Journ.j  Nov.,  1855. 
BLANCARD'S  PILL  OF  THE  IODIDE  OF  IRON. 
Five  years  ago,  M.  Blancard,  a  pharmacien  of  Paris,  proposed 
an  unchangeable  pill  of  the  iodide  of  iron,  made  directly  from 
its  elements,  which  was  officially  approved  by  the  French  Academy 
of  Medicine.  The  excellence  of  this  preparation  was  generally 
acknowledged,  and  it  is  already,  in  France,  the  most  common 
form  for  the  administration  of  iodide  of  iron.  Our  pharma- 
ceutical authorities  at  Philadelphia,  however,  adhere  to  the 
saccharine  solution  which  Dr.  Jackson  introduced  many  years 
ago,  and  Prof.  Bache  declares  that  solid  iodide  "might  well  be 
dispensed  with."  Practitioners  will  differ  sometimes  from  the 
chemists,  and  so  it  has  proved  in  this  case.  It  is  found  that, 
notwithstanding  the  assurances  of  the  self-constituted  authorities, 
the  syrupy  solution  of  iodide  of  iron  does  undergo  change  ;  that 
it  often  injures  the  teeth,  disagrees  with  the  stomach,  and  con- 
tains free  iodine.  Consequently,  as  our  dispensatory-authors 
and  colleges  of  pharmacy  simply  advise  us,  if  we  must  have  a 
pill,  to  evaporate  their  syrup,  or  to  use  the  antiquated  and  unre- 
liable process  of  Calloud,  practitioners  have  found  it  of  advantage 
to  import  M.  Blancard's  preparation,  which  is  now  very  com- 
monly prescribed,  not  only  in  New  York  and  Boston,  where  there 
are  agencies  for  the  sale  of  it,  but  in  many  remote  country 
towns.  And  here  we  may  take  the  liberty  of  recommending  to 
the  gentlemen  who  have  taken  on  themselves  the  direction  of 
pharmaceutical  matters  in  this  country,  that  they  should  not  be 
too  dictatorial  or  dogmatic,  if  they  expect  to  retain  the  authority 
which  has  been  conceded  to  their  talents  and  learning.* 
*  [Before  our  cotemporary  of  the  Virginia  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal 
suffered  himself  to  be  delivered  of  the  above  unjust  reflexions,  he  should 
have  examined  the  subject  a  little  more  closely.    Twelve  years  ago,  Mr. 
