ADULTERATION OF BISMUTH SALTS.

A sample of so-called subnitrate of bismuth was recently sent for examination, having been sold in a paper parcel by a wholesale drug house of New York as the product of a respectable maker, and with the maker's name on the label.

From the depth of the yellow tinge it was evidently not a proper subnitrate, and was supposed to be subcarbonate, but as it did not effervesce with an acid it was not a subcarbonate. It contained a number of very small hard lumps, which, when broken or rubbed to powder, were lighter in color than the pulverulent portions. Both powder and lumps had a very decidedly saline taste, but the lumps were more saline than the powder, and they seemed to melt on the tongue. The whole, when well washed with distilled water, gave a solution which was not affected by hydric sulphide (sulphuretted hydrogen), and therefore contained no bismuth. But it should have contained bismuth had there been any nitrate or other soluble salt of bismuth present. A weighed portion of the washings evap orated to dryness left a residue amounting to about 30 per cent. of the weight of the original sample. This residue was neutral and contained nitric acid and soda, and was probably nearly all nitrate of soda. The sample, therefore, consisted approximately of say 70 per cent. oxide of bismuth and 30 per cent. nitrate of sodium, without any subnitrate of bismuth at all, although sold under that name. It seems to have been made by precipitating a solution of nitrate of bismuth by a solution of soda, and by separating and drying the precipitate with little or no washing.

Now, this was ordered in paper as the subnitrate of bismuth of a specified manufacturer, and was sold by one of two wholesale drug. gists who attract much trade by low prices, but who do not themselves manufacture anything, so far as is known. Such, however, in order to sell at low prices, must buy at correspondingly low prices to preserve their profits. It is probable, therefore, that such a product as this was bought as a "job lot" from some irresponsible seller who made it, or had it made, as a bad counterfeit of the manufacturer whose name it bore, and if bought cheaply enough it was not to the interest of the wholesale house who bought it to inquire too closely as to its genuineness or its true character.

The dispensing pharmacist who buys and dispenses such articles shares about equally in the criminality with the wholesale house and

the maker, because he goes to such houses voluntarily for the sake of buying cheaply. He buys in paper parcels for the sake of avoiding the cost of a bottle, which is not only necessary for the proper preservation of most medicines, but which aids materially in identifying the product of any maker. And finally, he dispenses such products without exercising the knowledge which he should, and generally does possess of discriminating between a good preparation and one which is grossly adulterated-in this case so grossly that a mere casual inspection was sufficient to detect the fraud.

Many pharmacists are led into such purchases as this by insisting upon having their preparations put up in paper parcels. They have shop bottles for their preparations and cannot see the necessity of buying a bottle each time they require a new supply. Therefore they will buy of those houses and of those manufacturers only who will put their wares up in paper. No known manufacturer of bismuth salts willingly sends out his product in paper, but all do it under a kind of tacit protest under the pressure of the pharmacist and physician, and thus the remote consumer, namely, the patient, suffers in consequence.

It is true that the bottle and label does not guarantee the contents, because all manufacturers know that their labeled empty bottles are often refilled with products for which they are in no degree responsible. Yet as this fraudulent buying up and refilling of labeled bottles is much more difficult and involves much more risk, it is less frequently done. Consequently there can be no doubt that if pharmacists and physicians would refuse to take, or would even cease to demand important medicines in paper parcels, they would be much less frequently deceived in the character of their supplies, and they would thus admit what they ought to know better than any manufacturer, that all medicines which are made with due care and accuracy are well worth the containing vessel necessary to keep them in their original condition as made.

It is a common fallacy that inexpensive articles should always be put in paper, and hence alum, muriate of ammonia, chlorate of potassa, sulphate of zinc, etc., are very commonly ordered in paper, whereas they are in reality of as much value as medicines as are the bismuth salts and other more costly articles; the circumstance that the bottle costs half as much as the contents being merely incidental.

The habit of ordering important medicines in paper is rapidly increasing, and as it increases with physicians as well as with phar

macists, it is fair to infer that the mistake is upon both, while the blame is greatest upon the physician who is most directly responsible in the application of medicines. And if the physician would but use his influence earnestly against it, the practice would soon cease altogether. If he will not do this there will then be need for some manufacturer who will lose the sale of his medicines rather than put them up in paper.

No reasonable amount of care and expense are misapplied to medicines, and it is very disheartening to a manufacturer to see all his care, pains and pride in his productions risked by putting them up in paper because pharmacists and physicians will not pay for proper containing vessels, but will send back articles and buy elsewhere if their orders for paper parcels be disregarded.

SOLUTION OF SUBSULPHATE OF IRON.

The officinal solution of subsulphate of iron, or Monsell's solution, often very erroneously miscalled "Solution of Persulphate of Iron,” when accurately made by the present formula of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, is very liable to crystallize into a thick, whitish magma which cannot be poured from the bottles. This is commonly mistaken for a decomposition of the iron salt, or a gelatinzation which renders the preparation unfit for use. But if a little of the magma be examined with a glass of sufficient power, whitish interlaced crystals will be seen to constitute a large proportion of the mass. This is doubtless a definite iron salt and probably the one that is needed for the special uses to which this preparation is so well adapted, and, therefore, instead of being an evidence of spoiling or decomposition as is generally supposed, it is an evidence of the accuracy of the formula, and the skill with which it has been applied. Nevertheless it constitutes an objection to the formula as it stands, because by increasing the proportion of acid very slightly the preparation may not be materially injured, and the tendency to crystallize is almost or quite prevented. It is hoped that the Committee of Revision will have investigated this subject so that the forthcoming Pharmacopoeia will have an improved process.

It is, however, very easy to restore the present preparation when

it has thus accidentally crystallized. All that is necessary is to set the bottle in warm water or in a warm place until the crystals melt, and then the solution is exactly the same as it was before crystallizing, and then if the bottle be kept in a moderately warm place it may not again crystallize. As the magma in the bottle conducts heat very badly it takes more time to melt the crystals than can be well afforded when the solution is needed in haste, as it often is, to arrest bleeding, and, therefore, until the Pharmacopoeia supplies a solution which will not crystallize, the dispenser should be careful to keep the present solution in a liquid state by melting it, and then keeping it in a moderately warm place. It is not probable that it will ever crystallize if kept above 20°C. 68°F., but when crystallized it does not melt easily or rapidly under 40°C.=104°F.

As the special value of the preparation depends upon its minus proportion of the sulphuric acid element, giving to it a maximum astringency with a minimum of causticity and irritant effect, it is very important in making it that the authorized formula should be closely adhered to, and therefore the surgeon who uses it should rather prefer than reject the specimen which will crystallize, because so far as it goes the crystallization seems to be an evidence that the caustic acid element which he wishes to avoid is not in excess. Therefore the question for the new Pharmacopicia to decide isCan the crystallization be prevented by an increase of acid so slight as not to render the preparation practically more irritating, since its value depends upon its blandness as associated with its great efficiency as an hæmostatic. The writer has frequently seen the present preparation applied undiluted with great freedom to the peritonial surfaces during ovariotomy without causing inflammatory action; and the injection of hæmorrhoidal tumors and varicose veins with it, either diluted or undiluted, seems to be a comparatively safe procedure, when the solutions of the normal sulphate or of the chloride produce troublesome inflammation and ulceration.

CITRATE OF IRON AND QUINIA.

Complaint is very often made of the difficult solubility of the officinal citrate of iron and quinia of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, and it is very often erroneously said to be insoluble. Such complaints

and statements are simply due to the faulty teachings in materia and pharmacy and faulty practice in therapeutics.

As long ago as the revision of the Pharmacopoeia of 1860 it was recognized that the bitterness of quinia preparations, both to the palate and in the stomach, was in many cases destructive of appetite in sensitive patients, and therefore when given as a tonic this bitterness in a measure defeated the quinia. Hence a preparation of iron and quinia was adopted, containing a large and effective proportion of quinia, which, when well dried, was so slowly soluble that it could be easily given, either in form of pill or powder, or suspended in syrup, to women and children, or in the most delicate conditions of palate or stomach, with but slight bitterness. Such a preparation passed over the palate easily, and when in the stomach dissolved and was assimilated slowly and easily with the leastpossible shock-for intense bitterness is as shocking and as disturbing to many stomachs as intense acidity or alkalinity is. This preparation, when taken between the teeth, feels almost like so much sand, and its solubility and bitterness are developed so slowly that although containing about eleven per cent. of quinia, it is often condemned as containing no quinia at all. And when stirred up with water it at once settles out, leaving the water colorless and tasteless, or nearly so, in proportion to the time allowed, and it is often. at once discarded as useless, and letters written about it which have some of the bitterness in which it is supposed to be deficient, the fact being all the while that it is entirely soluble even in its own weight of water, but only very slowly soluble, as it should be and was intended to be. For a long time after its introduction to the Pharmacopoeia it was used as was intended in powder, pill or syrup, and attained the high character which it has always so well deserved, but gradually through defective teaching or through want of thought, physicians began to make the mistake of prescribing it in solution. Then those physicians and pharmacists who had skill enough and patience enough to get it into solution by tying it up in a cloth and suspending it in the water and setting it in a warm place for some hours, found they had a dreadfully bitter solution, and one which in a short time became mouldy, as all salts with organic acids will. To avoid this slow and troublesome solubility and some of the intensity of bitterness, the manufacturers soon supplied a preparation by exactly the same name, wherein, by the addition of citrate of ammonia, a readily soluble salt of similar appearance with less bitterness was supplied at a lower price. Of