4736. Compound Elixir of Taraxacum

4736.    Compound Elixir of Taraxacum. As prepared by Mr. Candidus for Dr. Cochran, of Mobile. Reduce the following ingredients to a moderately fine powder: 6 ounces taraxacum root, 4 ounces wild cherry bark, 1 ounce gentian root, 2 ounces orange peel, 1 ounce cinnamon, 1 ounce coriander seed, 2 drachms each anise, caraway and cardamom seeds, and 1 ounce liquorice root. Dilute sufficient alcohol with twice its bulk of water, and moisten the powdered ingredients with 6 ounces of it, pack in a conical percolator and displace 61/2 pints with the diluted alcohol.

Add to this 21/2 pints simple syrup. Dose, from 1/2 to 1 ounce. This elixir is an excellent vehicle for quinine, the taste of which it completely destroys.

4737. Squibb's Ammonio-Pyrophos-phate of Iron

4737.     Squibb's Ammonio-Pyrophos-phate of Iron. Take of pyrophosphate of soda, 4 parts by weight; solution of tersulphate of iron, 8 parts; citric acid, 23/4 parts; water of ammonia, 63/4 parts. Dissolve the pyrophosphate of soda (which is prepared by first drying and then calcining common phosphate of soda) in 60 parts water by means of heat; cool the solution to 50° Fahr, and filter it into a bottle of the capacity of 250 parts. Then add the solution of tersulphate of iron (see No. 4816 (Styptic Solution of Perchloride of Iron)), shake the mixture well, fill the bottle up with water, again agitate it, and set it aside for 24 hours to settle. Decant the clear liquid from the precipitate by means of a syphon, and repeat the washing and decantation twice. Then pour the precipitate upon a strainer, drain it for 24 hours and transfer to a tarred porcelain basin. Upon the citric acid, contained in a suitable vessel, pour the solution of ammonia, a little at a time, with constant stirring, till the crystals are dissolved and the acid accurately saturated. Then add this solution to the precipitate in the basin, and apply heat. Stir the mixture constantly till perfectly dissolved, and evaporate the solution to 24 parts; then filter through paper. Finally pour the solution upon plates, dry the salt by a moderate heat, and keep it in well-closed bottles. The yield is a little more than 7£ parts. The salt is deliquescent, in the form of pale yellowish green scales.

4738. Ammonio-Ferric Alum

4738.    Ammonio-Ferric Alum. This elegant styptic remedy has recently been much prescribed, especially in leucorrhoea; it is made as follows: Take of crystallized protosul-phate of iron, 8 ounces; sulphuric acid, 7 fluid drachms; nitric acid, 11/2 fluid ounces; sulphate of ammonia, 18 drachms. Boil the sulphate of iron in 2 pints water and add to it the sulphuric acid; when dissolved, add the nitric acid gradually, boiling for a minute or two after each addition, until the nitric acid ceases to produce a black color; boil violently, to separate deutoxide of nitrogen, and reduce the liquid to about one half, then add the sulphate of ammonia and a little sulphuric acid and set it aside to crystallize. Wash the crystals thoroughly in a little cold water to which a small portion of sulphuric acid has been added. This salt is in elegant violet-tinted crystals. Its peculiar merit consists in its marked astringency without the stimulating properties of some of this class of salts. It is easily assimilated when taken internally. Dose, 3 to 6 grains, and while it controls excessive discharges, is often useful in correcting their cause. Though called an alum, this salt contains no alumina; it is similar to the double sulphate of potassa and iron, which is called iron alum, but is more soluble.