Acid Solution of Iron.

Selected writings of A. Jackson Howe.

The following is the original formula for acid solution of iron as devised by Professor Howe. Exceedingly efficient therapeutically, pharmaceutically it is difficult to prepare uniformly. At times a turbid preparation results when apparently the exact methods have been used which yield a clear and elegant product. This is another of Professor Howe's legacies to Eclectic medicine, and in our opinion one of the most important. Dispensed in syrup of orange, it provides one of the pleasantest of iron preparations. See also "Comments on Acid Solution of Iron," etc.—Ed. Gleaner

ACID SOLUTION OF IRON.—Rx Water, 2 ounces.; nitric acid, 1 ½ ounces. M., and then add sulphate of iron (that has been rubbed) 2 ounces. Stir occasionally for forty-eight hours, then filter through paper. Of this a half ounce is enough to prescribe at any one time. Dose, two drops in a half wine glass of water every three hours. The medicine is an alterative peptic and general tonic. It is useful in anemia, dyspepsia, tuberculosis, syphilis, and cancer. I generally prescribe it in alternation with Fowler's solution of arsenic, giving each on alternate days, or each every four hours in alternation, a dose of one or the other coming every two hours.

I have been told by druggists who put up prescriptions, that no medicine meets with so many favorable comments as "acid solution of iron." Invariably the prescription calls for repetitions.— HOWE, Eclectic Medical Journal, 1892.

The Biographies of King, Howe, and Scudder, 1912, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M. D.