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Incoming links: Mistura Ferri Composita
The seven named mixtures of the 1864 British Pharmacopoeia are Mistura Ammoniaci, Mistura Amygdalae, Mistura Creasoti, Mistura Cretae, Mistura Ferri Composita, Mistura Guaiaci and Mistura Scammonii. Their compositions are as follows; avoirdupois ounces are used for solids and fluid ounces for liquids.
- Mistura Ammoniaci: ammoniacum ¼ avoirdupois ounce, distilled water 8 fluid ounces, rubbed together and strained. Its own gum helps disperse its resin; ammoniacum is not Ammonia. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Umbelliferae, part 2, Ammoniacum
- Mistura Amygdalae: compound almond powder 2½ avoirdupois ounces, distilled water 1 Imperial pint. The compound powder is made from sweet almonds 8 parts, sugar 4 parts and gum arabic 1 part by mass. Trituration produces an emulsion. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Rosaceae, continued, almond preparations
- Mistura Creasoti: creosote 16 minims, glacial acetic acid 16 minims, Spiritus Juniperi ½ fluid drachm, syrup 1 fluid ounce, distilled water 15 fluid ounces. Here the spirit has the particularly strong 1864 juniper oil content. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Hydrocarbons from the destruction of wood by fire, Mistura Creosoti
- Mistura Cretae: prepared chalk and powdered gum arabic, ¼ avoirdupois ounce each; syrup ½ fluid ounce; cinnamon water 7½ fluid ounces. The chalk is suspended, not dissolved. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Calcis Carbonas Praecipitata, Creta Praeparata, British mixture
- Mistura Ferri Composita: powdered myrrh 60 grains, potassium carbonate 25 grains, rose water 8 fluid ounces, ferrous sulfate 30 grains, Spiritus Myristicae 1 fluid drachm, sugar 60 grains. Triturate the myrrh with the spirit and potassium carbonate, then add the rose water with sugar, followed by ferrous sulfate; keep the resulting preparation stoppered. Formation of ferrous carbonate and its subsequent oxidation explain why the order and storage matter. [ref]
- Mistura Guaiaci: powdered guaiacum resin ½ avoirdupois ounce, sugar ½ avoirdupois ounce, powdered gum arabic ¼ avoirdupois ounce, cinnamon water 1 Imperial pint. The gum assists dispersion of the poorly water-soluble resin. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Zygophyllaceae, resin preparations
- Mistura Scammonii: scammony resin 4 grains with unskimmed milk 2 fluid ounces, triturated into a uniform dispersion. [ref]The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Convolvulaceae, Scammonium, Mistura Scammonii
The category is an official preparation name, not every possible bedside combination of medicines. Camphor water and acacia mucilage are not additional entries under Mistura: the 1864 names are Aqua Camphorae and Mucilago Acaciae. [ref]
The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 30 and 52–53, mixture names and alterations
The 1864 iron list includes metallic, ferrous, ferric and compound preparations; its wet Ferri Peroxidum Hydratum was used historically as an antidote to arsenic poisoning. It must be distinguished from dried Ferri Peroxidum and from later editions' reassignment of similar Latin names.
The officinal articles and preparations are:
- metallic forms: iron wire, Ferrum, and Ferrum Redactum;
- simple salts and oxides: Ferri Arsenias, Ferri Carbonas Saccharata, Ferri Iodidum, Ferri Oxidum Magneticum, Ferri Peroxidum, Ferri Peroxidum Hydratum, Ferri Phosphas, Ferri Sulphas, Ferri Sulphas Exsiccata and Ferri Sulphas Granulata;
- complex salts: Ferri et Ammoniae Citras, Ferri et Quiniae Citras and Ferrum Tartaratum;
- solutions: Liquor Ferri Perchloridi, Liquor Ferri Pernitratis and the preparative Liquor Ferri Persulphatis;
- compounded forms: Mistura Ferri Composita, Pilula Ferri Carbonatis, Pilula Ferri Iodidi, Syrupus Ferri Iodidi, Syrupus Ferri Phosphatis, Tinctura Ferri Perchloridi and Vinum Ferri.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Iron and successive British iron monographs; Solution of Persulphate of Iron, Appendix A; British compounds distinguished from American additions and older London preparations
[ref]The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 43–45, iron additions, omissions and names; pp. 55, 63, 67 and 72, compound forms
Prepare the hydrated peroxide by inducing precipitation from the ferric solution with sodium hydroxide, collecting and washing the wet precipitate, and preserving it without drying in a covered vessel. The starting solution is Liquor Ferri Persulphatis, whose “persulphate” here means ferric sulfate, not a modern peroxydisulfate salt. Add the appropriately diluted ferric solution to the alkaline liquor with stirring, allow the precipitate to settle, collect it on a calico filter, and wash with distilled water until the washings no longer give a precipitate with barium chloride. This tests removal of soluble sulfate. The resulting fresh, hydrated material is kept wet; drying gives the separate dried preparation. [ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Ferri Peroxidum Hydratum; Ferri Peroxidum; Solution of Persulphate of Iron
In modern chemical notation the precipitation can be idealised asThe fresh solid is a hydrated ferric oxide material with variable water content; the equation is not a claim that every pharmaceutical batch is one pure, crystalline iron hydroxide. Its historical use depended on binding dissolved arsenic into less available material in the digestive tract, especially the freshly precipitated, wet state. It was not a universal antidote to every metal or every stage of absorbed arsenic poisoning. Contemporary discussion explicitly identified the new hydrated peroxide as an arsenic antidote. [ref]
The British Pharmacopoeia in Chemical News (1864). 6 February 1864, p. 65, iron preparations and freshly precipitated antidote
[ref]A Manual of Practical Therapeutics by Edward John Waring (1865). §1231, preparation, washings tested with barium chloride, preservation without drying and recent preparation
Modern treatment of significant arsenic poisoning concerns systemic toxicity and may involve specialist-directed chelation therapy; a nineteenth-century ferric paste is not the modern treatment standard. [ref]
Clinician Brief: Arsenic by ATSDR. Patient management, acute exposure and specialist consultation for chelation