Year Book of the American Pharmaceutical Association Volume 5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ...are two sodium phosphates: The official one, which is an alkaline phosphate and has the formula Na2HPC4 (eft-sodium hydrogen phosphate), and the true acid phosphate, which has the formula NaH2PO4 (mono-sodium di-hydrogen phosphate). To be sure to get the right one, prescribe: Sodium hydrogen phosphate, monobasic, or Sodium dihydrogen phosphate, non-official. You may order two or four ounces, ordering half to one teaspoonful in a glass of water three or four times a day. When given in conjunction with hexamethylenamine, it increases the efficiency of the latter. For, as is well known, hexamethylenamine preparations act best in an acid medium. If the urine is alkaline the action of hexamethylenamine is practically nil.--Critic and Guide; through Am. Drug., 64 (1916), 95. Sodium Sulphate.--Detection of Arsenic in.--P. Carles states that there are two distinct varieties of Glauber's salt met with in French pharmacy. One gives a clear solution in distilled water; the other a more or less turbid solution. The first is the only kind that should be used for dispensing or for human medicine; the second is reserved for veterinary use. This impure form is made on the Continent by decomposing sea salt with sulphuric acid. The latter is almost always invariably distinctly arsenical, so that the resulting sodium sulphate is generally more or less heavily contaminated with arsenic. The official test for this impurity, involving the use of Marsh's apparatus, is not always convenient for use in the pharmacy. Bougault's test with zinc and caustic alkali, although simple and easily applied, is not reliable in the case under notice, since the arsenic is present in the i impure Glauber's salt in an arsenic state, probably as ferric arsenate. The author finds that it may readily...