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IRON. 405
quent employment of an antacid dentifrice, will obviate the
injurious effects of these salts of iron upon the teeth. While
the carbonate of iron in the form of pill, nor the reduced iron,
are injurious to the teeth by direct action, yet eructations of
hydrogen compounds produced by their ingestion may injure the
teeth.
The use of a tube carried well back in the mouth and the
iron preparation well diluted, should be preceded and followed by
the alkaline solution. The preparation known as dialysed iron
— Ferrum Dialysatum—which is iron in the colloid state, made
by the process of diffusion, is odorless, without the styptic taste
of the other preparations, and does not discolor the teeth, being
free from irritant action ; neither does it cause constipation, and
hence it is the best form in which to administer iron. The dose
of dialysed iron is ITtv to 5j.
Therapeutic Uses of Iron.—Iron is an efficient tonic, and pro-
motes the appetite and the digestion ; hence it is employed in
anemia, chlorosis, combined with quinine in chronic malarial
affections, syphilitic cachexia, acute rheumatism, erysipelas,
diphtheria, scrofula, rickets, neuralgia depending on anemia,
epilepsy in weak, anemic subjects, fatty degeneration of the
heart, passive forms of hemorrhage due to anemia, albuminuria,
etc., etc. Externally, the styptic preparations of iron are em-
ployed to arrest hemorrhage—hemorrhage from leech bites, hem-
orrhage following the extraction of teeth, hemorrhage resulting
from wounds and surgical operations, etc., etc.
[For doses of the various preparations of iron, see " Table of
Doses."]
Chloride of Iron— Ferri Chlorldum—Perchloride of iron.
Formula^ FcjCIg, is obtained by heating iron wire with hydro-
chloric acid, and afterward converting the ferrous chloride thus
formed into ferric chloride by heating it with hydrochloric and
nitric acids. It is in the form of crystalline masses of an orange
yellow color, inodorous and of a strong styptic taste. It is deli-
quescent and readily soluble in water, alcohol and ether. It is
used internally in the form of a tincture— Tinctura Ferri Chloridi.
Dose^ TTLv-xx.