" Take of the iodide of potassium, ten grains; of iodine, five grains; of distilled water, one pint. Mix that they may dissolve."

The object of this solution is evidently to enable a given quantity of water to take up a much larger proportion of iodine than it could otherwise do, as one grain of iodine requires fifteen ounces of distilled water for its solution.

Qualities. - The solution is of a brown colour, exhales the odour of iodine, impresses its taste, and displays the evidence of its being present in a free state by the blue colour produced by the solution in starch.

Medical properties and uses. - It is the mode of administering iodine suggested by Lugal; and it is both a convenient and a useful form of the medicine, in scrofulous affections and bronchocele. The dose is f 3ij. to f 3vj.

In secondary syphilis, when what is termed mercurial cachexia displays itself, from the improper employment of mercurials, nothing proves more salutary than the iodide of potassium: it allays pain, restores the appetite, rouses the animal spirits, invigorates the body, and bestows flesh, in a few weeks, to an extent which seems almost miraculous.