Seidlitz powder

Seidlitz-pulver, n. Seidlitz powder, -salz, n. Epsom salt. 

Sods et Potasss Tartras A mild purgative laxative, used much as a Seidlitz powder. Made (potassio-tartrate of soda [Rochelle salt]) by combining cream of tartar with a solution of carbonate of soda. ... 

Hospitals, such as the one at Fort Sumner, Maryland, utilized a wider array of substances, but familiar items appear with predictable regularity. Mercurials, opium, ipecac, quinine sulfate, morphine, and Dover s powder predominate. Less frequent, but by no means rare, were syrup of squills, zingiber (ginger), buchu, iron, Seidlitz powder, cinchona, castor oil, and copaiba. 

This salt crystallizes in thick columns with four molecules of water. Its chief use is as a reducing agent. It reduces an ammoniacal silver solution and in this way is used in silvering glass. It is also used as a constituent of Fehling s solution, (p. 332), which is an alkaline copper solution reduced by certain sugars. It acts as a purgative in Seidlitz powders which consist of sodium-potassium tartrate, sodium acid carbonate and free tartaric acid. 

SEIDLITZ powders (a saline cathartic originated and patented by Thomas Savory in 1815). They owed their value to the mineral properties of the Seidlitz springs in Germany (which contain magnesium sulfate). 

Seidlitz Powders. Mix together thoroughly 1 troy omicc biearbouato of soda, and 3 y ounces Rochelle salt, both in fine powder, and divide into 12 e< ual parts. Divide 420 grains tartaric acid also into 12 equal p . Put up the parts, severally, of the mixture and of tho acid in separate papers, each kind of a distinctive color. (U. Ph.) The alkaline mixture is usually put up in blue, and tho acid in white papem. 

Seidlitz Mixture. A mixture of 3 parts Rochelle salt and ] part sodium bicarbonate. Ten grams of the mixture are employed with 2.17 g tartaric acid for one Seidlitz powder. 

Rochelle salt is the name given to sodium potassium tartrate, C4H406KNa.-4H2O. It can be obtained readily in pure condition, as it crystallizes well. It is used in the preparation of Fehhng s solution, and in medicine as a diuretic and a purgative. Seidlitz powders contain (1) Rochelle salt and sodium bicarbonate and (2) tartaric acid. When solutions of the two powders are mixed there is a vigorous evolution of carbon dioxide. 

Bicarbonate of soda, Na 0, 2 COj + aq, forms a white powder, which is alkaline, and is much used in medicine as a mild antacid, and as one of the ingredients in effervescing or Seidlitz powders. 

The first effervescent preparations were described over two centuries ago in the official compendia they were in powder form for use as cathartic salts. Later, in 1815, a patent described a combination of neutral salt or powder which possesses all the properties of the medicinal spring of Seidlitz in Germany, under the name of Seidlitz Powders, which contains sodium potassium tartarate, sodium bicarbonate, and tartaric acid, in the proportions 3 1 1, respectively (1). Effervescent granules and tablets have become more and more popular as the dosage form because they are readily soluble and easy to consume just by drinking the glass of water where they are dissolved. 

Compound Effervescent Powder, B.P,C, Seidlitz Powder). The No. 1 powder (blue) consists of 10 g of a mixture of 75 per cent of sodium potassium tartrate with 25 per cent of sodium bicarbonate. 

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