Sodae et Potassae Tartras.

Dose.—Of the Tartrate of Soda and Potash, as a purge, ℥j. to ℥iss.

Therapeutic Action.—Tartarized Soda is a mild and refrigerant cathartic, and one of the most acceptable of the neutral salts. It seems well adapted to weakened and irritable states of the stomach, being very rarely rejected. It is frequently administered as an aperient to females and delicate persons. It is useful in cases attended with excessive secretion of uric acid or the urates, while it is to be avoided in those cases in which the phosphates are deposited, for it undergoes a partial decomposition in the system, and in this case assists to form the urinary deposit.

It is often administered as an effervescing draught in the form of the Seidlitz Powders, which consist of ʒij. of this salt and ℈ij. of bicarbonate of soda, put up in a white paper, and tartaric acid grs. xxxv. put up in a blue paper. These powders are to be dissolved in separate portions of water, when they are to be added together, and taken while in a state of effervescence.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.