The salicylate of colchicine is stable in water and may be given in doses of about one-thirtieth of a grain.
When boiled with calcium chloride and ammonia, salicylic acid gives a precipitate of insoluble basic calcium salicylate, C 6 H 4 ‹ 0 2 i Ca, a reaction which serves to distinguish it from the isomeric metaand para-hydroxybenzoic acids.
Whatever drug of this group be taken, the product absorbed by the blood is almost entirely sodium salicylate.
Sodium salicylate circulates in the blood unchanged, decomposition occurring in the kidney, and probably in tissues suffering from the Diplococcus rheumaticus of Poynton and Paine.
It has now been established that, provided the kidneys be healthy, natural salicylic acid, sodium salicylate prepared from the natural acid, and salicin, are not cardiac depressants.