Lead Subacetate Solution: Lead Acetate Boiled with Litharge, USP 1860

Boil sugar of lead with litharge in water and the lead oxide dissolves, giving a dense colourless liquid of basic lead acetate. The 1860 US Pharmacopoeia used it, diluted, to wash the hydrogen for reduced iron. Lead is a cumulative poison: no food vessels, wash hands, keep it locked away. Source: United States Pharmacopoeia, 4th decennial revision (1860, publ. 1863), Liquor Plumbi Subacetatis. The metric figures and the heat source are ours. Picture drawn by Youblob.