THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



217 



them may soften the coating, and can 

 them to adhere. They keep well if the 

 covering be perfect. They take a pearl 

 coating without much difficulty. They 

 should, of course, be kept cool, and not 

 carried in the waistcoat pocket or the 

 grease may penetrate the coating. . 



These pills have the advantage over 

 the ordinary cacao butter pills that they 

 are much more easily made, and are 

 more gradually assimilated; and as they_ 

 are not so quickly dissolved they are less 

 likely to upset the stomach. More than 

 half of the phosphorus will be in solu- 

 tion in the cacao butter, the remainder 

 with the cacao butter solution forms a 

 solid emulsion with the acacia and syrup. 



It may be objected that the quantity 

 of bisulphide of carbon recommended is 

 excessive. I tried experiments to lessen 

 this by using an equal quantity of the 

 bisulphide to that of the phosphorus and 

 adding the cacao butter melted at 100° 

 F. to this solution contained in a bottle, 

 and shaking well. At first a perfect so- 

 lution was obtained, but gradually about 

 one-third, apparently, of the phosphorus 

 separated out in a solid granular condi- 

 tion. I tried even three times this quan- 

 tity of bisulphide, but still much of the 

 phosphorus separated. As I before said, 

 the solubility of phosphorus, although 

 difficult to ascertain, is only slightly 

 over I per cent, in such a fat as cacao 

 butter. In the pill mass, it is true, it is 

 present to the extent of 2 per cent, of 

 the fat in it, or about i per cent, of the 

 whole, but what has separated will be in 

 a very finely comminuted condition. If 

 a small quantity of the bisulphide would 

 have answered, the mass could have been 

 weighed when dispensed; this would 

 have been more conveneint- Less, I 

 dare say, may answer the purpose, but 

 my desire is to make a mixed liquid so- 

 lution containing i part of phosphorus 

 in 75 volumes, which on evaporation of 



he bisulphide will yield 2 per cent, in 

 the cacao butter, and i per cent, in the 

 finished mass. Then, again, there is the 

 uncertainty of the strength of the cacao 

 butter and bisulphide solution after hav- 

 ing been frequently warmed; still this 

 can vary but little, as the warmth of the 

 hand, as I have said, is sufficient to 

 liquefy the mixture, and the fat will 

 have a tendency to prevent quick evapo- 

 ration. Working on a large scale, the 

 rounding of the pills might be difficult, as 

 they want body, and the pearl coating of 

 them might not be so easily done as of 

 pills containing resin; they might in fact 

 if slightly heated during this process, 

 stick together, owing to the melting of 

 the cacao butter. The use of syrupy 

 glucose to replace the syrup and part of 

 the acacia would give more "body" to 

 the pills and enable the mass to be better 

 worked in quantity; glucose is much in 

 favor with the large pill makers, but it 

 is not official, and not easily defined, still 

 it might be used as an excipient. 



This mass is best worked at a temper- 

 ature a little over 60° F. ; there might be 

 an objection to their being not easily pre- 

 pared in warm climates. I find, practi- 

 cally, if coated with sandarach, they soft- 

 en at 90° F. in water, but are probably 

 much more permanent in the air. 



The difficulties in exhibiting phospho- 

 rus in pilular form are numerous, and 

 the above is the best I can suggest for the 

 practical retail pharmacist. In this for- 

 mula he has a solution in which the 

 phosphorous is kept from oxidation, is 

 fairly stable and can be dispensed into 

 pills in a short time. Furthermore, theex- 

 cipients acacia and syrup may be lessen- 

 ed to give place to other medicaments 

 that the prescriber wishes to combine 

 with phosphorus. 



SEVUM PHOSPHORATUM (10%) 



This I have recommended elsewhere 

 for preparing a mass to blend with other 



