240 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



TABLET MAKING AT THE DISPENSING 

 COUNTER.* 



Ey s. hardwick. 



I have brought forward this note to show 

 what can be done towards meeting the demand 

 for medicines in the tablet form with a small 

 and inexpensive apparatus sold by Messrs. Maw, 

 Son and Thompson, London, which is doubt- 

 less generally well known. 



First, as regards drugs given in small doses 

 as to bulk, as the alkaloids, arsenious acid, cal- 

 omel, grey powder, podophyllin, aloin, sulphide 

 of calcium, etc., these generally only require to 

 be triturated with a convenient quantity of 

 sugar of milk, and may be compressed easily. 

 This class of tablets should be made to weigh 2 

 grains each, that being a suitable quantity to 

 work in the machine. The sugar of milk used 

 should be in crystals, and the trituration of the 

 drug carried out without great pressure, as a 

 very fine powder does not compress well. Should 

 there be a tendency for the tablet to stick in 

 the die or split, the addition of a trace of heavy 

 paraffin oil sprayed over the powder will gener- 

 ally overcome the difficulty. 



Another method is the addition of half a grain 

 of cocoa powder (from which the oil has been 

 expressed) in place of an equal quantity of 

 sugar of milk. This greatly facilitates com- 

 pression, the trace of oil preventing the tablet 

 sticking in the mould. The formula stands — 



Cocoa Powder J2 grain. 



Sugar of Milk to 2 grains. 



Medicament, as ordered. 



No difficulty is experienced in making such 

 a powder into tablets with a blow of the ham- 

 mer, the dispenser being able to turn them out 

 with ease and certainty in not more than would 

 be required to make the same quantity into pills, 

 or put it up in cachets. I have not met with 

 any objection to the color of the resulting tab- 

 let, while the facility of manipulation gained by 

 the use of cocoa is a great advantage, as is also 

 the convenience of having a general excipient 

 applicable to a large class of tablets. 



Tinctures of aconite, belladonna, digitalis, 

 strophanthus, nux vomica, etc., maybe evapor- 

 ated on the sugar of milk over a water bath, 

 cocoa powder added, and the resulting powder 

 easily compressed in the usual way. 



Tablets of extract of cascara and combinations 

 of cascara and podophyllin are easily made, the 

 dried and powdered extract should be used, 

 half its weight of liquorice powder added, and 



*Read at the meeting of the British Pharmaceutical 

 Conference. 



a trace of heavy paraffin oil sprayed over the 

 powder. 



Other tablets requiring special notice are caf- 

 feine citrate, and may be compressed without 

 the use of any excipient. 



Grey powder, i grain, requires 2 grains of 

 sugar of milk, and the addition of a trace of 

 paraffin oil. Quinine, i grain, works well with 

 the addition of i grain of starch, and a trace of 

 paraffin oil. 



Other tablets of this class may generally be 

 made on these lines without difficulty, the great 

 point being to keep the machine perfectly clean, 

 and dust it occasionally with French chalk. 



I have had made for me a similar machine of 

 larger diameter, which is useful for making five 

 or ten grain tablets. In it such salts as the bro- 

 mides of potash, soda and ammonia aie easily 

 compressed without the addition of any excipi- 

 ent. Salol, phenacetin, and sulphonal are also 

 easily made into tablets, but require the addi- 

 tion of one grain of starch to each five grains, 

 when the resulting tablet disintegrates beauti- 

 fully on the addition of water. An effervescing 

 powder, as a mixture of citric acid and bicar- 

 bonate of soda, is useless as an addition for pro- 

 ducing a disintegrating tablet; at any rate in 

 moderate quantity. 



Bismuth carbonate is perhaps the most diffi- 

 cult to compress, but the free addition of starch 

 and the use of paraffin oil will somewhat meet 

 the difficulty. Bismuth carbonate and bi-car- 

 bonate of soda compress well if the mixed pow 

 ders are sprayed over with paraffin. 



VINEGAR AS AN ANTIDOTE TO CARBOLIC ACID. 



Dr. Carleton in a note published in the 

 Deutsche Medizinal-Zeitung , Feb. 17, 1896, ad- 

 vocates the use of common vinegar in carbolic 

 acid poisoning. He states that applied to the 

 skin or mucous membranes, vinegar promptly 

 counteracts the toxic effects of carbolic acid. 

 In internal poisoning he advises that vinegar 

 and water in equal parts be freely imbibed and 

 that following this the stomach be promptly 

 emptied. 



Professor Hajak, of Vienna, says smokers 

 are less liable to diphtheria and other throat 

 diseases than non-smokers in the ratio of one 

 to twenty-eight. Dr. Schiff states that smok- 

 ing is forbidden in bacteriological laboratories 

 because it hinders the development of the bac- 

 teria. 



