with one particular type of excipient and prefer it to all others it is often 

 well to omit the excipient from his prescription, but he must not fail to 

 remember that it must be added and will increase its bulk. 



The student will notice that the solid Extracts are in many cases the 

 most compact form in which vegetable drugs can be given and they and the 

 Green Extracts, which are very sticky and form good pill bases, are intro- 

 duced into the Pharmacopoeia as ingredients of pills. It is rarely that 

 aqueous or alcoholic solutions can be incorporated in pills. 



POWDERS. A physician, when considering the administration of drugs in 

 powder form, must always carefully consider the flavor of the principal 

 drug and whether if it is unpleasant or even tasteless, its palatibility can be 

 increased by adding some flavoring. It is rarely that the taste of a dis- 

 agreeable powder can be successfully covered. If a disguising flavor is 

 wanted, Sugar, Liquorice and Cinnamon are perhaps amongst the best. 

 The physician must remember that deliquescent salts cannot be given in 

 powder form. 



CACHETS AND CAPSULES. These are much used in modern dispensing 

 as they enable the physician to administer disagreeable and bulky powders 

 and also oils in an elegant manner. Roughly speaking one may order up to 

 10 grains of a drug in capsule form, and up to 20 in a cachet. If the drugs are 

 very heavy these quantities may be readily increased. Fluids, with the 

 exception of oils, should not as a rule be given in capsules. 



Administration of drugs by hypodermic, intramuscular, and in- 

 travenous injections. These methods of administration make certain 

 the complete absorption of the drugs given if they are soluble in the fluids 

 of the body. And in consequence of this much smaller quantities are used 

 than for administration per os. Drugs given by hypodermic injection 

 should be non-irritant to the sensory nerve-endings of the part. They 

 should in consequence be neither acid nor alkaline. When given intra- 

 muscularly this point should also be observed, but when given intraven- 

 ously it becomes of very little importance as the drug does not come in con- 

 tact with the sensory endings. If drugs are given hypodermically, roughly 

 one half the dose that would be given per os may be used. If given in- 

 tramuscularly, a slightly smaller quantity is usually given and if given in- 

 travenously, owing to the rapidity with which it reaches the point of attack, 

 approximately one-tenth that would be given per os is administered. 

 These rules are by no means absolute as drugs differ so greatly in their 

 physical and pharmacological properties. In the case of all these methods 

 of administration the very greatest care must be taken that the solutions 

 are strictly aseptic and that the patient's skin is carefully sterilized before 

 the administration is undertaken. 



114 



