MEDICINAL DRAGEES AND GRANULES. 543 
necessary to increase the soap, and hence the 12 drams were increased by 4 
drams. 
I purpose sending to Bloomsbury Square a specimen of the liniment made 
from the above directions. 
Cheltenham, February IS th, 1870. 
MEDICINAL DRAGEES AND GRANULES. 
BY ERNEST AGNEW. 
The large extension given to this agreeable form of pill, and its adaptability 
to a host of substances usually administered in that manner, necessitate a few 
remarks on their manufacture, more especially as in England they seem to be 
less employed or less appreciated than in America or on the Continent, where it 
is usual to keep genuine dragees of various strengths, ranging from one grain to 
five of rhubarb, aloes, and various other simple and compound pills, sugar-coated ; 
an advantage apparently much appreciated by customers, who rarely fail to re¬ 
new a request for the same. The method adopted in their manufacture is one 
of admirable simplicity, but succeeds best on a large scale, unfortunately pre¬ 
venting its use for the general work of a dispensing counter. But the numerous 
special pills constituting the “patent” or leading article of nearly every phar¬ 
macist, can be made quicker, better, and more advantageously than by the or*- 
dinary method, even where aided by machinery. The ingredients for the pills 
should be thoroughly mixed and sifted, so as to form a hue, impalpable powder. 
With some substances of an untenacious character it is necessary to add a little 
dextrine, sugar, or gum. The sugar granules forming the nuclei of the pills are 
either to be bought from the wholesale confectioners under the name of nonpa¬ 
reils , or are easily made by agitating and rubbing together coarsely sifted sugar 
and syrup in a large copper basin over a slow charcoal fire. 
The granules, weighing each about one-tenth of a grain, are measured out so 
as to furnish the requisite number of pills, and are introduced into a large cop¬ 
per basin suspended by two ropes from a bar of wood, capable of revolving hori¬ 
zontally on an iron bolt fixed in the ceiling. A small charcoal fire is lit in an 
open pan under the basin, and serves also to keep warm a quantity of syrup, 
■with which the granules are moistened from time to time, and continually rubbed 
and agitated with a little of the powder, added very gradually, the basin being 
rapidly rotated, and jerked upwards occasionally. This operation, which must 
be repeated an indefinite number of times, until the dragees are completed, re¬ 
quires considerable skill on the part of the manipulator, for if too much of the 
excipient be added at once, it dissolves the previous couche, and prevents the 
regular formation of the concentric layers of which each dragee is built up, much 
in the same manner as starch granules are by some supposed to be formed. The 
final coating with sugar is the least difficult part of the operation, and is done 
either with syrup alone, or with the addition of a little plaster of Paris, very brisk 
agitation being required, so as to avoid any agglomeration of the dragees , the 
temperature being so regulated as to dry the sugar without a possibility of melt¬ 
ing it. Or, in the case of certain pills, where sugar-coating is undesirable, owing 
to its discoloration by the ingredients of the kernel, such as in pills of iodide of 
iron, etc., copal and balsam of tolu dissolved in ether forms an excellent coat¬ 
ing, easy of application, and effective in results. 
The advantages of making large quantities of pills by this process may be 
briefly summed up: firstly, the rapidity with wRich they are made, a clever 
workman easily making a batch of 100,000 pills in a day and a half; secondly, 
