212 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[September 14,1873. 
time is more limited. My experience is that if you take 
the root in the month of January, you get a much better 
product, totally different in appearance. The extract 
which you obtain is much less in quantity. It is 
almost black, extremely sapid, and very bitter. My 
observation is that the time for taking the root, in 
order to get the best medicinal effect, is the month of 
January. 
Mr. Ekin : Mr. Giles’s explanation can hardly be 
the true one, if we remember that dandelion flowers 
from early spring to late autumn. You have quite as 
large a range in the flower as in the root. 
Mr. Williams : The flower would not vary as much 
as the root. 
Mr. Barton : We have found that the admixture of 
the flower takes away from the bitterness. 
Mr. Eicin : No doubt there would be a succession of 
flowers during the flowering season, which would be of 
the same age in point of development at the time of 
gathering. 
r Mr. Smith (Edinburgh) : In our experience in the 
cultivation of taraxacum we found a very decided result, 
owing to the manuring of the ground. Probably the 
reason for the great discrepancy that occurs in the 
quality of the ordinary root depends on where it is ob¬ 
tained from and how it is cultivated and attended to. On 
one occasion we got a most remarkable result. The 
bitter principle was intense like aloes, and the root 
was collected immediately after the flowering. The 
weather happened to be particularly calm, and the 
whole field was several inches deep with the most lovely 
snow-white carpet which could be conceived. Our 
neighbours were so annoyed by the continual escape of 
the seed that we gave up the cultivation of it. A deal 
depends on the manuring of the ground, and I believe 
that if the plant were cultivated, instead of being 
plucked wild, its character would be much more under 
our control. 
Mr. Umney : A large supply of taraxacum root for the 
London market is obtained from Cambridgeshire. It is 
collected wild about the month of November. To obtain 
it in the month of J anuary would be almost animpossibility, 
at any rate, on the large scale, for the ground would then 
be too hard to be turned up on account of frost. I 
am of opinion that the latter part of the autumn is by 
far the best time for the expression of the juice. Having 
expressed juice in the early spring, and compared its 
flavour, depth of colour, and density, with the autumnal 
juice, I have always given the preference to the latter, 
the spring juice always appearing to me to contain 
nioie w ater and less flavour than that of the autumn. 
I should like to ask Mr. Barton whether he has com- 
pared the lelative amount of extractive by evaporatin 0, 
the juice. ° 
. -^r. Bruton said that the density was decidedly less 
m the flower stalk. 
Mr. Carteighe: I should like to ask Mr. Umney 
what pharmaceutical principle is involved in the conclu¬ 
sion at which he ha,s arrived,—that the density acts in 
any w ay as an indication of the quality of taraxacum 
juice.. It is a new theory to me. I was under the im- 
piession that juice made from spring taraxacum was far 
better than that of the autumnal plant. That is my own 
experience. I have made it several times at different 
periods of the winter, spring and autumn. I think wflth 
1 rofessor Bentley, that the spring juice is the better. 
•AT P 1 m ciple is that the value of taraxacum is due to 
its bitter principle. If Mr. Umney knows of any other 
quality which modifies that, I shall be glad to hear of it. 
Mr. Umney: As we know of no definite principle 
that can be isolated, wo must rely upon the taste. 
Colour, flavour, and density I have always looked upon 
as indicating, quality. The specific gravity is less in 
April than in December, and I also think that the 
flavour of the juice expressed in November is far 
superior to that wdiich is expressed in April, notwith¬ 
standing what Professor Bentley says on the subject. 
We have no means of estimating the active principle 
in taraxacum; I presume, therefore, that taste is the only 
test upon which we can rely. 
Mr. Barton : In consequence of the difficulty of ob¬ 
taining the root in the spring, I always found it better to 
use the flower stalks. 
Pill Coating. 
BY T. HAFFEXDEN. 
Many expedients have been tried and suggested for 
coating pills. The first requisite, of course, is a per¬ 
fectly round, dry, hard pill, that will not run, and then 
to secure a coating, tasteless, elegant in appearance, 
insoluble for a moment or two in the mouth, and yet 
sufficiently soluble to allow the active ingredients of the 
pill to commence operations as soon as it reaches its post 
of duty. 
Gilding and silvering are very common and useful 
modes of disguise, the great objection is that if kept any 
time, they are so liable to tarnish, besides, there is a 
strong and, .1 must own, Avell-founded objection by 
many to . a pill which inwardly or outwardly has any 
metallic ingredient in its composition. 
There is a mode of coating recommended by some, 
viz., sticking the pill on the point of a needle, dipping in 
a solution of gelatine or isinglass, and sticking the 
other end of a needle into a pad, for the pill to drain 
and dry. I have never tried this process myself; even if 
successful, wdiich is possible, it involved too much time 
and finessing for ordinary purposes. 
I frequently use myself the solution composed of 
Balsam of Tolu.l part. 
Sulphuric Ether.4 parts. 
M. 
and am very successful in getting a tasteless varnish or 
coating, which disguises the taste perfectly, but, I find 
sometimes the dark natural colour of the pill as seen 
through the varnish, is objected to ; this, to some extent I 
have obviated by rolling the pills before the varnish is dry 
in powdered French chalk. I find after a few times, to 
acquire the necessary manipulative dexterity, I can get 
a good-looking covering on “ the pill.” One note here : 
the tolu used for the solution, and which seems to answer 
best, is that which has been used in preparing syrup of 
tolu, so that I use what I formerly threw away, and the 
methylated ether answers very w r ell for the purpose, 
reducing the cost of materials to a mere 'fraction. 
Many chemists used to get their pills coated with 
sugar in the same way as sugar plums, by wdiolesale con¬ 
fectioners ; I believe confectioners now decline to do it; 
at all events the old and respectable firm with which I do 
business, though most obliging on all other points, 
totally decline helping me here. 
Another method I have fairly succeeded with, has 
been to mix powdered tragacanth, precipitated chalk, 
and powdered French chalk together, damp the surface 
j °* the pills, get them nicely-coated with the powders, 
tiansfer thorn to a hair sieve, and agitate them over the 
steam of boiling water; I find the steam sets the gum 
tia.gacanth, and forms a nice coating w hi ch fu lfi ls my re- 
quisites of pearly appearance, tastelessness, sufficient in¬ 
solubility, and is besides not brittle, liable to chip off. 
It lequires to.be done with great care, otherwise in dry¬ 
ing the coating cracks away and is unserviceable. I 
have turned out a nice sample of pills coated in this 
way after being previously varnished and made water- 
pi oof w ith the tolu solution. I have tried unsuccessfully 
to introduce plaster of Paris into the composition of the 
coating, but, owing to its greediness and great fondness 
i tor water, have not been successful. 
I am now turning my attention to the use of yolk of 
e oo> brush the pills over with, and then roll them in 
