412 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 19, 1370 . 
MANCHESTER CHEMISTS’ ASSISTANTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
A meeting- was held on November 3rd, in the Council 
Room of the Manchester Chemists and Druggists’ Asso¬ 
ciation, attended by a large number of the chemists’ 
assistants and apprentices of this city. 
It was proposed by Mr. W. Metcalfe that an Asso¬ 
ciation should be formed, to be called the “ Manchester 
Chemists’ Assistants’ Association,” to have for its object 
the mutual assistance of its members in all matters relat¬ 
ing to business, and as a help to those preparing for the 
examinations of the Pharmaceutical Society. After be¬ 
ing supported by several gentlemen, the meeting was 
adjourned until that day week, when a code of rules was 
to be submitted for revision. 
The second meeting was held on November 10th, and 
was more largely attended than the previous one. 
Mr. Metcalfe having been unanimously voted to the 
chair, the rules were submitted, and after a very lengthy 
discussion were revised and passed, after which the fol¬ 
lowing officers and committee were elected for the ensu¬ 
ing year:— President: Mr. W. Metcalfe. Vice-President: 
Mr. Yeats. Honorary Secretary and Treasurer: Mr. B. H. 
Cowgill. Committee: Mr. Cooper, Mr. Gill, Mr. Mercer, 
Mr. Midgley, Mr. Raworth, Mr. Spencer. 
The benefits to be derived from the Association having 
been very earnestly discussed, the meeting was dissolved. 
It is proposed to read a paper at each weekly meeting 
upon some subject of a practical nature, after which 
discussion will be invited upon the same. 
This Association will work in unison with the “ Man¬ 
chester Chemists and Druggists’ Association,” one of the 
rules making it compulsory for each member to be also 
an Associate of that Society. The session will extend 
from the 1st October to the '31st April in each year. 
SUNDERLAND CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The Monthly Meeting of the above Society was held 
on Monday evening, November 7th, at the Society’s 
rooms in Fawcett Street; Mr. R. Robinson in the chan. 
Mr. Sharp read a paper -on Sulphur, tracing its his¬ 
tory from the earliest record, describing the various 
sources from whence it is obtained, its commercial uses 
and chemical characters. 
_ Owing to the unavoidable absence of Mr. Harrison, 
his resolution, concerning the exemption of Chemists and 
Druggists from juries was postponed to a future meeting. 
At the close, a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Sharp. 
The next meeting was announced to be held on December 
5, when Mr. Cockburn will read a paper on Cinchonas. 
romMttjjs nf SntitMc JjjjjMm. 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Meeting at Liverpool. 
Wednesday , September 14 th. 
(Continued from page 395.) 
A better Excipient for the Official Pill-masses, 
AND FOR EXHIBITING SUBSTANCES GENERALLY IN A 
Pilular Form. 
BY W. MARTINDALE, F.C.S., 
Dispenser and Teacher of Pharmacy to the University 
College Hospital. 
The making of pills and pill-masses is such an every - 
day performance of the pharmacist, and, being one which 
requires a little dexterous manipulation, “ the rapid and 
skilful preparation of them from all the numerous sub¬ 
stances of which they are composed has been justly con¬ 
sidered to demand his highest qualification as a practical 
dispenser.”* 
The active medicaments which prescribers wish to 
administer in a pilular form vary very much in their 
physical and chemical characters; most frequently the 
bulk of the ingredients are powders, or substances capable 
of being reduced to the state of powder. In such, and 
indeed in all cases, the choice of a suitable excipient is of 
the greatest importance, both as regards the therapeutic 
action of the ingredients, and likewise its being adapted 
for the purpose of combining with them to form a firm 
plastic mass, which can be readily rolled out and divided 
into pills capable of retaining their globular form. To 
quote Dr. Redwood, the excipient should therefore be 
such as “will not be incompatible with any of the ingre¬ 
dients of the pills; will modify as little as possible their 
action, either by causing them to become hard, or in 
any other way; and will not unnecessarily or inconve¬ 
niently increase their size.”f For the sake of uniformity 
in dispensing, to the last condition there should, I think, 
be this marginal allowance, as small doses and active 
principles are now so much in vogue, that unless spe¬ 
cially required, the active ingredients and excipient to¬ 
gether in each pill should not, in any case, weigh less 
than one grain, that is if, say, a quarter of a grain of hy¬ 
drochlorate of morphia were ordered to be made into a 
pill, three-quarters of a grain of excipient should be 
used. 
The excipients for pill-mass which are required to be 
kept as such—not moulded into pills at the time of 
making; the official pill-masses, for example—shoidd, if 
possible, keep them in a plastic condition, or, at least, in 
such a state that they could readily be made to assume 
this condition again by beating up in a mortar, without 
any further addition of excipient being needed, as this 
would lessen the quantity of active ingredients contained 
in a given quantity of the mass. 
I will briefly examine how far the excipients hi gene¬ 
ral use fulfil the required conditions. 
Confection of Hips .—This is directed to form sulphate 
of quinine into a mass in the official pilula quinise, and 
it is much used as an excipient for powdered crystal- 
lizable salts, and metallic powders generally,—but it is 
unstable in its chemical character, —the sugar it contains 
becomes partially converted into grape sugar, and this 
being less soluble soon crystallizes. It therefore re¬ 
quires on some occasions much more of this excipient 
necessary for the purpose of forming a plastic mass, than 
at others. Unless very recently prepared, it is impos¬ 
sible to combine one part of it with three of sulphate of 
quinine into a mass which can be rolled and divided into 
pills, as is directed in the official pilula quinirn. 
Confection of Poses .—This confection, although it varies 
a little in consistency, is not liable to undergo the gra¬ 
nular crystallization to which confection of hips is so 
prone. It is directed to be used as an excipient in eight 
out of the twenty official pill-masses, and with the ex¬ 
ception of pilula aloes cum ferro, it makes masses which 
retain then- plastic condition tolerably well. Its fault is, 
the quantity needed materially increases the bulk of the 
mass, for example, five-twelfths of its weight of the 
official mass of pilula aloes cum myrrha is composed of 
the excipient. Its bulkiness generally precludes its use 
as an extemporaneous excipient. 
Treacle .—This is the excipient in five of the officinal 
pill-masses. It does not find favour with the dispenser, 
because it is so peculiarly viscid that when a little is 
taken from the bulk, there is apt to be formed a thread¬ 
like, attenuated attachment, which is not conducive to 
cleanliness. It is better adapted for making pill-masses 
in quantity than for extemporaneous dispensing, but 
it does not generally keep them in a plastic condition. 
About one-third of its weight of the compound rhubarb 
pill-mass is composed of this excipient, and even that 
* Cooley’s c Encyclopaedia of Practical Receipts.’ 
f Mohr and Redwood’s £ Practical Pharmacy.’ 
