10 
PHARMACEUTICAL  GLEANINGS. 
to  fine  powder,  and  employed  for  covering  pills.  This  operation 
is  effected  extemporaneously  with  great  facility.  The  pills  slightly 
moistened,  are  rolled  in  the  mucilaginous  powder,  by  which  they 
are  coated  with  a  layer  of  the  compound. 
M.  Calloud  has  used  this  chiefly  for  carbonate  of  iron  pills, 
but  it  may  be  applied  to  other  kinds. 
Garot's  process  of  coating  pills  with  gelatine  is  most  applica- 
ble to  disagreeably  odorous  substances,  as  assafoetida,  castor,  va- 
lerian, etc.,  which  are  completely  masked  by  it.  When  the 
gelatine  is  previously  colored  with  carmine  the  pills  bore  the  ap- 
pearance of  hawthorn  berries. 
M.  Calloud  suggests  another  process  applicable  in  certain  cases, 
which  is  the  use  of  butter  of  cacao  as  a^covering  for  pills,  where, 
owing  to  gastric  irritation,  the  unmasked  pills  will  cause  disagree- 
able symptoms.  The  process  is  very  simple :  The  prepared 
pills  are  thrown  into  melted  butter  of  cacao,  then  removed  with 
a  perforated  skimmer,  and  finally  rolled  in  finely  powdered  sugar, 
or  what  is  better,  sugar  of  milk. 
Valerianate  of  Bismuth.— .This  salt  has  lately  came  into  use 
as  a  remedy  in  certain  forms  of  dyspepsia.  It  is  a  white,  amor- 
phous powder,  smelling  strongly  of  valerianic  acid.  It  may  be 
prepared,  according  to  Mr.  Barnes,  by  double  decomposition  be- 
tween nitrate  of  bismuth  and  valerianate  of  soda.  Pure  metallic 
bismuth  is  dissolved  in  nitric  acid,  any  excess  of  nitric  acid  is 
saturated  with  carbonate  of  soda,  and  a  solution  of  valerianate  of 
soda  added  to  the  bismuth  solution  till  it  ceases  to  precipitate. 
The  powder  is  collected  on  a  filter,  washed  and  dried. 
Valerianate  of  soda  may  most  conveniently  be  obtained  by  the 
process  of  the  Dublin  Pharmacopoeia,  (see  U.  S.  Dispensatory, 
9th  edition,  page  1188,)  from  fusel  oil,  bichromate  of  potassa, 
sulphuric  acid,  and  caustic  soda. 
Herring's  Process  for  Sulphate  of  Quinia. — At  the  meeting  of 
the  Pharmaceutical  Society  in  October,  Mr.  Edward  Herring 
communicated  an  account  of  his  recently  patented  process  for 
making  sulphate  of  quinia  without  alcohol.  The  powdered  cin- 
chona bark  is  boiled  with  a  solution  of  caustic  soda,  and  then 
pressed  and  washed  with  water  until  the  whole  of  the  coloring 
matter  of  the  bark  has  been  removed.  The  bark  after  this  treat- 
ment retains  the  greater  part  of  the  alkaloids  in  a  free  state. 
