468      Advances  in  Pharmaceutical  Manufactures.  {AnocJtober,Pi9oSm' 
eminent.  Think  of  an  autoclave,  lined  with  acid-resisting  material, 
having  a  capacity  of  500  litres,  with  stirring  paddles  working  under 
a  pressure  of  sixty  atmospheres. 
Ingenious  machines  are  now  very  generally  used  in  American 
pharmaceutical  laboratories.  The  modern  pill  machines  are  mar- 
vellous, especially  the  final  one,  holding  the  pills  by  suction  as  they 
are  dipped  in  the  coating,  which  enables  one  girl  to  coat  100,000 
pills  in  a  day,  etc.;  and  tablet  machines  are  now  in  use  which  stamp 
twelve  tablets  at  a  stroke  and  make  500,000  in  a  day.  One  young 
girl  attends  two  machines,  and  thus  makes  1,000,000  tablets  in  a  day. 
Perhaps  the  two  greatest  aids  to  manufacturing  pharmacy  are 
vacuum  distillation  and  centrifugal  extraction.  The  former  has  long 
been  in  use,  but  the  latter  has  only  come  into  general  use  in  this 
country  during  the  past  fifteen  years. 
The  immense  filtering  racks  and  presses  that  formerly  encum- 
bered a  laboratory  are  now  usually  replaced  by  centrifugal  machines 
which  take  up  but  little  room  and  save  much  time,  while  the  quan- 
tity of  wash  liquor  is  so  reduced  that  the  loss  by  washing  is  unim- 
portant. The  cheapness  of  certain  leading  products  is  due  almost 
entirely  to  these  machines — aloin  is  an  example,  as  it  must  be  well 
but  quickly  washed  or  it  is  decomposed. 
Fifty  years  ago  the  medical  world  was  much  interested  in  glycerin 
as  a  remedy  for  the  skin,  as  a  solvent  for  drugs  and  as  a  vehicle 
for  administering  them.  The  use  of  it  has  grown  to  vast  propor- 
tions, and  the  service  done  by  Chevreul  should  always  be  acknowl- 
edged. I  had  the  privilege  of  visiting  him  in  Paris,  when  he  was 
100  years  old,  and  of  expressing  the  gratitude  and  admiration  felt 
in  America  for  his  discoveries.  He  replied  with  a  bright  smile  that 
he  had  always  admired  Americans  and  regretted  that  he  had  never 
been  able  to  visit  us. 
Glycerin,  ox  gall  and  vaccine  were  almost  the  sole  animal  prod- 
ucts then  on  the  druggist's  list,  but  pepsin  soon  followed  and  pan- 
creatine, while  during  the  past  ten  years  the  laboratories  have 
annexed  the  barnyards,  and  the  serums  and  toxins  and  extracts 
from  glands  have  become  of  great  importance.  These  biological 
departments  are  under  the  direction  of  scientists  trained  in  bacte- 
riology, which  demands  niceties  of  cleanliness  and  carefulness  of 
sterilization  that  would  be  a  revelation  to  the  apothecary  of  fifty 
years  ago. 
