Am.  Jour.  Pharm.") 
January,  1904.  J 
Compressed  Tablet  Making. 
31 
material  will  not  compress,  and  to  eliminate  this  possibility  of  failure, 
I  use  French  chalk  entirely  and  have  been  successful  in  all  instances. 
The  material  is  now  ready  to  compress.  The  tablet  should  not 
be  made  too  bard  or  it  will  not  disintegrate  when  swallowed,  but  it 
must  be  made  sufficiently  hard  to  prevent  disintegration  in  handling. 
To  facilitate  solubility  a  small  quantity  of  an  inert  powder  is  added 
to  the  ingredients  and  a  mixture  of  sugar  of  milk  5  parts  and  cane 
sugar  I  part  is  usually  added. 
With  a  Stokes  machine  it  is  possible  to  compress  about  100  tablets 
a  minute,  as  one  revolution  of  the  wheel  completes  the  tablet. 
Quite  a  few  substances  can  be  compressed  without  any  prepara- 
tion, as  the  material  comes  from  the  manufacturer  granulated.  To 
this  class  belong  such  chemicals  as  salol,  ammonium  chloride, 
bromides,  iodides  and  chlorate  of  potash. 
1  riturates,  such  as  strychnia  and  its  salts,  corrosive  sublimate, 
calomel,  calcium  sulphide  and  arsenous  acid,  can  be  made  at  a  cost 
of  from  2  to  4  cents  a  thousand  (labor  not  being  accounted  for), 
while  the  manufacturer  will  charge  from  35  to  50  cents  for  a  like 
quantity.  All  tablets  can  be  made  for  from  10  to  40  per  cent,  of 
what  they  cost  to  purchase  them  from  the  jobbing-house,  excepting 
such  tablets  as  chlorate  of  potash  and  ammonium  chloride,  which 
can  be  bought  for  a  slight  advance  of  the  drug  itself,  and  hence  it 
would  not  pay  one  to  make  them. 
If  a  pharmacist  puts  up  headache  tablets,  cold  tablets,  or  voice 
lozenges,  he  can  save  about  75  per  cent,  by  making  them  himself, 
as  the  manufacturers  charge  more  proportionately  for  special 
formulas  than  for  their  regular  listed  ones. 
Some  tablets  can  be  made  by  like  methods,  but  quite  a  few  require 
special  manipulation. 
Sodium  salicylate,  for  instance,  should  be  granulated  with  a  gum. 
and  syrup  of  acacia  is  often  employed. 
Quinine  sulphate  requires  the  addition  of  5  per  cent,  powdered 
acacia  and  10  per  cent,  powdered  cane  sugar,  or  else  it  will  not 
compress. 
Many  others  require  special  manipulation  which  can  only  be 
learned  by  experience  with  the  drug  itself. 
