AmFebU,r:2P78arin'}         The  Saponin  of  Sarsaparilla.  79 
and  the  motion  kept  up  until  a  perfectly  dry,  hard  and  whitish  coating 
is  obtained,  the  operation  being  repeated  till  the  desired  result  is  accom- 
plished— which  with  the  pharmacist  in  his  first  attempt  is  usually  not  the 
case. 
But  now  for  the  secret.  We  have  followed  the  method  of  the  con- 
fectioner in  its  outline  ;  but  what  about  his  skill  and  experience  ?  These 
are  just  the  things  wanting  ;  the  confectioner  would  be  a  very  clumsy 
hand  at  producing  the  pill,  the  pharmacist  is  usually  equally  so  at  sugar- 
coating  it  ;  the  confectioner  could  be  educated  to  make  the  pill  and  the 
pharmacist  to  coat  it  with  sugar  if  he  would  only  apply  his  ability,  gain 
experience  by  perseverance,  and  keep  up  by  practice  his  acquired 
knowledge.  A  gentleman  writing  to  the  u  Pharmaceutical  Journal " 
a  short  time  since,  complained  of  what  he  considered  to  be  want  of 
courtesy  on  the  part  of  certain  Americans  respecting  a  little  apparatus 
for  sugar-coating  small  quantities  of  pills.  The  truth  is,  I  believe,  that 
the  said  apparatus  is  to  be  found  in  every  pharmacy  ;  it  is  simply  the 
knowledge  of  how  to  use  it  that  is  not.1 
Lastly,  we  have  silvering  as  an  elegant  coating  readily  applied.  It  is 
mentioned  in  the  old  "  United  States  Dispensatory  "  as  a  thing  of  the 
past,  but  is  frequently  used  in  the  present  day.  I  need  say  little  or 
nothing  about  its  application.  Avoid  the  use  of  glycerin  as  an  excip- 
ient  in  the  pill,  put  as  little  moisture  on  the  surface  as  will  enable  the 
silver  to  adhere,  and  burnish  by  rotating  in  a  covered  pot  containing  a 
little  cotton  wool  to  remove  any  loosely  attached  fragments  of  silver 
leaf. — Pharm.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Dec.  15,  1877. 
NOTE  ON  THE  "SAPONIN"  OF  SARSAPARILLA. 
By  Professor  Fluckiger.2 
Galileo  Pallotta  was  the  first  chemist  who  attempted  the  separation 
of  an  active  principle  from  sarsaparilla.  His  work  appears  to  have 
been  done  early  in  the  present  century,  shortly  after  the  discovery  of 
the  first  alkaloids.  By  treating  the  aqueous  extract  of  the  root  with 
milk  of  lime,  drying  the  precipitate,  and  boiling  the  alcohol,  he 
obtained  a  substance   that  he  claimed  to  be  an  alkaloid  and  named 
the  "Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,"  May,  1867,  there  is  an  article   by  Mr.  H.  C. 
Archibald,  on  "  Sugar  Coated  Pills." 
2Abstract  of  article  in  the  "Archiv  der  Pharmacie,"  3d  series,  vol.  vii,  p.  532. 
