124 
Sugar-coated  Pills. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      Mar.,  1877. 
saving  a  few  cents.  This  would  be  too  like  "  spoiling  the  ship  for 
a  shilling's  worth  of  tar." 
I  have  no  fear  myself  of  the  solubility  of  pills  in  the  alimentary  canal, 
whether  they  be  coated  with  sugar  or  gelatin  or  compressed.  What 
I  would  dread  more  than  anything  else  in  ready-made  pills  would  be 
the  deception  and  fraud  which  might  be  practised  by  dishonest  manu- 
facturers in  the  selection  and  proportionment  of  the  ingredients. 
Although,  I  must  confess,  that  I  have  much  faith  in  the  probity  and 
conscientiousness  of  most  manufacturers,  and  believe  the  sugar-coated 
pills  of  our  leading  houses  to  be  about  as  reliable  as  any  other  class  of 
pharmaceuticals  which  we  buy  ready-made,  and  which  we  have  no 
means  of  ascertaining  the  quality  of  by  convenient  and  reliable  tests. 
We,  of  course,  with  sjgar-coated  pills,  as  with  extracts,  fluid 
extracts,  powders,  etc.,  have  to  rely  upon  the  honesty  of  the  manu- 
facturers for  their  purity  and  proper  nroportions  of  the  materials  used 
in  their  fabrication,  and  the  care  and  skill  employed  in  their  production* 
The  only  plan  that  can  be  adopted  by  the  pharmacist  to  avert  the 
danger  of  the  deception  to  which  he  is  liable  by  the  faulty  composition 
of  ready-made  pills,  is  for  him  to  make  in  his  own  laboratory  all  his 
own  pills,  and  then  send  them  to  some  skillful  and  reliable  person  and 
have  them  coated  to  his  own  order,  if  he  has  not  the  facilities  for  doing 
so.  By  this  means  he  can  always  feel  assured  of  the  quality  of  his 
pills,  and  can  recommend  them  to  his  customers  and  to  physicians 
with  confidence.  This,  in  fact,  every  pharmacist  should  do,  not  only 
with  sugar-coated  pills,  but  with  every  pharmaceutical  preparation  he 
sells  that  he  is  capable  of  making  properly. 
Unfortunately,  however,  too  many  pharmacists,  like  the  retail 
clothier,  buy  their  goods  ready-made — a  practice  too  reprehensible  to 
need  comment.  Of  course  there  are  some  preparations  for  which  the 
demand  is  too  limited  to  warrant  the  pharmacist  in  making  ;  the  time, 
trouble  and  waste  of  material  in  the  preparation  of  so  small  a  quantity 
would  often  deter  him,  and  very  justly  too,  from  the  task.  But  all  phar- 
maceuticals, for  which  there  is  a  reasonable  demand,  should  be  made  by 
the  pharmacist  himself. 
Before  quitting  this  subject,  it  may  not  be  improper  for  me  to 
address  a  word  or  offer  a  few  suggestions  to  the  manufacturers  of  sugar- 
coated  pills,  although  what  I  may  offer  may  not  be  new  to  many. 
In  coating  pills  of  asafcetida,  iodide  and  protocarbonate  of  iron,  or 
