350       ON  SOME  FRENCH  PHARMACEUTICAL  SPECIALITIES. 
"  If  some  of  these  preparations  were  manufactured  by  English 
or  Scotch  Pharmaciens,  they  would  probably  obtain  a  reputation 
equal  to  that  which  they  hold  in  France. 
«  6t7i  February,  1857."  «  D.  S.  Kemp. 
Remarks  by  Mr,  Baildon. 
I  think,  Sir,  that  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  these  specimens 
are  very  interesting,  and  that  they  demonstrate  how  very  far  our 
ingenious  neighbors  are  before  us,  even  in  the  mechanical  part 
of  our  profession.  I  have  never  before  seen  anything  at  all  to 
compare  with  the  elegance  and  beauty  of  finish  manifested  in 
the  Perles  d'Ether.  The  method  of  coating  pills  used  by  Mons. 
Blanchard  might  be  applicable  not  only  for  all  pills  kept  ready 
made  for  sale,  but  also  modified  in  a  way  I  shall  immediately 
allude  to,  for  pills  made  to  prescriptions,  not  only  to  prevent 
them  from  hardening,  but  also  most  effectually  to  cover  any  un- 
pleasant taste  or  smell.  A  solution  of  balsam,  of  tolu  in  ether 
(Mons.  Blanchard's  method)  I  did  not  find  sufficiently  volatile, 
as  pills  coated  with  it  took  upwards  of  three  hours  to  dry,  but  by 
using  chloroform  as  the  solvent  in  the  proportion  of  a  dram  of 
the  balsam  to  three  drams  of  chloroform,  twenty  minutes  was 
quite  sufficient  to  make  the  pills  non-adhesive.  I  have  brought 
specimens  of  pills  varnished  with  the  two  solutions  named.  The 
chloroform  and  balsam  solution  is  not  only  preferable  from  the 
shortness  of  the  time  required  to  complete  the  process,  but  the 
pills  have  a  much  more  finished  appearance.  The  superiority  of 
this  method  of  preserving  pills  over  any  kind  of  powder,  appears 
to  me  very  great,  and  it  is  also  certainly  preferable  to  the  coat- 
ing of  pills  with  silver  leaf.  It  will,  I  am  satisfied,  be  found 
more  effectual  in  preserving  pills  soft  as  well  as  in  covering  the 
taste  and  smell  of  the  drugs  used. 
Professor  Christison  states  in  the  introduction  to  his  Dispen- 
satory, "  A  few  years  ago  it  was  ingeniously  proposed  in  France 
to  cover  pills  with  gelatine  by  dipping  them  into  a  solution  of 
bone-gelatine  or  isinglass.  The  method  is  troublesome,  but 
otherwise  answers  well  with  most  pills."  The  process  just 
described  is  equally  efficacious,  and  is  attended  with  but  little 
trouble. 
