520         METHODS  OF  MAKING  MEDICINES  AGREEABLE,  ETC. 
draughts,  by  which  their  bitterness  or  pungency  is  in  a  great 
measure  overcome.  Those  pharmaceutists  who  furnish  "min- 
eral" or  carbonic  acid  water,  possess  the  means  of  administer- 
ing many  similar  substances,  in  an  agreeable  manner  ;  a  "  Seid- 
litz"  is  in  this  way  administered  without  the  necessity  of  giving 
an  extra  dose  of  tartrate  of  soda. 
By  an  improvement  in  the  processes  of  capsulation,  the  most 
volatile  substances,  ether,  chloroform,  turpentine,  are  now  best 
administered  in  capsules  of  gluten  ;  these  are  imported  from 
France,  and  the  "  Perles  d'Ether"  of  M.  Clertan  are  certainly 
among  the  most  beautiful  and  finished  of  the  pharmaceutical 
productions  of  our  accomplished  co-workers,  the  French  pharma- 
ciens.  Each  capsule  contains  about  five  minims  of  ether,  the 
empty  capsule  weighing  but  about  two  grains. 
There  is  no  reason  why  our  list  of  officinal  syrups  should  not 
be  greatly  extended,  from  the  fact  that  sugar  is  an  excellent 
preservative  of  the  medicinal  virtue  of  plants,  proper  regard 
being  paid  to  the  separation  of  the  inert  maters  which  excite 
fermentation ;  its  agreeability  as  an  excipient  renders  it  grate- 
ful to  the  invalid  ;  the  cloying  effect  of  syrups  can  be  counter- 
acted by  the  addition,  at  the  time  of  using  them,  of  some  pleasant 
vegetable  acid  or  acid  syrup. 
Many  of  the  non-officinal  fluid  extracts,  now  so  popular,  could 
be  converted  into  concentrated  syrups  by  replacing  part  of  the 
hydro-alcoholic  menstruum  with  sugar. 
I  have  in  this  way  prepared,  successfully,  syrups  of  black- 
berry root,  ergot,  buchu,  blood  root,  black  cohosh,  capsicum, 
cranesbill,  dandelion,  golden  seal,  hyoscyamus,  horehound,  lobelia, 
sculcap,  yellow  dock,  etc. 
Unless  alcohol  is  desirable  in  fluid  extracts,  from  a  therapeuti- 
cal point  of  view,  it  seems  to  me  obvious  that  sugar  could  with 
advantage  replace  alcohol  in  nearly  all  the  non-officinal  fluid  ex- 
tracts, concentrated  tinctures,  etc.,  intended  for  internal  use.  A 
syrup  of  lime  has  been  introduced  as  a  substitute  for  lime  water, 
it  being  a  much  more  concentrated  form  of  lime  solution. 
The  phosphates  are  most  eligibly  exhibited  in  the  form  of 
syrups,  particularly  the  phosphate  of  lime  ;  a  syrup  composed  of 
a  solution  in  phosphoric  and  muriatic  acids  of  the  phosphates  of 
soda,  potassa,  lime  and  iron  with  sugar,  and  pleasant  flavoring, 
