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METHODS  OF  MAKING  MEDICINES  AGREEABLE,  ETC. 
pleasant  taste,  ready  acceptability  to  the  stomach,  and  efficiency 
even  in  small  doses,  its  easy  preparation,  all  render  it  valuable 
to  the  physician  and  profitable  to  the  pharmaceutist,  and  yet 
there  are  but  comparatively  few  pharmaceutists  who  prepare 
it  at  all. 
Lactate  of  iron  is,  perhaps,  best  exhibited  in  the  lozenge 
form.  I  have  noticed  an  elegant  pastill  of  lactate  of  iron  of 
French  make,  which  are  sold  by  importers. 
The  oil  or  butter  of  the  cocoa  nut  is  an  elegant  vehicle  for 
the  preparation  of  ointments,  on  account  of  its  snow  white  color 
and  agreable  odor.    It  is  less  liable  to  become  rancid. 
The  butter  of  cacao,  or  the  chocolate  nut,  is  used  sometimes 
for  enveloping  pills  ;  also  for  making  suppositories. 
Although  there  seems  to  be  much  difference  of  opinion  among 
English  pharmaceutists  concerning  the  value  of  concentrated 
infusions,  as  compared  with  those  prepared  by  the  officinal 
methods,  there  is  one  thing  certain,  that  from  the  ease  with 
which  the  concentrated  ones  are  kept,  in  spite  of  their  not 
becoming  officinal,  they  will  be  thus  prepared  and  kept  by  most 
pharmaceutists. 
Of  all  saline  aperients  and  cathartics  the  solution  of  citrate 
of  magnesia  seems  to  have  reached  the  popularity  due  to  it  as 
the  most  agreeable  ever  invented.  Its  use  is  yet  somewhat  con- 
fined to  the  larger  towns  and  cities,  Though  from  the  improve- 
ments made  in  its  preparation,  so  that  it  is  permanent,  it  can 
be  kept  any  length  of  time  and  easily  transported  to  any  part 
of  the  country, 
A  dry  and  soluble  citrate  of  magnesia  prepared  after  the 
method  of  Robiquet  and  mixed  with  flavored  sugar,  bi-carb., 
soda  and  citric  acid,  forms  a  portable  and  exceedingly  pleasant 
aperient  salt  for  travellers  to  carry. 
The  French  put  the  soluble  citrate  of  magnesia  up  into  pas- 
tills,  each  of  which  contains  one  gramme  of  the  salt. 
The  fluid  magnesia  of  Sir  James  Murray  is  easily  prepared  by 
any  pharmaceutist  possessed  of  an  apparatus  for  making  mineral 
water.  This  bi-carbonate  is  an  eligible  ant-acid,  much  used  by 
the  English ;  it  is  aperient  in  large  doses,  its  cathartic  effect 
being  enhanced  by  drinking  it  with  a  portion  of  syrup  of  citric 
acid,  by  which  a  portion  of  the  bi-carbonate  is  converted  into 
