Am.  Jour.Pharm.  ) 
Sept.  1, 1874.  | 
Wistars  Lozenges. 
403 
the  quality  of  the  gum  used — the  best  gum  taking  the  most  water. 
The  tendency  of  the  mass  to  take  on  an  elastic  condition,  like  India 
rubber,  which  is  the  terror  of  all  makers  of  "  Wistar,"  is  owing  to 
the  gum  getting  wet.  If  the  gum  can  be  kept  dry  until  the  lozenges 
are  rolled,  the  mass  is  easily  worked,  and  then  the  absorption  of  the 
water  by  the  gum  hardens  the  lozenge  at  once,  and  prevents  their 
flattening.  Therefore  make  the  water  thick  by  dissolving  the  sugar 
in  it,  so  that  the  gum  gets  wet  slowly.  I  made  a  syrup  with  seven- 
teen pounds  of  sugar  to  the  gallon  of  water,  and  used  it  before  cold 
enough  to  deposit  sugar. 
Each  lot  of  gum  should  be  tested  as  to  the  water  it  will  bear,  and 
if  it  will  not  allow  all  the  sugar  to  be  put  in  as  syrup,  the  rest  should 
be  added  in  very  fine  powder.  A  good  hand  can  make  two  pounds 
an  hour,  and  some  can  make  four  pounds  in  that  time. 
The  tendency  to  brownness  can  be  overcome  by  care  in  mixing  ;  it 
depends  on  the  order  in  which  the  gum  and  licorice  are  added,  though 
I  do  not  now  remember  just  how.  I  can  make  them  chestnut  or  blackr 
at  will. 
The  best  materials,  of  course,  make  the  best  lozenges,  and  are  the 
easiest  to  work. 
There  is  another  point  to  be  considered,  and  that  is  the  weather. 
In  Philadelphia,  it  is  of  no  use  to  try  to  make  good  round  lozenges 
when  the  wind  is  easterly.  In  Cincinnati,  the  conditions  are  re- 
versed, and  the  west  wind  is  bad  for  them. 
The  ill-shaped  and  flattened  lozenges  that  are  so  often  met  with, 
are  probably  those  made  when  the  wind  was  wrong.  They  absorbed 
moisture  at  first  instead  of  drying,  and  fell.  Those  made  during  a 
cold  northwest  wind  (in  Philadelphia)  dry  in  a  few  hours. 
A  great  many  druggists,  with  less  knowledge  of  the  mechanical 
properties  of  gum  arabic  than  they  should  have,  have  tried  to  make 
these  lozenges  by  pressure,  forcing  the  mass  through  holes.  It  can- 
not be  done  ;  because  it  takes  enormous  power,  and  because  the  sur- 
face of  lozenges  so  made  will  always  be  rough  and  torn,  and  must  be 
so  from  the  nature  of  the  mass.  But  the  idea  constantly  comes  up 
again,  and  machines  are  made,  and  fail.  As  late  as  1847  I  found  a 
sanguine  inventor,  working  mysteriously  in  his  back  shop  with  closed 
doors,  but  his  results  have  never  been  published.  He  would  not  allow 
me  to  see  the  machine,  but  I  drew  out  from  him  the  admission  that 
he  was  working  on  the  old  maccaroni  plan. 
