THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
DECEMBER,  1885. 
PILLS  AND  EXCIPIENTS, 
By  Thomas  S.  Wiegand,  Ph.  G. 
Bead  at  the  Pharmaceutieal  Meeting,  November  17,  1885. 
In  the  August  number  of  the  "Chicago  Pharmacist'^  there  appeared 
a  paper  upon  pills,  by  Mr.  Joseph  Ince,  taken  from  the  ^'Pharma- 
ceutical Journal  and  Transactions/'  of  London.  This  with  the  exam- 
ination of  some  pills  of  mercurous  iodide,  to  which  my  attention  had 
been  directed,  induced  me  to  bring  the  subject  before  our  meeting  this 
afternoon.  I  do  this  with  more  pleasure  as  there  are  many  here 
present  who  have  not  had  sufficiently  long  experience  to  have  attained 
that  familiarity  which  practice  and  very  extended  observation  can 
alone  give  them,  that  is  necessary  to  decide  the  many  points  that  are 
involved  in  the  compounding  of  many  of  the  prescriptions  which 
direct  the  remedies  to  be  dispensed  in  pillular  form.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  repeat  the  statements  of  the  treatises  on  pharmacy,  that 
the  excipient  should  be  in  complete  chemical  as  well  as  therapeutic 
accord  with  the  medicines  ordered ;  but,  while  it  is  admitted  by  all, 
very  many,  both  of  the  prescribers  and  compounders,  are  either  igno- 
rant or  negligent  of  these  two  laws. 
The  paper  above  alluded  to,  while  giving  a  great  many  excellent 
formulas,  has  given  some  which  are  liable  to  very  severe  criticism,  as 
a  sample  which  I  will  submit  will  prove  beyond  all  question. 
Another  paper,  published  in  the  September  number  of  the  "  Pharma- 
ceutical Journal  and  Transactions,"  written  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Morris,  also 
contains  hints  and  advice  which,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  any 
full  and  systematic  treatise  upon  this  subject,  it  is  well  for  all, 
especially  the  younger  pharmaceutists,  to  gather  up  as  a  part  of  the 
knowledge  which  ere  long  must  decide  their  claims  for  skill  in  this 
part  of  their  calling. 
Some  years  since,  the  writer,  in  an  article  in  the  '^American  Journal 
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