AmMay?i893arm*}    Preparation  of  Compressed  Tablets.  213 
the  crystals,  in  the  original  folds,  and  pressed  between  folds  of 
bibulous  paper,  under  weights,  for  half  an  hour.  The  filters  are 
then  opened,  and  when  the  morphine  is  spread  out  upon  the  inner 
one,  they  are  dried  at  6o°  C.  or  1400  F.  until  they  cease  to  lose 
weight.  This  is  the  crude  morphine,  and  if  a  small  portion  of  it  is 
found  to  be  entirely  and  quickly  soluble  in  one  hundred  times  (or 
more)  its  weight  of  lime  water,  the  weight  of  the  morphine  multi- 
plied by  10  is  accepted  as  the  percentage  of  morphine  yielded  by 
the  laudanum." — Laboratory  Smith,  Kline  &  French  Company, 
Philadelphia. 
ON  THE   PREPARATION  OF   COMPRESSED  TABLETS. 
By  J.  A.  McFerran,  M.D. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  April  25. 
Prescriptions  are  a  matter  of  confidence  between  the  druggist  and 
physician,  and  no  measure  of  compliments  can  do  away  with  the 
responsibilities  of  either  toward  the  sick.  Both  should  be  thor- 
oughly competent  to  do  their  duties  in  a  practical  way.  Neither 
can  delegate  to  others  any  part  of  their  duties;  both  have  noble 
callings,  and  there  should  be  as  much  conscience  on  the  part  of  the 
compounder  of  medicines  as  on  that  of  the  prescriber.  Medicines 
are,  to  a  large  extent,  the  means  used  by  the  physician  to  meet  the 
onset  of  disease.  The  physician  chooses  the  remedies  and  trusts  to 
the  druggist  to  prepare  them.  In  these  progressive  times  the  phy- 
sician too  often  forgets  the  great  purposes  of  his  profession  by  giv- 
ing importance  to  manufacturers'  compounds ;  and  the  druggist 
eager  for  trade  lowers  himself  to  localized  venders  of  ready-made 
prescriptions.  This  state  of  affairs,  the  druggist  says,  has  been 
brought  by  the  physician  ;  and  the  doctor  says  the  fault  rests  with 
the  druggist  in  not  keeping  up  with  the  demands  of  practical  phar- 
macy. I  think  the  trouble  is  somewhat  with  both  ;  the  doctor  is  often 
too  indolent  to  think,  and  the  druggist  too  lazy  to  work.  The  doctor 
prescribes  pills  of  valerianate  of  zinc,  granules  of  strychnine,  elixir 
of  quinine,  iron  and  strychnine,  and  an  innumerable  multitude  of 
other  ready-made  compounds.  The  druggist  buys  his  extracts, 
tinctures,  confections,  and  pills,  and  lozenges,  from  the  manufactur- 
ing chemist,  labels  them  with  his  own  label,  and  calls  his  place  a 
pharmacy.  In  neither  case  is  the  patient  getting  what  he  pays  for, 
the  best  thought  of  his  physician  or  medicine  compounded  by  the 
