230 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
so that, hereafter, physicians can direct that pills shall be 
covered with gelatine, as heretofore with silver. 
The least skilful apprentice, after a few trials, can prepare 
two hundred pills in an hour, and they can be delivered one 
or two hours afterwards. 
MODE OP PREPARATION. 
After having made the pills of the size directed, they are 
placed upon the point of a pin; I employ black pins, which 
are long and thin. Purified gelatine is then dissolved in a 
little water, at a moderate heat, so that when cold it shall 
have the consistence of thick jelly; to an ounce of gelatine, 
two or three drachms of water are sufficient. When thus 
prepared, it is kept in the proper state by a salt water bath, 
otherwise there would form on the surface a pellicle which 
would impede the operation. Things being thus arranged, 
the pills are dipped into the solution, so as to cover them 
entirely, and, while withdrawing, a rotary motion is com- 
municated; the pins are then stuck into any tenacious mass, 
or a pincushion, so as to keep the pill erect in the air, in the 
same way as in making oxygenated matches. When about 
fifty pills are prepared in this way, the hole formed by the 
introduction of the pin is to be obliterated. In order to accom- 
plish this, the pin is held in the flame of a taper and heated, while 
the pill is removed; the heat thus communicated is sufficient 
to liquify the gelatine around the point of connexion, and 
solders up the vacuity. In this way a pill is obtained per- 
fectly round and shining, with no vestige of the hole, and 
having the peculiar color of the mass. Care must be taken 
not to allow the gelatine to become too dry, for then, 
instead of melting, it becomes corneous by heat. 
For such pills as I have presented to the Society, as those 
of musk, assafoetida, and camphor, a single layer of gelatine is 
sufficient to mask their odor; but for certain substances having 
a penetrating smell, as balsam of copaiba, animal oil, the vo- 
latile oils, &c, it is necessary to dip them a second time in 
the gelatine. 
