MODE  OF  MANUFACTURING  SUGAR-COATED  PILLS,  ETC.  199 
It  is  about  the  same  strength  as  that  produced  by  the  formula 
given  in  the  third  edition  of  Parrish's  Pharmacy,  which  solution 
has  been  used  as  a  hydragogue  cathartic  with  succes  for  many 
years,  and  is  believed  to  be  the  one  in  most  general  use  at  the 
present  day. 
I  have  examined  a  sample,  as  made  by  a  House  in  this  city, 
and  sold  very  largely,  and  found  it  to  be  of  nearly  the  same 
strength  as  above. 
ON  THE  MODE  OF  MANUFACTURING  SUGAR-COATED 
PILLS  AND  GRANULES. 
By  Henry  C.  Archibald. 
(An  Inaugural  Essay,  presented  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.) 
The  manufacture  of  sugar-coated  pills  and  granules  hav- 
ing of  late  become  a  source  of  great  profit  and  trade  to  the 
apothecary,  the  mode  of  manufacturing  them  being  kept  secret, 
and  the  views  advanced  by  some  of  our  leading  pharmaceutists 
being  wholly  inadmissible  in  preparing  them,  I  have,  from 
long  practical  experience  in  their  manufacture,  determined  to 
make  it  a  subject  for  an  essay.  In  order  to  make  a  pill  that 
shall  medicinally  come  up  to  the  standard  of  the  U.  S.  Pharma- 
copoeia in  therapeutic  effects,  the  greatest  care  requisite  in  their 
manufacture  is  in  the  selection  of  the  drugs  that  enter  into 
their  composition ;  for  that  purpose  it  is  advisable,  when  you 
manufacture  them  largely,  to  buy  the  crude  drugs,  and  from 
them  prepare  extracts,  powders,  &c,  so  as  to  insure  the  relia- 
bility of  the  pills,  and  to  keep  up  for  them  the  reputation  they 
so  richly  deserve  if  properly  prepared. 
The  first  step  in  the  process  of  manufacturing  pills  is  essen- 
tially as  follows :  Sufficient  mass  is  made  up  at  one  time  to  be 
capable  of  being  divided  into  2000  'pills,  great  care  being 
observed  to  have  it  of  sufficient  hardness  and  tenacity  to 
insure  the  pills  after  formation  against  indentation  by  pressure 
and  crumbling  into  irregular  pieces;  after  which  the  mass  is 
rolled  between  two  boards,  the  upper  with  teeth  inserted  for 
cutting  the  mass,  the  bottom  one  having  a  guage  attached  to 
the  sides  so  as  to  regulate  the  sides  to  suit  the  mass  to  be  sub- 
