A.ni.  Jour.  Pbarm. ) 
June,  1891  / 
A  New  Tablet  Machine. 
dish  of  water  will  do  very  well.  Ordinary  daylight  is  sufficient, 
although  sunlight,  of  course,  gives  splendid  effects,  the  same  with 
lamplight. 
Dr.  Van  der  Weyde's  black  glass  can  easily  be  fitted  (so  as  to  be 
removed  quickly)  to  the  mirror-bar  at  a  cost  not  to  exceed  one 
dollar ;  if  parties  are  handy  with  tools  they  can  do  it  for  a  few  cents. 
For  the  sake  of  convenience,  I  have  fitted  my  analyzer  to  go  over 
the  eye-piece.  A  wooden  ointment-box  (not  the  cover),  sufficiently 
large  to  just  slip  easily  over  the  eye-piece,  is  provided  with  a  hole 
in  the  bottom,  which  holds  the  analyzer  rather  tightly.  This 
arrangement  is  very  handy,  when  you,  in  the  course  of  examination, 
want  to  find  out  whether  the  sections,  crystals,  etc.,  polarize  at  all, 
and  then,  whether  it  will  be  worth  while  to  go  to  the  trouble  of 
"polarizing"  in  the  regular  way,  all  of  which  you  can  decide  in 
a  few  seconds  by  merely  putting  the  analyzer  on  top  of  the  eye- 
piece. 
Dr.  Van  der  Weyde's  remarks  about  the  little  knowledge  of 
physics  (natural  philosophy)  are  unfortunately  true.  We  pharma- 
cists, as  a  class,  are  fairly  well  acquainted  with  a  good  many  physical 
facts,  but  our  understanding  of  them  is  lamentably  deficient.  We 
have  learned  somewhat  to  reason  "chemically,"  but  very  few  of  us 
are  able  to  lucidly  explain  a  "  physical  "  fact. 
Yours  respectfully, 
Hans  M.  Wilder. 
Philadelphia,  April,  1891. 
A  NEW  TABLET  MACHINE. 
By  F.  W.  Jordan,  Ph.G. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  May  19. 
The  large  use  made  at  the  present  time  of  compressed  tablets 
induced  the  writer  to  endeavor  to  devise  a  machine  which  would 
enable  the  retail  druggist  to  make  tablets  for  prescription  purposes, 
and  which  would  be  large  enough  to  be  used  during  his  spare  time  in 
making  tablets  for  replenishing  his  stock.  Nearly  all  the  machines 
which  have  heretofore  been  invented  have  been  too  large  and  too  expen- 
sive for  the  use  of  the  pharmacist,  and  the  making  of  tablets  has  there-  . 
fore  been  mostly  confined  to  the  manufacturers.  Realizing  that 
economy  of  space  was  a  prime  requisite  in  contriving  a  machine  for 
the  pharmacist,  every  effort  was  made  to  make  it  as  compact  as 
