414 
A  Medley. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  September,  1915. 
bits  of  paper.  It  looked  all  right,  but  the  first  pound  sent  out  was 
returned  in  a  hurry.   The  paper  was  still  there. 
With  the  facilities  at  hand,  recrystallization  was  out  of  the 
question,  but  nearly  two  hundred  pounds  of  material  could  not  be 
wasted,  especially  in  the  face  of  a  rising  market.  Then  came  the 
magic  inspiration  of  the  electric  fan.  A  small  fan  was  set  awhirl  at 
one  end  of  a  long,  narrow  table.  The  table  was  covered  with  clean, 
heavy  paper,  and  along  the  edges  was  placed  a  row  of  wooden  boxes 
to  prevent  the  potassium  bicarbonate  from  rolling  to  the  floor.  The 
end  was  left  open. 
Through  the  swift  current  of  air,  passing  along  this  narrow 
channel,  the  material  was  allowed  to  drop,  a  handful  at  a  time.  Away 
went  the  paper — big  bits  and  little  bits — in  a  merry  whirl,  while  the 
heavy  chemical,  bright  and  clean,  dropped  on  the  table,  freed  from 
its  troublesome  companion.    Scarcely  a  pound  of  material  was  lost. 
How  do  you  clean  capsules  after  you  have  filled  them  with 
powdered  material?  Do  you  wipe  them  on  the  towel  at  the  pre- 
scription counter — whether  that  towel  is  clean  or  otherwise?  Well 
— don't  confess  what  you  do — just  try  this.  Take  a  piece  of  absorbent 
gauze  of  such  size  that  it  can  be  folded  into  a  square  of  eight  or 
ten  inches,  having  four  thicknesses  of  material.  Place  the  capsules 
to  be  cleaned  in  the  centre  of  this.  Gather  up  the  corners  and  edges 
of  the  gauze  square  into  one  hand,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  capsules 
are  suspended  in  a  loose,  bag.  Now  rub  this  bag  across  the  palm  of 
the  other  hand  a  few  times,  pressing  firmly.  Each  capsule  is  rubbed 
between  the  layers  of  gauze,  and  every  particle  of  powder  is  removed, 
leaving  it  bright  and  clean. 
You  are  in  a  hurry  for  some  camphorated  oil.  You  crush  the 
camphor  into  coarse  lumps  and  throw  it  into  the  oil,  put  the  mixture 
on  a  water-bath  for  an  hour  or  so,  and  return  to  find  lumps  of 
camphor  still  in  evidence.  Then,  if  you  are  of  that  temperament, 
there  follow  a  few  splutters,  dashes,  blanks,  and  exclamation  points, 
but  the  camphorated  oil  is  still  unfinished.  Before  you  try  it  again, 
go  to  your  hardware  dealer  and  spend  from  75  cents  to  $1.25  for  an 
almond  grater.  Put  your  camphor  into  this  machine,  a  few  lumps 
at  a  time,  turn  the  handle,  and  have  the  camphor  in  an  almost  uni- 
formly fine  granule.  Add  this  to  your  oil.  Put  it  on  the  water-bath 
and  have  your  preparation — less  the  dashes,  etc. — in  fifteen  minutes. 
Speaking  of  the  almond  grater,  you  will  be  surprised  at  the 
