5i8  Stearic  Acid  Coating  for  Enteric  Pills.    { AxoTemb^Pi9iT' 
As  to  the  number  of  pills  that  can  be  coated  in  a  vessel  of  given 
size,  twenty- four  to  thirty  can  be  conveniently  done  in  the  one  de- 
scribed. Even  fifty  can  be  done  in  this  vessel,  but  experience  will 
be  needed;  for  fifty  or  more  pills  a  larger  dish  should  be  provided, 
or  the  lot  divided  for  treatment. 
To  indicate  the  wide  scope  of  possibilities  in  salol-coating,  pills 
which  have  been  massed  with  petrolatum  have  been  coated,  and  a 
sample  is  here  shown.  Gelatine  capsules  are  also  ordered  to  be 
salol-coated.  This  can  be  done  by  the  same  method.  Hard  capsules 
containing  liquids,  such  as  creosote,  can  be  coated  by  first  placing 
the  capsule  inside  of  a  slightly  larger  one.  A  sample  is  here  shown. 
Soft  elastic  capsules  may  also  be  enveloped  in  salol  as  sample  shows 
(Proc.  Penn.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1915,  p.  258). 
STEARIC  ACID  AS  A  COATIXG  FOR  ENTERIC  PILLS.1 
By  William  G.  Toplis. 
The  subject  of  this  paper  has  been  more  or  less  in  doubt  for 
several  days  contingent  upon  certain  results  within  my  own  economy. 
It  was  our  desire  to  prepare  a  reliable  coating  for  pills  that 
should  protect  the  medicament  from  any  action  in  the  stomach  and 
release  its  activity  in  the  intestinal  tract. 
Such  products  being  commonly  known  as  Enteric  Pills,  the 
problem  naturally  divided  into  several  sub-divisions : 
First.    Selection  of  the  coating. 
Second.    The  application  of  the  coating. 
Third.    Proving  the  effectiveness  of  the  coating. 
First.  The  selection  of  the  coating  material,  of  necessity,  is  con- 
trolled by  its  behavior  in  the  juices  of  the  stomach.  Certainly,  the 
material  should  remain  intact  there,  and  on  passing  into  the  intestine 
it  should  readily  yield  to  the  intestinal  secretions.  Having  in  mind 
the  acid  reaction  of  the  stomach  and  the  alkalinity  of  the  intestinal 
tract,  the  material  that  seemed  to  meet  both  conditions  most  admir- 
ably was  Stearic  Acid.  Therefore,  a  consideration  of  the  properties 
of  Stearic  Acid  was  necessary  to  carry  out  the  second  step,  namely : 
Second.    The  application  of  the  coating. 
The  first  plan  tried  was  fusing  Stearic  Acid  and  dipping  into  the 
liquid  the  pills  by  means  of  pins  after  the  ancient  manner  of  gelatin 
1  Proc.  Penn.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1915,  p.  262. 
