Am,Febri8P76arm"}      Extemporaneous  Coating  of  Pills.  71 
when  well  covered  they  are  gently  rotated  in  a  clean  4  ounce  patch 
box.  As  the  quantity  of  mucilage  used  was  sufficient  to  keep  this 
coating  quite  soft  and  moist,  a  quantity  of  dusted  sugar  is  added,  and 
the  agitation  continued.  This  gives  a  sugar-coated  pill,  very  white 
and  smooth,  and  is  easily  done. 
In  coating  pills  with  French  chalk,  in  order  to  have  a  good  coating, 
care  should  be  used  in  selecting  the  chalk ;  only  fine,  white  pieces 
should  be  taken.  These  can  be  readily  powdered  by  rubbing  on  fine 
sand-paper  tacked  to  a  smooth  board.  It  should  be  sifted  through  a 
very  fine  sieve.  The  commercial  powder  is  dark-colored  and  gritty, 
thus  rendered  unfit  for  coating. 
In  making  and  coating  our  own  pills,  there  is  not  only  the  satisfac- 
tion of  knowing  that  they  are  correctly  made  and  contain  what  the 
label  calls  for,  but  the  difference  in  cost  will  amply  repay  one  for  the 
time  he  may  spend  upon  them.  Thus,  pills  of  iodoform  and  iron,  of 
1  grain,  quoted  at  one  dollar  per  hundred,  net,  can  be  made  for  thirty- 
five  cents  ;  compound  pills  of  quinia,  quoted  at  ninety-three  cents  per 
hundred,  can  be  made  for  sixty  cents  ;  5  grain  blue  mass  pills,  quoted 
at  twenty-five  cents,  can  be  made  for  eight  cents,  etc.  This  difference 
in  cost  alone  ought  to  induce  dispensing  pharmacists  to  prepare  their 
own  pills,  then  the  wholesale  pill  makers  might  go  on  making  their 
elongated,  compressed  or  any  other  pill  that  pleases  them. —  The  Phar- 
macist, January,  1876. 
EXTEMPORANEOUS  COATING  OF  PILLS. 
BY  A.  F   W.  NEYNABER,  NEW  YORK. 
Why  can  pills,  as  they  are  made  in  the  retail  prescription  department,  not 
be  coated  there  also  with  sugar,  gelatin  or  some  such-like  suhstance  ? 
They  can  easily  be  coated  with  gelatin,  according  to  the  directions 
given  in  the  old  edition  of  "  Griffith's  Formulary,"  (also  third  edition, 
p.  643),  or  in  "  Wood  and  Bache's  U.  S.  Dispensatory,"  12th  or  13th 
edition,  with  a  little  expeience  of  the  pharmaceutist. 
Pills  can  also  be  coated  in  the  retail  prescription  department  with 
sugar. 
The  success  in  coating  pills  rests  chiefly  with  the  first  process  in 
mixing  the  mass.  The  state  of  dryness  of  the  pills  has  the  most  influ- 
ence on  the  operation  of  coating  with  sugar  as  well  as  with  gelatin,  and 
pills  can  be  thoroughly  dried  only  if  they  have  been  prepared  with  the 
