i6i 
The  Pill  Subject. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      April,  1876. 
But  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  my  friend's  table,  on  page  124  of 
the  March  number  (before  quoted).  It  is  headed,  Comparative  table, 
showing  the  time  required  for  dissolving1  the  different  makes  of  pills,  as 
enumerated,  in  water,  at  10001  Fahrenheit,  and  in  a  solution  corres- 
ponding to  the  gastric  juice,  at  ioo°  Fahrenheit. 
Under  it,  by  casting  the  eye  down  the  first  column,  we  see,  not  only 
the  compound  cathartic  pill  dissolved 'in  plain  warm  water,  without  the  use 
of  even  weak  alkali,  but  rhubarb,  compound  rhubarb,  and,  worse  than 
either,  aloes  and  mastiche  ;  and  this  error  is  repeated  in  many  places, 
in  these  and  in  other  cases  throughout  his  table. 
How  was  the  solution  of  the  rhubarb,  mastiche,  calomel,  etc.,  etc., 
in  plain  water  accomplished  ? 
A  curious  error  in  this  connection  occurs  again  in  my  critic's  table,  on 
page  124.  The  second  pill  on  the  list  is  called  Pil.  Quiniae  bisulph.,  2  gr., 
and  it  is  under  the  column  officinal.  (?)  The  time  taken  to  dissolve  this 
pill  is  set  down  as  45  minutes,  in  water,  temp.  ioo°. 
He  himself  defines  a  regular  officinal  ready-made  pill  of  the  shop  as 
one  usually  made  in  strict  accordance  with  the  ingredients  and  excipi- 
ents  directed  in  the  United  States  "Pharmacopoeia."  See  page  1 21 
(12th  line  in  article). 
Now,  in  what  edition  of  our  national  authority  does  he  find  this  pill 
officinal  ?  and  how  could  he  use  officinal  ingredients  and  excipients  for 
it,  when  such  a  pill  does  not  exist  in  our  "  Pharmacopoeia"  ? 
The  next  attempted  criticism  is  in  relation  to  the  shaking  every 
three  minutes  in  the  case  of  the  gelatin  coated  pill.  It  will  be  observed 
that  the  time  referred  to  here  (18  hours)  is  in  the  first  case  connected 
with  a  distinct  sentence,  for  it  says,  Quinine  not  all  dissolved  in  18 
hours,  and  in  the  second  case,  Pill  retains  its  shape  for  24  hours. 
It  may  be  said,  also,  that  as  this  was  a  comparative  test,  as  soon  as 
the  position  of  the  pill  was  determined  in  the  race  the  point  was  set- 
tled, and  although  the  time  occupied  in  making  the  experiments  did 
extend  far  into  the  night,  the  terms  18  and  24  hours  do  not  fully  express 
the  full  time  that  it  did  take  to  disintegrate  the  pills  in  their  respective 
liquids,  the  actual  time  being  much  longer,  but  are  added  as  explanatory 
notes. 
The  next  point  as  to  how  temperature  can  be  maintained  is  not 
worthy  of  consideration,  and  was  not  stated  in  the  paper  because  the 
writer  believed  that  every  member  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  As- 
sociation knew  how  to  manage  such  a  simple  thing  as  this. 
1  Italics,  mine. 
