AmMaT'18P7h6?m-}      Modern  Methods  in  Pharmacy.  199 
pense  from  their  counters,  each  year,  a  large  amount  of  old  and 
worthless  pressed  herbs,  often  mouldy,  and  usually  full  of  stems, 
sticks,  dirt,  &c.  They  must  take  what  the  market  affords,  unless  they 
gather  prime  articles  at  the  proper  season.  But  it  may  be  well  to 
remember  that  prime  herbs  in  August  are  entirely  different  materials 
the  following  January,  unless  precautions  are  taken  to  preserve  them. 
The  process  of  preserving  herbs  in  tin  cans,  by  means  of  a  little 
chloroform,  was  suggested  to  me  by  the  late  Prof.  W.  B.  Chapman, 
of  this  city,  who  had  met  with  remarkable  success  in  applying  it  to 
ergot- 
MODERN  METHODS  IN  PHARMACY. 
BY  JOHN   F.  HANCOCK. 
In  considering  a  subject,  the  mind  should  not  be  fettered  by  preju- 
dice, nor  should  a  new  method  or  invention  be  condemned  before  the 
application  of  careful  tests.  The  pharmacist  who  desires  his  profes- 
sion to  be  progressive,  should  encourage  invention  and  discovery,  and 
adopt  methods  which  lighten  his  labors  by  facilitating  neatness  and 
accuracy  in  manipulation  and  expedition  in  the  dispatch  of  business. 
The  term  "  Elegant  Parmacy  "  is  frequently  misapplied,  but  we  often 
notice  elegance  in  quality  and  style  of  many  preparations,  which  mark 
a  striking  contrast  between  old  and  new  methods.  Elegance  consistent 
with  accuracy,  should  be  aimed  at  by  all  pharmacists  who  hope  to  ex- 
cel in  their  calling.  The  primitive  forms  in  which  medicines  have 
been  presented,  are  very  much  modified  through  the  influence  of 
science  and  education.  The  old-fashioned  decoctions  and  infusions 
have  been  displaced  to  a  great  extent  by  tinctures,  fluid  and  solid  ex- 
tracts ;  but  these  preparations,  though  vastly  superior,  were  not  much 
favored  at  first.  The  increase  of  chemical  knowledge  has  developed 
methods  by  which  crude  drugs  have  yielded  their  active  principles  in  a 
pure  and  concentrated  form. 
The  old  style  "  bolus  "  has  lost  its  repulsiveness  by  the  process  of 
extraction,  and  its  offspring,  the  modern  pill,  in  being  prepared  of 
extracts,  alkaloids,  resinoids,  etc.,  is  unobjectionable  in  size,  and  ren- 
dered more  acceptable  by  the  process  of  coating  with  sugar  or  gelatin, 
so  that  in  its  transit  to  the  stomach,  the  palate  is  not  offended.  The 
forms  of  medicines  known  as  granules,  pearls,  dragees,  globules,  cap- 
sules, cachets  and  compressed  sugar  and  gelatin  coated  pills,  are  of 
