PILLS  AND  EXCIPIENTS  FOR  THEM. 
195 
that  great  care  and  scrutiny  be  exercised  in  selecting  for  the 
purpose  fresh  and  well-preserved  orange  flower  Avater  of  the 
most  excellent  quality.  The  best  imported  into  this  market  is 
known  as  "  Chiris',''  yet  I  have  found  this  very  variable  in 
quality.  Different  samples  of  the  same  importation  will  some- 
times vary  very  much ;  the  quality  of  one  sample  in  richness 
and  delicacy  of  odor  and  flavor  being  far  superior  to  that  of  an- 
other, notwithstanding  the  same  care  having  been  bestowed  in 
the  preservation  of  each.  I  am  unable  to  account  for  this  dis- 
parity in  quality,  nor  have  I  met  with  any  of  the  importers  of 
or  dealers  in  the  article,  with  whom  I  have  conversed  upon  the 
subject,  who  could  give  me  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
matter.  I  presume,  however,  that  it  is  due,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  greater  care  and  skill  having  been  employed  in  its  manufac- 
ture, or  that  the  finer  qualities  having  been  distilled  from  a  finer 
quality  of  orange  flowers.  Hence  the  importance  of  much  care 
in  selecting  the  article,  as  an  inferior  quality  of  orange  flower 
water  is  entirely  worthless  for  any  purpose. 
The  proper  medium  dose  of  this  syrup,  when  employed  for  its 
therapeutic  efi'ects,  would  be  for  an  adult  about  a  tablespoonful, 
mixed  with  a  little  water  to  relieve  its  cloying  taste.  The  dose 
directed  in  the  last  edition  of  the  United  States  Dispensatory 
for  the  ofiicinal  syrup  is  a  fluidrachm,  which  certainly  is  ^feeble 
potion,  especially  when  the  dose  of  orange  flower  water  is  a  table- 
spoonful. 
JPhiladelphia,  March,  1870. 
PILLS  AND  EXCIPIENTS  FOR  THEM. 
By  Thomas  S.  Wiegand. 
The  subject  of  excipients  for  pill  masses  has  been  frequently 
referred  to  by  the  most  careful  pharmaceutists  as  one  of  the 
most  difficult  of  the  many  that  the  dispenser  has  to  meet  with 
in  the  daily  routine  of  his  duty ;  and  as  the  case  has  generally 
to  be  decided  at  once  there  is  but  little  time  to  consult  authori- 
ties, if  indeed  anything  applicable  to  the  instance  is  to  be  found 
in  any  systematic  treatise. 
It  was  partly  in  consideration  of  these  facts  and  at  the  re- 
