272 
MEDICINAL  DRAGEES  AND  GRANULES. 
process  may  be  briefly  summed  up  :  firstly,  the  rapidity  with 
"which  they  are  made,  a  clever  workman  easily  making  a  batch 
of  100,000  pills  in  a  day  and  a  half ;  secondly,  their  uniform 
roundness  and  pleasant  appearance  contrasted  with  that  of  ordi- 
nary pills  ;  thirdly,  their  compactness  and  hermetic  enclosure, 
which  insures  their  keeping  without  change,  and  at  the  same 
time  allows  of  their  easy  solution  in  the  stomach,  envelope  and 
excipient  being  both  perfectly  soluble. 
Granules  containing  1  milligramme  of  powerful  medicines, 
such  as  arsenious  acid,  sodic  arseniate,  digitaline,  aconitine,  etc., 
are  much  prescribed  by  continental  physicians,  especially  in 
Italy ;  and  where  a  regular  or  gradually  increasing  dose  of  any 
such  medicine  is  required,  no  system  so  completely  fulfils  the 
prescriber's  intentions,  combined  with  so  little  inconvenience  to 
the  patient.  In  making  these  granules,  the  active  ingredient 
is  usually  dissolved  in  the  syrup,  the  bulk  being  merely  pow- 
dered sugar.  Thus  in  making  10,000  granules  of  sodic  arseniate, 
dissolve  in  500  grammes  of  syrup  10  grammes  of  the  arseniate, 
with  which  gradually  moisten  the  granules,  the  operator  rubbing 
and  agitating  them  the  whole  time  to  prevent  their  adhesion. 
Leptandrin,  assafoetida,  and  many  other  nauseous  substances, 
are  commonly  encased  in  sugar  by  our  American  confreres,  who 
certainly  display  much  ingenuity  in  the  manner  in  which  they 
cater  for  public  patronage,  some  of  their  convenient  inventions 
having  become  quite  indispensable  to  the  upper  class  of  that 
country.  At  the  works  established  at  St.  Denis  by  M.  Menier, 
and  now  belonging  to  the  Pharmacie  Centrale  of  France,  the 
dragees  and  granules  are  made  by  steam-machinery,  and  the 
rapidity  of  the  operation  is  increased  by  a  blast  of  warm  air 
driven  upon  the  basin,  which  revolves  eccentrically,  rendering 
it  almost  impossible  for  the  granules  to  adhere  to  each  other. 
Sugar-coated  semen-contra  is  also  much  used  as  a  pleasant 
remedy  for  worms  in  children,  their  resemblance  to  caraway 
comfits  conducing  much  to  their  easy  administration.  But  here 
we  are  trenching  on  the  domains  of  the  confectioner,  from  whom 
many  a  lesson  is  to  be  learnt  in  the  art  of  rendering  nice  and 
attractive  much  which  is  in  the  crude  state,  to  say  the  least, 
disgusting  and  repulsive.— Zowc?.  Pharm,  Journ,^  March^  1870. 
Paris, 
