MOHR AND REDWOOD'S PRACTICAL PHARMACY. 219 
form a mass which may be divided into twenty-four pills, 
the size of which will not be inconveniently large. If strong 
essence of ginger, made as described at page 274, be em- 
ployed, each pill will contain the active matter of fully two 
grains of ginger. The soap should be first rubbed with the 
essence, the rhubarb added, and the mixture allowed to 
stand until, by the evaporation of part of the spirit, it has 
acquired a good pilular consistence. 
" Aloes may be taken as the type of the next class of 
substances to be noticed. The resinous extracts, resins, 
and gum-resins, will come into the same class. Soap, 
mucilage, proof-spirit, and alkaline solutions will be found 
to be suitable excipients in these cases. Aloes forms an 
excellent pill mass with a few drops of compound decoc- 
tion of aloes, the efficacy of which probably depends upon 
the presence of the alkali. The gum-resins will assume 
a good pilular consistence on pounding them with a little 
carbonate of potash without any other addition. The resins 
sometimes require a little spirit, but unless there be other 
solid ingredients present which are insoluble in the spirit, 
the pills thus made will often lose their shape. In such 
case soap should be substituted for spirit. Thus, the aloes 
and mastic dinner pills, when spirit is used in making them, 
inevitably lose their globular form, but this will not occur 
if soap and a little water be employed as the excipients. 
vj of aloes, §ij of mastic, gss of soap, and f^ss of water, 
mixed in an iron mortar previously made hot, will afford 
a good plastic mass while warm, and if rolled out while in 
this state, the pills may be kept in quantity without losing 
their form. They may also be made with tolerable success 
with mucilage. 
"The volatile oils and oleo-resins constitute a class of sub- 
stances which are occasionally made into pills, and in such 
case require peculiar excipients. Balsam of copaiba may 
be taken as a type of this class. Magnesia is the excipient 
most generally applicable. The copaiba balsam will gene* 
