224 MOHR AND REDWOOD'S PRACTICAL PHARMACY. 
which adheres to the surfaces of the pills should be put into 
the box. Pills thus prepared have a much cleaner and more 
finished appearance than those to which a quantity of unat- 
tached powder is added, as is generally the case when mag- 
nesia or liquorice powder is used. 
"The application of gold or silver leaf to the surface of 
pills is a very ancient method of covering them. The gilded 
or silvered pill is still occasionally administered, but much 
less frequently than formerly. The method of gilding pills 
is very simple. The pills are first rolled and cut on the 
machine, the mass having been previously made rather 
stiff, and little or no powder of any kind used on the pill- 
machine. Two or three sheets of gold leaf are now put into 
a suitable box. A turned box of a globular form, consist- 
ing of two hemispheres fitting together, and the capacity of 
which is about two ounces, is usually employed ; but in the 
absence of this, a two ounce chip-box will answer the pur* 
pose. The metallic leaves having been loosely put into the 
box, the fore-finger and thumb of each hand of the opera- 
tor is moistened with thin mucilage of gum-acacia, and two 
pills being rolled in the fingers so as to moisten their sur- 
faces and render them adhesive, these are dropped into the 
box ; others of the pills are subsequently treated in the same 
way, taking care that none of the pills thus introduced shall 
come into contact with the ungilded surfaces of those pre- 
viously put in. When six or eight pills have been intro- 
duced into the box, the lid is put on, and a circular motion 
is given to the box, by which the gilding is effected. The 
process is repeated in this way until the whole number of 
pills required have received the metallic coating. 
" The same mode of operating is adopted when silver leaf 
is used. 
" Of all the methods adopted for covering pills this is the 
most objectionable. Gilded pills have often been found to 
pass through the entire alimentary canal without under- 
