Covering pills with gold or silver leaf is a process which need not be described at great length. Silvering has largely gone out of fashion, and gilding is a refinement of pharmacy which the chemist is rarely called upon to perform. Like all pills which are to be coated, those that are to be silvered should be of firm consistence, and all powder should be carefully removed from them after rolling and cutting.

Pills in which there is asafetida, or any ingredient containing sulphur or sulphides, should be stiff, and must be varnished before they are silvered, otherwise the metal will blacken after a few days. A covered pot may be used to silver the pills, or even a 2-ounce chip box, but the boxwood silverer represented in the above cut is generally employed. The form of silverer with a foot to it is handier. Many experienced dispensers prefer the covered-pot arrangement, and use two pots-one for silvering,the other for polishing or for applying thin mucilage before silvering.

If the pills have been varnished with tolu or other varnish, the surface should not be allowed to dry hard before the silver is applied. In these cases use an alcoholic varnish, which dries more slowly than ether. One drop of weak mucilage is sufficient to damp a dozen 5-grain pills. Put it in a pot and spread out, drop in the pills, and rotate until all are smeared. Note that the pills should have a dull, not a glistening, appearance when they are ready for silvering. The wetter the pills are, the more silver leaf is required, and the finish is not so good. A single leaf of silver coats half-a-dozen 5-grain pills. Put a leaf in the coater, drop in six pills, another leaf, more pills, and so on. Cover and rotate briskly. To give them a bright polish transfer to the 'Goodess' finisher and rotate over Bunsen flame. Gold leaf is used in the same way.