Ferri Et Ammonii Citras

Lanoline is an excellent excipient (see next paragraph), but quite as good a mass is made with 5 grains of soft manna to 15 grains of the citrate, half a grain of powdered tragacanth being triturated with the salt. Proof spirit makes an excellent mass, which has to be finished off quickly. Pills of this salt and the following should be dispensed in a well-corked vial.

Ferri Et Quininae Citras

Good pills, which keep their shape and do not deliquesce, can be made by using resin ointment as an excipient. Even better are lanoline 3 parts and water 1 part for 30 parts of the citrate. Mix the citrate with the lanoline first. Proof and rectified spirits make a good mass, but in both cases the mass must be rolled out quickly. Avoid glycerin.

Ferri Sulphas

The granulated sulphate is preferable to powdered crystals for making into pills ; it is generally free from adhering moisture, can be readily reduced to impalpable powder and massed with glycerin of tragacanth with the addition of a little powdered sugar. When 5 grains of the sulphate is prescribed for one pill it is necessary to use the dried salt, of which 3 grains equals 5 grains of the undried. One peculiarity of the dried sulphate when massed is that the pills are apt to crack. Liquid glucose is a perfect excipient for the dried salt; 36 grains requires about 12 grains of the liquid.

Fiant pil. xxx.

This was made into a mass with 4 grains of tragacanth and a little glycerin, but after about three weeks the pills cracked. A mixture of glycerin (1 part) and water (2 parts) makes a much better mass in this case, especially if a few grains of powdered acacia is used along with the tragacanth, and triturated with the iron salt before the other ingredients are added.

A favourite pill of the late Sir Andrew Clark's was:

Fiat pilula.

If an aqueous excipient be introduced the soap and sulphate of iron react, forming oleate of iron, and producing a very crumbly mass; but if massed with a drop or so of glycerin and spirit a capital pill results.

Ferrum Redactum

A gritty, intractable substance. It should be rubbed down to fine powder, a little powdered liquorice added, and a mass made with glycerin of tragacanth or liquid glucose. Extracts should as far as possible be avoided, as they may be sufficiently acid (although they should not be) to react with the iron and develop hydrogen, thus causing the pills to swell. The following was quite intractable to the first dispenser:

Fiat pilula.

If dried extracts are used, glycerin of tragacanth makes a fair pill, but a better one is produced by drying the extract of henbane, mixing the oil with the iron, adding the extracts and a third of a grain of lanoline, and massing.