Quininae Sulphas

The simplest excipient is glycerin of tragacanth, or 5 per cent. of tragacanth well mixed forms a very good mass with simple syrup; a little glycerin may be added if the pills are to be kept long. The use of extract of gentian or other dark-coloured excipients is objectionable, as it is now universally recognised that white substances should be formed into white pill-masses. For this reason strong sulphuric acid alone has been much used as an excipient, 1 drop being sufficient for 4 grains of quinine; mass quickly and roll in French chalk or finely sifted arrowroot.

An excellent mass is made with tartaric acid and a little glycerin and water. For a dozen 5-grain pills take 6 grains of tartaric acid and rub it up with the quinine until it becomes crumbly, then add 2 drops each of glycerin and water, and mass quickly. Some object to tartaric acid because it alters the chemical constitution of the quinine salt, sulphotartrate being formed, but this is therapeutically the same as the sulphate.

The dispenser must use his judgment as to what may be the best excipient in unusual cases. Take, for example, such a prescription as the following :

M. Ft. pil. j. sec. art. Mitte xx., j. ter die.

In this case an inert powder, such as lycopodium or liquorice, adds too greatly to the bulk of the pill. If melted with a fifth of its weight of wax, the tar becomes more tractable, and masses well with calcium phosphate.

Resinous Ingredients In Pills

Gum resins and resins must be first rubbed to a fine powder, and, to prevent them sticking to the mortar, the latter and the pestle may be first rubbed with paper soaked in almond oil. The resinous powder is easily made into a mass with a few drops of spirit, but the pills so made do not keep their shape. To most of such substances, aloes especially, the addition of a little vegetable powder or scraped blotting-paper is advisable. Asafetida yields pills of good consistence with a few drops of weak spirit; but such an addition with aloes produces pills which flatten. Spirit should be added very cautiously, as it is often found, especially when any soap is present, that on working the mass becomes softer than it at first appears. Mucilage of acacia is a much safer excipient than spirit.

If spirit is used the main thing to be observed is not to add too much of it. The mass, for example, should never be made so soft as those massed with ordinary excipients, but should, on the contrary, be so hard as to roll only with some degree of pressure. If this be attended to the pills will not fall. Where, however, they require to be kept for a length of time, some less drying excipient should be used. In all cases where pills are composed mainly of resins, too much friction with the rounder in finishing them should be avoided. We have had occasion frequently to observe the peculiar effect which sharp friction (probably from the heat developed) produces on various resinous substances in the way of changing their physical properties, and in many instances the cause of pills falling is due as much to the friction used in rounding them with the finisher as to the excipient employed.

It is convenient to treat here a few examples of pills containing terebinthinous ingredients. The first is Clay's Chian turpentine pills, at one time considered a cancer specific :

Mass in a warm mortar, and divide into thirty pills.

This goes all right, but the addition of 15 grains of lycopodium is an improvement.

Make a pill. Send 144.

No. II. is a peculiar prescription. The best plan is to mix all the ingredients with 80 grains of calcined magnesia and 10 grains of Venice turpentine, and allow to stand for twelve hours, or even longer, when the mass becomes hard enough to mould into pills. The presence of much Venice turpentine keeps the mass soft, and the pills fall considerably.