Camphora Monobromata

Reduce the monobromate to fine powder, mix with it pulv. tragac. co. 1 to 7, and mass with glycerin of tragacanth. A pill containing 1 grain each of menthol and the monobromate gave some trouble, as the ingredients liquefied. It made a good mass (twelve pills) with curd-soap powder 8 grains, powdered tragacanth 2 grains, water 1 drop, and kieselguhr to stiffen.

Cinchonidina and other cinchona alkaloids may be treated as quinine (which see).

Codeina

Alone this presents little difficulty: mix the powdered alkaloid with half its weight of powdered liquorice, and mass with glucanth or glycerin of tragacanth. The following combination is very hygroscopic:

Fiat massa et divide in pilulas xij.

The best plan is to work the whole together with 6 grains of compound tragacanth powder and 1 drop of proof spirit (if required), divide, and varnish.

Copaiba was at one time ordered very frequently in pill form, and magnes. carb. levis was the favourite excipient, but the mass so made becomes as hard as stone and is not disintegrated in the alimentary canal. Probably a part of the volatile oil may be assimilated, but this is doubtful. A better plan is to make a gum emulsion of the 'balsam,' and then add 1 part of calcined magnesia to every 10 parts by weight of 'balsam.' In about twelve hours the emulsion should be of the consistence of a thick salve. Now, by the addition of a very small quantity of borax, a pill-mass is obtained which leaves nothing to be desired. A pill taken in the mouth is at once brought to the condition of an emulsion, and the mass will keep for a long time, only requiring when it is old to be worked up in a warm mortar. Phosphate of calcium is also a good excipient.

Creosoti Carbonas (Creosotal)

This may be treated like creosote. The following is a practical example:

Misce. Fiat pil. Mitte xxiv.

Forty-eight pills had to be made out of the twenty-four in order to get them of a reasonable size. The creosotal, 20 grains of wax and 40 grains of curd soap, were placed in a wide-mouthed corked bottle and heated in a water-bath, with occasional shaking, till they combined. When cold, 30 grains of powdered liquorice and 5 grains of powdered tragacanth were added, and the whole well beaten in the mortar.

Creosotum

The late Mr. W. Martindale said the best material for combining creosote into pills is powdered curd soap. Put the soap and the creosote in equal parts into a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle; mix well, and digest on a water-bath till they combine. This, on cooling, forms a plastic mass suitable for forming pills, and can be combined with other ingredients, preferably in powder. A few shreds of yellow wax, with a little powdered soap, makes good pills, but the mass is somewhat insoluble unless liquorice is added. Mr. Lucas recommends creosote 50, powdered curd soap 35, and wax 15 to be melted together, and kept in stock for use as required. This mass contains 1 in 2, and gives a good pill with liquorice. Light calcined magnesia (1 grain to 2 minims) solidifies creosote in a few hours, and can then be easily worked into pills; but the pills thus made are as insoluble as marbles. Always be careful about using such articles as magnesia for pill-massing: in most cases a chemical change is the result. Powdered soap gr. ss. and powdered liquorice gr. iiss. make a good mass with 1 minim of creosote. Curd soap is better than Castile soap.

For example: Creosote mxij., curd soap, dried and powdered, gr. vj., phosphate of lime, q.s. This makes a good mass and a small pill, but Castile soap does not. Lycopodium and animal charcoal in equal parts are an excellent absorbent; so is kieselguhr.

Ft. pil. Mitte tales x.

This is a trying prescription. Soap and magnesia are not permissible with hydrarg. perchlor. Thirty grains of flour, 1 grain of tragacanth, and syrup q. s. make an excellent mass. Powdered cinnamon or cassia is a suitable powder in which to roll them. It is absorbent and covers the odour of the creosote.

Crystalline Salts, soluble in water, require a little care. They should be very finely powdered, and massed with glycerin of tragacanth and an inert powder. If to be silvered, they must be varnished with tolu, and allowed to dry, before using mucilage, or else silvered with the varnishing solution alone.

Fiant pilulae xv.

In this instance double decomposition takes place between the two salts, the water of crystallisation in the sulphate of iron being liberated; consequently a very small quantity of extract suffices to make a mass. As ferrous bromide is formed, the pills should be varnished and sent out in a bottle.

Fiant pilulae xxiv. Varnish with tolu.

This is likely to prove troublesome. The ferrous iodide recently prepared) should be powdered in a warm mortar, the other ingredients added, together with 5 grains of glycerin of tragacanth; the whole is to be vigorously worked together until it becomes plastic, rolled quickly, and varnished. Dispense the pills in a bottle. Six or eight grains of extract of gentian also makes a good mass.