Upon improvements in rendering medicinal preparations pleasing to the eye and taste, and agreeable to use : a paper read before the American Pharmaceutical Association at its Sixth Annual Meeting, (September 10th, 1857) / by Frederick Stearns.

  • Stearns, Frederick.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Upon improvements in rendering medicinal preparations pleasing to the eye and taste, and agreeable to use : a paper read before the American Pharmaceutical Association at its Sixth Annual Meeting, (September 10th, 1857) / by Frederick Stearns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    should have added to it a solution of the essential oil of the sweet orange. Comp. tinct. cardamom, concent, infus. of rose, are excel- lent additions to medicated acids or vinegar, covering a portion of their taste, and imparting an agreeable color. Prussic acid is best given in syrup of niarshmallow. Lactic acid, which is now coming into use as a remedy for dyspepsia, indigestion, etc., is made into an agreeable drink with water, sugar and essence of lemon ; it is also eligibly exhibited in the form of a pastill, in which form, also, the oxalic, tartaric, tannic and citric acids are most available. Inert powders, or those which are comparatively so, it is said, can be made to produce a medicinal effect much quicker by long trituration with sugar of milk; in the case of ipecacuanha or of opium, this effect is rendered much greater ;v long trituration of calomel with the same substance, renders minute doses of it equal, in rapid and permanent effect, to. quite large ones of the drug administered in the ordinary way. Tasteless powders should be administered with aromatics, the milder spices, Ceylon cinnamon and the like ; astringent powders can in this way be rendered less unpleasant. Cane sugar, well dried and reduced to the finest possible state of division, by long trituration in a mortar, is an elegant vehicle in which to administer the alkaloids, and their salts, quinia, morphia, etc. ; the modus operandi is as follows : instead of triturating the medicine and sugar together, mix the dose in its crystalline state, (without breaking it up,) by means of a spatula on a piece of paper, with a sufficient portion of the sugar pre- viously powdered. In this way each crystal becomes enveloped with a dust of saccharine powder, and when placed upon the tongue and washed down with a draught of water, leaves nothing upon it but the sweet impression of the quickly dissolved sugar. Mr. Maisch recommends the administration of the saline pow- ders, ammonia salts, iron salts, potassa salts, etc., in effervescing draughts, by which their bitterness or pungency is in a great measure overcome. Those pharmaceutists who furnish min- eral or carbonic acid water, possess the means of administer- ing many similar substances, in an agreeable manner ; a « Seid-