1 hi the tiiuuafioi) or pounding of medicines, metallic
2 vessels titier should be used, as they not unfreqnently
3 impart their properties to the drugs, changing their
4 colors, &c. Hard-stone, glass, or china mortars, are tin-
5 best. The spatula or spoon used to clear the pestle and
6 remove the powder which may adhere to the mortar,
7 must, not he metallic, but ivory or bone.
8 The following three Recipes may suffice as specimens
9 of (he tl nee different modes of preparation :
10 I. Take of washed and dried Turkey fig-seeds, from 1 to 5
11 grains; white sugar, 15 grains; starch-pulp .sufficient
12 to make a paste: begin bv putting the fig seeds into the
13 mortar, moistening them with drops of proof-spirit,
14 crushing them into a mass; arid the sugar, in small
15 quantities, during trituration, reducing the whole to an
16 impalpable powder; then, add starch-pulp, sufficient to
17 make a paste, from which 25 lozenges are to be mad'.
18 All medicines of the first class to be prepared in a
19 similar manner.
20 3 . Take of finely out fulminating cotton, from 1 to 2 grains;
21 white sugar* 40 grains; starch-pulp sufficient to make a
22 paste: from winch mass 50 lozenges arc to he made.
23 All medicines of the second class to be prepared in a
24 similar manner,
25 3. Take of fulminating silver, from 1 to 2 grains; while sugar,
26 80 grains; starch-pulp sufficient to make a paste: from
27 which mass 100 lozenges are to be made.
28 All medicines of the third class to be prepared in a
29 similar manner.
30 N.B. —To avoid accidents from the explosion of fulminating metal., the) must
31 be carefully managed, prepared in small quantities, and kept moist with spirit.
32 The sugar:to be in a pulverized state when added, mul before proceeding to
33 trituration, it must be thoroughly mixed, by the ivory spoon or spatula.