1 Vll
2 starch-pulp. They are made in a machine adapted to
3 the purpose, similar to an ordinary pill-machine. One
4 drachm of the paste is placed on the machine and rolled
5 to a cylinder, which, in pressing, is cut into sixty long-
6 shaped lozenges, and then dried.
7 I prefer the long-shaped, or, the flat lozenges to the
8 round, because they are easier handled. Pills are round
9 for the convenience of swallowing, but lozenges are
10 intended to be dissolved in the mouth.
11 Physicians themselves ought to prepare the medicines
12 they prescribe, or, at all events, to see them prepared,
13 never trusting their prescriptions (as is customary) to
14 ordinary apothecaries ; for, besides their own reputation,
15 the health and the life of their patients depend upon the
16 accuracy of the preparation. I hold every physician
17 responsible for whatever mistakes arise in the preparation
18 of his prescriptions ; whether from the apothecary’s
19 ignorance, from involuntary mistakes (which are of
20 daily and hourly occurrence) from the common practice
21 of substituting one drug for another, or, from what
22 cause soever.
23 At Lahore, I often found, that on sending for the
24 same article to different shops, I received as many dif-
25 ferent articles; and I have pretty solid grounds for sup-
26 posing that the like may not be a rare case in Europe.
27 As the druggists at Lahore and other places in the
28 Punjab, receive their drugs from Umritsir (one of the
29 most important cities, in a commercial point of view) I
30 recommend all physicians in that quarter to procure such
31 drugs as they require, from Umritsir, where there is
32 more abundant choice, and where the articles are less
33 expensive than at Lahore.