Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/137

 vapor in aquæ distillatæ, 30·5; syrupi simplicis 15 grammes; ferri sulfuric. sicci, 30; quibus caute mixtis adde kalii carbonici, 30; et inter agitatione ope spatula ferreæ in balneo vaporis evaporando ad massam pilularum redige; e qua forma pilulas 120; obducantur argento foliato."

There has been much discussion concerning the best method of making these pills so as to keep them from oxidation. Honey was for a long time generally used as the excipient, but glycerin and sugar are generally preferred with gum acacia or tragacanth. Pilula Ferri, B.P., is a substitute for Blaud's pills.

An electuary for rheumatism bearing this title was evidently popular under the above name in the early part of the nineteenth century, but I have not been able to discover where or when or with whom it originated. The compilers of books of formulas naturally copy from each other, and consequently a legend once started is likely to become crystallised.

In The Chemist and Druggist, of June 13th, 20th, and 27th, 1896, an attempt was made to track this medicine to its origin, and a number of old formulas were sent in by correspondents. The statement is made in many books that the compound acquired its name from the circumstance that the recipe for it was given by a Chelsea Pensioner to Lord Amherst for gout and proved so successful that Lord Amherst gave him £300 and an annuity of £20. Sometimes this story associated Lord Anson with the pensioner and the amounts given in gratitude varied from £300 to 500 guineas, with an annuity sometimes of £20, sometimes of £30, and