The pills were coated with a mixture of talc and sugar, tinted an orange colour; after removing the coating they had an average weight of 1·1 grain. Analysis showed them to contain small quantities of powdered capsicum, powdered liquorice, and maize starch; 23 per cent. of ash, about half of which consisted of silicious matter and was apparently talc that had got into the pill from the coating; the remainder of the ash showed the usual constituents of the ash of vegetable drugs and extracts, together with a small quantity of zinc, which was present in the pill in the metallic state and was presumably derived from some vessel used in the preparation; a bitter extract, agreeing in its properties with extract of cascara sagrada, constituting the major portion of the pill; and a resinoid substance which resembled iridin. As a definite formula cannot be given for such a pill, the cost of ingredients can only be estimated somewhat roughly. After making liberal allowance for the unknown resinoid, the estimated cost of the ingredients of the quantities of the three preparations supplied for 4s. 6d. is three-farthings. CHAPTER XVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR RUPTURE. Advertisements of means of curing rupture without operation are very common, but in most cases the advertiser has for sale a special form of truss or other appliance. The disorder is so well-known to be of a mechanical or structural nature, that it might have been thought that it would hardly have been worth anybody’s while to advertise drugs for its cure. Nevertheless there are, at least, two instances in which medicine for internal or external use is supplied; the results of examination of these are here given. RICE’S TREATMENT FOR RUPTURE. The following is a specimen of the wording of the advertisement of this “treatment” which used to be, and perhaps still is, very commonly illustrated by a picture of a bricklayer filling up a hole in a wall: RUPTURE CURED. Do You See this Bricklayer Closing up the Opening in that Wall. That is the way to cure _Rupture_, by filling in the opening with _new_ and _stronger_ tissue. A rupture is simply a break in a wall—the wall of _muscle_ that protects the bowels and other internal organs. It is just as easy to cure a wound or break in _this_ muscle as one in the arm or hand. Now this break may be no larger than the tip of your finger. But it is large _enough_ to allow part of the intestines to crowd through. Of course, this cannot _heal_ unless nature is _assisted_. That is just what this Method does. It enables you to retain the protrusion inside the wall in its proper place. Then we give you a Developing Lymphol to apply on the rupture opening. This penetrates _through_ the skin to the edges of the opening and removes the _hard ring_ which has formed around the break.