The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-05-14
MEDTCTyE IN TABLEr1 -
Ebsn the Nsw Yeyk San Of February s, Sd1t.
Increasing Use Of Drugs In This Ferm
Instead Of Comp nding by
Rrescrinflon

A comparatively recent invention, vastly
extended In It's application within three or
four years. has wrought a curious change
In the practice of medicine. Country ply
sicians 100 years ago, when there were
few druggists outside OF considerable towns,
carried in their saddle bags or medicine
chests az variety Of drugs, pills.
powders. "a potions, lotions -and
what not. ~ Such physicians made sas
furnished their patients with medicines. The
use Of medicines in the form of tablets
tends more and more toward return of
modern physicians to the methods OF their
predecessors. Physicians everywhere now
write fewer prescriptions than they wrote
ten years ago, or even two years
ago. and the use of medicine
in-the V4 w. form of tablets Is ex-
tending - every day.
II is only ten or fifteen years since COM
pressed tablets of chloratc of potash began
TO be used. Other simple drugs were then
put up in tablet form, and gradually The va
riety Of drugs and prescriptions thus pre-
Il includes .A thousands Of COM
now have &M1D almost any prescrip-
ton of his own made up into tablets. The
usual requirement is that at least 5000 tab
lets shall be ordered. Many well-known
prescriptions of famous physicians have al
ready attained wide celebrity in the medi-
cal world through their use in tablet form.
Hundreds of liquid - prescriptions
re thus used by saturat-
Ing inert material SmW with< the
mixture, lust as homoeoI I,athic
remedies are prepared in the form OF sugar
pellets.a. The tablet factories are constantly
experimenting with view to reducing fur
ther drugs and prescriptions to tablet form.
They are ready to vary known prescriptions
In accordance with the fancy
of individual physicians,
and to combine one VhI2 or ore
prescriptions in single tab
let. The general use OF tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatlv simpihed the
practice of medicine. The physician, in
stead of writing prescription and instruct
ing his patient 10 have IL compounded by
druggist, leaves the necessary number OF tab
let's with instructions as to the
time d manner of AA taking.
Nearly every physician V.1 is pro-
yided with some such tablets,
and many use them in great quantities.
Tons of drugs are now put up in this form.
Ii is the wholesale method of modern life
applied to the preparation Of medicines.
oothecaries have felt the effects Of the
u nge in practice through the les
ing In the number OF pre-
lotions to be VyEsV compounded.
the patient II has cfeapened
cost of doctoring. for the physician
Rains the tablets at so low rate that
3 usually makes no charge for those sup.
yiied TO his patients. New as
she use Il Of tablets Is, the form
If the tablet has been
greatly - improved since their in
PRODUCTION into medcri, practice. Tablets
are smaller and more compressed than they
were few years ago. The machinery Tor
making them originally
was, and AAA perhaps still Is, con-
trolled by NMW a single whole
sale drug - house of this city,
but there are many manufacturers of tab
lets here and elsewhere. When the pat
entees first began toseall their products to
the attention of physicians, the
< tablets very 6A slowly made their
way, because ~ the patentees were
not widely - known in the med
zeal profession. Then they associated them
eelvef~witb famous drug house. and the
eabiets soon began TO 60.
Only the simpler drugs and remedies put
up In tablet form are accessible to the
general public. The compounds are not
even known by name outside
the m lie al profession. - A s
they are not N2patent medi-
Cines they are not advertised in
other than medical newspapers. They como
tophysicians with label that proclaims the
ingredients and sheir proportions. Phys:-
clans have the good repute of the manu-
facturer as guarantee that tablets are made
of pure drugs and carefully compounded.
The best tablet manufacturers
employ skilled and careful
apot he carries and buy their
drugs In large = quantities di.
rectly from manufacturers.
INTERESTING SECRET HISTORY OF AN OLD
TINE REMEDY.
A certain well-known preparation Is 20
largely prescribed by physicians that its use
by them may be said to be universal. Con-
versationally it is spoken of among them
selves as the X. & S. Compo." If you
are i'll and call the doctor, no
some one of the - forms of the
"R. & S." prescription. Its use has been
growing more general for hundred years,
and has been vastly increased of late by
slight Improvements found to be important
in effects. The prescription, especially in
S,ral districts. is usually prepared in fluid
hrm, sometimes In powders bat Of late it
has been found possible to prepare 1t In tab
lets. the form now SO popular with physi-
Clans for ali standard me d l.
cines. So enormous AAis the
d demand, fr o m ~0 physi-
clans solely, for the - variou $
forms of this preparation that single
manufacturing chemist in New York City
made and sold $4,000 pounds of these
tablets in the year Iso3-and this. be 1t
borne in mind, was to physicians alone, or
to I'll orders from dealers from whom ply
sicians obtain their supplies. Every physi-
clan of eminence has his r. & S."
formula, varying more or less from the
original, but substantially the same-that
Is, depending upon the bases indicated by
che letters K. & S. q
RIPANs TABULEs.
r. A. 4.