The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-18
MEDTCINE IN TABLErS.
F'v~ tie Nsw Ye,< San Of February s. IS1A
Increasing Use Of Drugs in This Form
Iustend Of Comp0unding BIZ
PFescriptyoo-


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 form Of tablets is ex-
tending - every day.
II Is only ten or fifteen years since COM
pressed tablets Of chlorate 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-
pared was extended until now
IL includes ~ thousands of COM
pounds $. Any physician may
ton of his own made up into tablets. Tho
usual requirement Is that at least S, 900 tab
lets shall be, ordered. Many well-known
prescriptions of famous physicians have ale
ready attained wide celebrity in the medi.
cal world through their use in tablet form.
5::; ss; $:;!, s:;s !iS X
mixture, Just as homeopathic
remedies are prepared in the form of sugar
pellets. 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 NAV or more
prescriptions in single tab
let. The general use of tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatly simphed the
practice of medicine. The physician. in
stead of writing prescription and instruct
ing his patient to have il compounded by
druggist, leaves the necessary number oftab-
let's with instructions as to the
time d manner OF ~ "A taking.
Nearly every physician WS0 is pro-
vidcd with some such tablets.
and many use them in great quantities.
Tons of drugs are now put up in this form.
1t is the wholesale method of modofh life
applied to the preparation Of me6icines.
Apothecaries have felt the .eHeeY of the
change in practice - through the les
:;ass :;95I.n. 70 3: !: s%sssss:i ss#ss, s' s'i
the cost of doctoring. for the physician
obtains the tablets at so low a rate that
he usually makes no charge for those sup
piled to his patients. New as
the use a ~ OF tablets is, the form
of the ~ ~ tablet has been
greatly improved since their in
PRODUCTION into medical practice. Tablets
are smaller and more compressed than they
were few years ago. The machinery for
making them originally
was, and RAA perhaps still is, con-
troled by VrV 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 to call their products to
the attention Of physicians, the
tablets very a IA slowly made their
way, because NJ the patentees we're
not widely - known in the med
ical profession. Then they associated them
seveSnvith famous drug house, and the
tablets soon began TO go.
Only the simpler drugs and remedies put
MP in tablet form are accessible to the
general public. The compounds are not
even known by - name outside
the m dica al a profession. AS
they are not -2 patent medi-
cnes they are - not advertised in
other than medical newspapers. They come
TO ophysicians with label that proclaims the
ingredients and their proportions. Physi-
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 carrie s ~ ~ and buy their
drugs in large m quantities di.
rectly from manufacturers.
INTERESTING SECRET HISTORY OF AN OLD
TIME REMEDY.
A certain well-known preparations Is so
largely prescribed by physicians that it's use
by them may be said TO be universal. Con-
x,.reat;nnoilv n ic cpoLan nf aonono the,,-
selves as the r. & S. Compo." If you
are i'll and call the doctor, no
=:::; -, :: +; (: ::
"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
rural districts. is usually prepared in fluid
form, sometimes in powders; but of late it
has been found possible to prepare 1t in tab
lets, the form now so popular with physi-
clans for all standard m d l.
cnes. So enormous AA the
demand. FIR m c0 physi-
clans solely, for he - various
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 il
borne in mind, was to physicians alone, or
TO fll 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
the letters X. & S.
RirANs TABULEs.
The Ripans Tabules represent the latest
and most improved form OF this prepara-
ton. The separate letters composing the
word R-I-P-A-N-s are the initials of the six
ingredients. Any doctor knows what they
are. The A and N represent the principal
sa:Ss sss as.s sssn Ne 1s%' who S
q dyspepsia - remedy, and
has once experienced the beneficial results
of these tabules in case OF biliousness,
headache or any disorder Of the stomach,
liver or bowels, will ever afterward consent