The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-02-05
MEDICINE IN rhRLKrs.
H-erssst-s Use OF Drues H. rats Fsr- t.
stead OF CS-pousdinu hy Prsscrtpttou.

Hueressirs Use OF Drues T. Thts Fsrn Il.
| stsss OF Co-pouudinr by Prescription.
A comparatively recent invention. vastly ex
tended in its application within three or fou
years. has wrought curious change in the
practice Of medicine. Country physicians 1OC
years ago, when there were few druggists out
side OF con siderable towns. carried in their sad.
die bags or medicine chests a variety Of drugs
pills. powders. potions. lotions and what not
Such physicians made up their own prescrip.
tions and furnished their patients with medi.
cines The use, OF medicines in the form Of
tablets tends more and more toward return
| OF m odern 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 form Of tablets Is extending
every day.
It 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 variety Of
drugs and prescriptions thus prepared was
extended until now 1t includes thousands OF
compounds. Any physician NAV now have al
most any prescription Of hts own made u p into
tablets The usual requirement. is that at
well-known prescriptions of famous phy al
clans have already attained \ wide celebrity in
he medical world through their use in tablet
form. Hundreds OF liduid prescriptions are
thus used by saturating inert material with
the mixture, Just as homeopathic remedies
are PREPARED In the form OF sugar trelets. The
tablet factories arc constantly experimenting
with Wow to reducing further drugs and pre-
vary known prescriptions In accordance with
the fancy ofiD dvidu physicians, and to com
hine one or more prescriptions in single tab
The general use Of tablets instead OF pre-
seL,ptl9ns has greatly fmpIiied me prsGtice
prescription and instructing his patient to
have II compounded by druggist. leaves the
necessary number OF tablets with instructions
as to the time and manner Of taking. Nearly
every physician is provided with some such
tablets and many use them in great uuanti-
form. 1t Is the wholesale method Of modern
ie applied to the preparai,9nn OF medieip ,n
change in practice through the lessening in
the number OF prescriptionS TO be COM
the cost OF doctorinR. because the physician
obtains the tablets at SO low a rate that he
usually makes no charge for those supplied to
New as the use Of tablets is. the form OF the
Sned hsi ee en-, Grest mproysd sinSs Their
are sma Her and moro compressed than they
were a few years ago, The machinery for
still is, controlled by single Wholesale drug
house OF this city. but there are many manu-
facturers Of tablets here and elsewhere. vi hen
the patentees first began to call their products
TO the attention OF physicians. the tablets very
were not widely known IN the medical pro-
fession. Then they associated themselves
with a famous drug house, and tho tablets
soon began to go.
only the simpler drugs and remedies put up
in tablet form are accessible to the general
public. The compounds are not oven known
by name outside the medical profession. As
they are not patent IN edicines they are not adj
yettised in other than medical nowspapera
They come to phy sicians with a label that pro
claims the ingredients and their proportions.
PHYSICIANS have rs guarantee that tablets nre
made OF pure drugs and carefully com pou nded
only the good reDute OF the manufacturer.
The best tablet manufacturers. however EN-
ploy skilled and careful apothecaries and
buy their drugs in large quantities directly
from manufacturers. There is. OF course u
possibility OF m iRtaEes aud the results OF error
might be- appalling. since tablets arc made
BY the thousand, so that a mistake might af-
feet hundreds OF patients.