The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-05-02
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yncreasins Uss Of Drugs In This Form
Instead Of Cempoundins by

A comparatively recent Invention, vastly
extended In its 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 g. variety Of drugs. pills,
powders, potions, lotions and
what not. ~ Such physicians made
up their - own prescriptions and
furnished their patients with medicines. The
use Of medicines in the form of tablets
tends more and more toward a 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 VM form of tablets Is ex-
tending - every day. 9
1t 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-
II includes ~ thousands Of COM
pound $. lE Any physician may
ton of his own made up into tablets. Tho
usual requirement is that at least 5000 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.
Hundreds of liquid prescriptions
re thus used by AAA saturat-
Ing inert material VMZ W IL hf the
mixture, ust as homoeotathic
remedies are prepared in the form Of sugar
pelIets.ls The tablet factories are constantly
experimenting with a view 10 reducing fur
ther drogs and prescriptions TO tablet form.
They are ready to vary known prescriptions
in accordance with the fancy
of individual physicians,
and to combine one SAZ or m ore
prescriptions In single tab
let. The general use of tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatly simplihed the
practice Of medicine. The physician. in
stead of writing prescription and instruct
Ing his patient to have 1t compounded by a
druggist, leaves the necessary number of tab
lets with instructions as to the
time d manner of AN taking.
Nearly every physician VS2 is pro-
vided 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 modern life
applied to the preparation of medicines.
Apothecaries have felt the effects Of the
change in practice through the les
sening in the number of pre-
scriptions to be V.[V compounded.
For the patient 1t has cheapcned
, the cost of doctoring. for the physician
obtains the tablets at SO low rate that
he usually makes no charge for those sup
piled to his patients. New as
the use q 4 of tablets is. the form
of the MI E 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
m king them originally
was, and AAA perhaps still Is, con-
trolled by V@W 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 to call their products to
the attention of physicians, the
tablets very d slowly made their
way, because the patentees were
OF widely - known In the med
ical profession. Then they associated them
ctlNcN0Hith - aahfStS NAs6 eeSS~~l ee<A s<sS
tablets soon began to gos
Only the simpler drugs and remedies put
up in tablet form are accessible to the
general public. The compounds are not
eve even known s,y by IN ; name outside
they are not NO0 patent medi-
cines they are - not advertised in
other than medical newspapers. They come
TO physicians 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.
.neos lae best ss.d sansi ana manuise;eIs,; sasfa
drugs in large n. quantities di.
rectly from manufacturers,
INTERESTING SECRET HISTORY OF AN OLD.
TIME REMEDY.
A certain well-known preparation Is so
largely prescribed by physicians that Its use
by them may be said to be universal. Con-
versationally 1t Is spoken of among thenS
selves as the " r. & S. Compo." II yod
a,s matter % 'sf Ths si sss iss sos sssss, s yos os
n II -