The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-05-11
MEDYCIyB IN TABLEf2 =
Eysm fAs Nsp Yevk Sss Of Fs5rsssy s. SSpA
Increasing Use Of Drugs In This Fern
Instead Of Compounding by
Presentation.

-"~
Increasing Use Of Druss IN This Fern
Instead Of Compoundins BY
Prescription.
A comparatively recent invention, vastly
extended IN its application within three or
four years. has wrought curious change
In the practice of medicine. Country ply
sicians 100 years ago. when, there were
few druggists outside or ofconsiderable towns,
carried In their saddle bags or medicine ?
chests 49, variety Of drugs, pills,
powders. - potions. lotions and
what not. n.y. 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 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 W form of tablets Is ex-
tending ~ every day.
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-
pared was extended until now
IL includes sA thousands of COM
pounds. Any , physician r,.sI;,9I may
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 all
ready attained wide celebrity in the medi-
cal world through their use in tablet form.
Hundreds of liquid ~ prescriptions
re thus used by MiM aturat-
Ing inert material NmI he the
mixture, Just as homoe0,athc
remedies are prepared in the form OF sugar
pellets.4p 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
!. :;.:; !, q; CD :;,;;;; :;,: 4;
let. The general use Of tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatlv simplifcd the
practice of medicine. The physician. in
stead of writing prescription and instruct
ing his patient to have it compounded by
druggist, leaves the necessary number OF tab
let's with instructions as to the
time n d manner of M~A taking.
Sss5y s every y physician .ass 80 ,,.,e,s j; p,s.
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.
Apothecares have felt the effects of the
change in practice through the les
sening in the YA number of pre-
scriptions to be ~ compounded.
For the patient il 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 z - of tablets is. the form
OF the 49, M 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 AAA perhaps still is. con-
troIled by VMO 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 IN slowly made their
way. because ~ the patentees were
not widely - known in the med
ical profession. Then they associated them
selvesnwith famous drug house. and the
tablets 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 die al profession. :. A s
they arc not N0 pate medi-
cines 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 carries IA and buy their
drugs in large - quantities. d =.
yectly from manufacturers.
INTERESTING SECRET HISTORY OF AN OLD
TIME REMEDY.
4 certain well-known preparation Is so
largely prescribed by physicians that its use
by them may be said to be universal. Con-
versationaly II is spoken of among them
selves as the g X. & S. Compo." IL you
are m moderately W certain to get
some on Q Of the forms of the
"R. & S." prescription. It's 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 It in tab
lets. the form now so popular with physi-
Clans for all standard m e d =
cines. So enormous AA s the
demand, fr o m WW physi-
clans solely, for the - various
forms of this preparation that a 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
10 fill orders from dealers from whom ply
sicians obtain their supplies. Every physi-
clan of eminence has his :" X. & S."
formula, varying more or less from the
original but substantially the same--that