The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-20
MEDYCTvE Nv TlBxE1a
$>osN fhs Asza Teyk Sss OF February s, ~
yncrcasing Use Of Drugs On This Feru
Instead of Compromising by
Presentation.


Instead of Compromising by
Prescription.
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 phy-
sicians 100 years ago, when there were
few druggists outside Of considerable towns.
carried ia their saddle bags or medicine
chests variety of drugs, pills,
powders, - IA potions, lotions and
what not. W. 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 n return OF
modern physicians TO the methods OF theiy
predecessors. Physicians everywhere now
write fewer prescriptions than they wrote
ten years ago, orevcn two years
ago. and ~ - the use of medicine
il he NJ r-y form of tablets Is ex-
tending 4E~ every day.
Ii is only ten or fifteen years since cona-
pressed tablets of chlorate OF potash began
10 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 Of com.
pound S. ~ wryj Any physician may
now have almost any prescri1.
ton of his own made up into tablets. Tho
usual requirement is that at least 1000 tab
lets shall be ordered. Many well-known
prescriptions OF famous physicians have al.
ready attained a wide celebrity in the medi.
cal world through their use in tablet form.
Hundreds of liquid prescriptions
re thus used BY MlM saturat-
ing inert material VMV W hf the
mixture, Just as homoeo,,athic
remedies are prepared in the form Of sugar
pellets.xs 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 u~- the fancy
of individualA AVM physicians.
and to combine one SAI or more
prescriptions in a > single tab.
let. The general use OF tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatly simpIifed the
practice of medicine. The physician. in
stead of writing prescription and instruct-
ing his patient to have it compounded bya
druggist, leaves the necessary number Of tab.
lets . with instructions as to the
time an d manner of A$ taking.
Nearly every physician yS0 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 mod.rn life
applied to the preparation of medicines.
Apothecaries have felt the effects of the
ssanse seDsg Praifes Through nmSs1 II The les
scriptions TO be yAv compounded.
For the patient it has cheapened
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 - of tablets Is, the form
of the Vl ~ 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 &AA perhaps still is, con-
trolled by VEAI a single VIII OLE
sale drug ~ house Of this city,
but there are many manufacturers Of tab
lets here and elsewhere. When the pat.
cntees first began to call their products to
the attention Of physicians, the
tablets very nM slowly made their
way, because ~ ~ the patentees we're
ical profession. Then they associated them
selvef with 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
4: ;s:y "a ss' G Ss':s; S';';:;''. a:s,
cines they are not advertised in
other than medical newspapers. They come
to tophysicians 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 hecaries and buy their
drugs in large - quantities di.
rcctly 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 it is spoken of among them
selves as the T" X. & S. Compo." II you
are i'll and call the doctor, no
matter what else "A you get, you
are m o derately Ws certain to get
some one 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 1t in tab
lets, the form now SO popular with physi-
clans for all standard m c il
cines. So enormous ~ @Ais the
demand, FIR o m W. physi-
clans solely, for the 8~ various
forms of this preparation that single
manufacturing chemist in New York City
made and sold $4,000 pounds of these