The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-13
MEDICINE nv TABLEfs. . :
From khs Nssv Ye,k San Of FsSyssyyS S. 1874
Increasing Use of Drugs In This Form
Instead Of Compounding by
Dsasertnsfan- q


Increasing Use of Drugs In This Form
Instead Of Compounding 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 phy-
sicians 100 years ago, when there were
few druggists outside OF considerable towns,
carried in their saddle bags or medicine
chests a. 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 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
i'm the ~ FE form Of tablets is ex-
tending - every day. q
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 ~ thousands of COM
pound S. ~ Tr Any physician may
now have ~ almost any prescrip-
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 al
ready attained 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 VnZ withe the
mixture, lust as homoeorathic
remedies are prepared in the form OF sugar
pellets.r 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 w- the fancy
of individual ANh physicians.
and to combine one SA.Z or ore
prescriptions in a single tab
let. The general use of tablets instead of
prescriptions has greatly smplifed the
practice of medicine. The physician, in
stead Of writing prescription and INSTRUCT
ing his patient to have ir compounded bya
druggist, leaves the necessary number oftab-
lets with instructions as to the
time al d manner of A& taking.
Nearly every physician ~ is pro-
yided 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 vtsf1 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 hkl H \ of tablets is, the form
of the XN ~ tablet has been
greatly - improved since their in
PRODUCTION into medical practice. Tablets
are smaller and more compressed than they
were fewyears ago. The machinery for
making them originally
was, and MAvA perhaps still is, con-
troled by VaH2 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 we're
not widely a3-~ known in the med
ical profession. Then they associated them
selvesaEth famous drug house. and the
tablets soon began to 80.
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 edical "A profession. A $
they are not 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.
The best tablet manufacturers
employ skilled and careful
apot hecaries ~ - and buy their
drugs in large = quantities di.
rectly from manufacturers.
INTERESTING SECRET HISTORY OF AN OLD.
TINE REMEDY.
A certain well-known preparation Is so
largely prescribed by physicians that its use
by them may be said to be universal. Con-
vcrsationally it is spoken of among them
selves as the " r. & S. Compo." If you
are i'll and call the doctor, no
matter what else 4 ~ you get, you
arc m d eratcly VI1 certain TO get
some one Of the ~ forms of the
" X. & S" prescription. It's use has been
growing more general for hundred years,
and has bccn vastly increased of late hv