The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-07
The Independent Pharmaceutical
Company May Soon Be Forced
to Increase Its Quarters
Again
IA VISIT TO THE
MAY STREET FACTORY
Work Is Unusually Interesting As
it Has to Do Entirely With
Making Remedies For the Ills to
Which Every Man, Woman and
Child is Heir

A comparatively new industry in
Worcester, of only about five months
actual work, has been established in
1.-THE old factory of the Hammond Or
gan Reed Company 9 May Street, by
the independent Pharmaceutical Com
pany which has been obliged to in
crease its quarters as has been told in
The Spy, from 5000 square feet of floor
space to 10000, and it is growing. A
reporter for The Spy went through the
establishment yesterday afternoon and
found the work unusually interesting
as it has to do entirely with making
remedies for the ills to which every
man, woman and child is heir.
Contrary to the usual opinion, the
company is not engaged in a business
to compete with the drug stores. 1t
does not make patent medicines of any
description and does not compound
prescriptions, except those of a uni
versal standard used by physicians in
their daily practice. The company is
established by physicians, is made up
of physicians and is for physicians.
The present stockholders number about
800 physicians and the company is now
doing a business with 500 physicians
and the number is growing larger
every day.
The company was organized to save
the immense profits made by outsiders
in providing standard drugs etc, for
the medical fraternity and the stock
holders work on a sort of a co-opera-
tive plan as the goods made by the
company are sold to the stockholders,
as well as others, and the profits go to
the stockholders. so the bigger bust
ness that is done the greater will be
the profits.
1t is the first plant of the kind es-
tabished in this section of the country
and a tour through the rooms shows a
novel industry that must be seen to be
thoroughly appreciated. One of the
features of the company's business is
the preparation of surgical supplies,
completely sterilized, and a visit to this
department gives one the idea of an
operating room in a hospital as the
young women engaged in the work
wear pure white gowns and caps and
everything is as neat and clean as the
hospital quarters.
A sample of the work done here is
the preparation of sutures for sewing
up cuts and wounds made in surgical
operations. The catgut and silk worm
] gut sutures and thoroughly sterilized
three times before they are sealed in
glass tubes which have to be broker
before the gut can be reached for use
in the operating room. Although the
, company is young its catgut sutures
! are the only kind used at the Massa-
chusetts General Hospital and the Bos'
ton City Hospital, the Hartford City
l Hospital and the three general hos
pitfalls in the state of Maine.
} Something new that is being made
, by the company is a plaster-of-Parts
/ bandage for use in case of fractures
In Olden times when a surgeon wished
to put a fractured limb in a plaster-of-
Paris cast he had to mix his plaster in
bowl and then spread it over the
bandage previously applied. The new
bandage does away with all this rather
nasty work. The bandages of thir
gauze are cut to the required width and
then passed through a lot of plaster-of-
Paris, the young woman operative
using a wooden seraper to get the plas-
ter into the meshes of the bandage
One passage of the bandage through
= the plaster is enough and as it is
passed through it is wound into a roll
Of any required length. This roll is put
, into a tin box Theoretically sealed and
; the bandage is ready for the surgeon
All he has to do is to dip the roll in
water and put on the bandage as he
would the ordinary kind. AS the plas-
ter dries it hardens and forms a cast
l1I llG illilD ltldl Is stronger Llldn the
old kind because it has added to it the
: meshes of the bandage. 1t is cut with
a knife with great difficulty, but after
line is made on it and drop of water
run along the line, the bandage can be
cut as easily as so much putty. The
! new bandage is meeting with great
: favor in the operating room.
: Another new thing is a box for use in
| obstetrical work by the physicians. In
many homes the material that is best
suited for this work is not ready at
{ hand but the Worcester company sup
plies this in a box containing all kinds
? of bandages, Wads of absorbent cotton
, and other things needed. Everything
is sterilized and sealed in the box
: which can be ordered by the physician
whenever he is called.
The company also makes surgica
/ gowns to be worn in the operating
room and the North Adams Hospital
: has just been fitted out with an en-
, tirely new outfit of these gowns from
, the Nav Street concern.
The manufacture of the stock tab
let's carried by physicians is an inter-
esting operation as all kinds of drugs
are used in the operation from the per
Ifectly harmless to the deadly poison
. The compounds are thoroughly mixed
by a couple of endless screws in a ma
chine specially prepared for the work
They are first mixed in a dry condition
= and then mOistened and mixed again
and set aside to dry. The compound
is then ground into the required fine
} ness and put into the tablet making
: machines, which are nearly human in
their operations, stamping out the tab
= lets of the required size as long as the
= supply Of material remains in the hop
= per. The tablets are carefully sorted
and those that are not pleasant to the
taste are given a coating of sugar OF
chocolate in another department of the
factory.
The tablets which require poisOns in
their compromising are made in the
same way but under different condi-
ton. The mixing is done in hermetical-
~ sealed cylinders SO that the poison
cannot get into the air and the tablet
making machine is in a closed room by
itself so that the poisonous powders
cannot fly around any great space. The
machine is automatic so that after the
hopper he has only to start the ma
the machine will pound out tablets IN
til all the material is used.
This department of the concern has
already grown too small for the de-
mand and four new tablet makers have
been ordered, making the number that
will be in use in a short time. eight.
The company has the best bandage
cutting machine in existence and the
only one Of its kind ever made. The
roll Of cloth from which the bandages
are to be made is run through the ma
ichine which is equipped with a series
! of knives with razOr-1f<p edges These