32 
The  Sugar -Coated  Pill. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    January.  1902. 
THE  SUGAR-COATED  PILL. 
By  Wm.  R.  Warner,  Jr. 
In  itself  a  pill  does  not  present  a  very  weighty  or  complex  sub- 
ject for  discussion  or  essay,  and  yet,  what  a  boon  the  sugar-covered 
variety  has  proven  to  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  "  'Tis  a  bitter  pill " 
was  spoken  of  ye  old  time  pill,  and  how  true  the  saying !  For 
several  centuries  all  sorts,  sizes  and  conditions  of  pills  and  boluses, 
unsightly,  bitter  and  nauseating,  were  made  and  poked  down  the 
throats  of  the  unwilling  patients. 
It  was  not  until  1856  that  the  really  scientifically  prepared  and 
inviting  sugar-coated  pill  was  manufactured  and  introduced  in 
America  by  Mr.  Wm.  R.  Warner,  at  that  time  retail  apothecary, 
located  in  Philadelphia,  who  had  spent  much  time  and  thought 
upon  the  subject,  and  finally  gave  to  the  world  his  conception  and 
its  results. 
It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  the  first  results  were  not  produc- 
tive of  the  elegance  afterwards  attained,  but  the  path  was  opened  and 
the  profession  had  at  their  command,  in  the  hands  of  their  pharma- 
cists, a  product  which  was  not  only  pleasing  and  palatable  to  their 
patients,  no  matter  how  nauseous  the  constituents  of  the  pill,  but 
which  might  be  fully  depended  upon  for  expected  therapeutic 
effects. 
Such  conditions  did  not  come  spontaneously;  they  were- rather 
the  result  of  the  intelligent  and  exhaustive  research  and  experi- 
mentation, aided  by  a  master-mind  and  a  thorough  technical  knowl- 
edge of  pharmaceutical  chemistry. 
A  sugar-coated  pill,  properly  made,  should  combine  the  following 
important  points : 
A  careful  selection  of  the  drugs  entering  into  its  composition. 
"  In  Medicina  Qualitas  Prima  Est."  An  accurate  subdivision  of 
the  medicament  employed.  Rapid  disintegration  after  its  adminis- 
tration. The  use  of  such  excipients  in  the  preparation  of  the  mass 
as  will  not  be  incompatible  with  its  chemical  construction,  and 
finally  the  application  of  a  coating  which  must  be  fully  and  freely 
soluble  and  yet  protective  of  the  inner  pill  or  mass,  so  as  to  insure 
its  continued  activity  and  full  therapeutic  value,  even  though  it  be 
kept  on  hand  indefinitely. 
Such  a  pill  really  possesses  decided  advantages  over  the  ordinary 
pill  of  the  shops,  extemporaneously  prepared,  in  that  the  minute 
