AmMJa°r"r;8P7h7rrm- }  Sugar-coated  Pills.  1 1  j 
sudden  contact  of  the  full  force  of  the  medicine  might  produce,  but 
also  allows  absorption  to  take  place  gradually  and  more  thoroughly 
than  when  the  pills  are  freshly  made  and  liable  to  be  completely  dis- 
solved in  a  few  minutes.  Cathartics,  particularly,  are  extremely  liable 
in  nervous  and  sensitive  persons  to  irritate  and  sicken  the  stomach,  con- 
sequently medicines  of  this  class  are  often  given,  and  are  borne  without 
discomfort,  which,  if  administered  in  mixture  or  liquid  form,  would 
cause  great  distress  and  perhaps  be  ejected.  The  same  is  true  of 
bi-chloride  of  mercury,  iodide  of  potassium  and  many  other  substances 
which  might  be  named  that  are  of  an  irritant  character.  The  truth 
of  this  is  exemplified  in  the  almost  every-day  experience  of  the  physi- 
cian and  pharmacist.  For  the  reasons  here  stated,  physicians  are  not 
unfrequently  in  the  habit  of  prescribing  "  old  opium  pills  "  in  prefer- 
ence to  those  freshly  made  (see  "  Pil.  Opii,"  U.  S.  D.)  ;  and  if  this 
be  true  in  the  case  of  opium,  why  should  it  not  also  be  true  in  regard 
to  many  other  medicinal  substances.  I  believe  that  the  fears  enter- 
tained by  some  concerning  the  inefficiency  and  untrustworthiness  of 
pills  that  are  not  freshly  made  to  be  more  imaginary  than  real.  I  do 
not  believe  that  there  is  any  disadvantage  in  pills  being  old  and  hard  if 
properly  made,  whether  coated  or  plain,  provided  they  have  been 
properly  preserved,  and  do  not  contain  any  ingredients  liable  to  change 
or  spoil  by  time  and  exposure.  They  may,  perhaps,  not  dissolve  quite 
so  quickly  as  newly-made  pills,  but  will  dissolve  more  gradually  and  in 
due  time,  and  be  as  complete  and  as  thorough  in  effect  and  less  liable 
to  perturb  the  system.  I  have  sold  uncoated  cathartic  pills  of  differ- 
ent kinds,  which  I  have  kept  on  hand  for  years,  and  never  found  them 
less  efficient  than  when  they  were  freshly  made.  Slow  and  gradual 
solution  throughout  the  digestive  organs  favors  absorption  by  present- 
ing successively  fresh  portions  of  the  medicinal  ingredients  to  the 
mucous  membrane,  and  thus  permitting  them  to  be  absorbed,  par- 
ticle by  particle,  through  the  whole  course  of  the  alimentary  canal 
without  irritating  or  fatiguing  the  organs  ;  especially  is  this  true  of  all 
tonic  and  alterative  pills. 
It  is  surprising  what  increased  power  remedies  sometimes  acquire 
when  presented  in  small  but  successive  fresh  portions  at  a  time  to  the 
mucous  surface  of  the  stomach  and  intestines.  It  is  this  frequent  repe- 
tition of  minute  doses  which  gives  homoeopathy  its  success  when  it 
derives  any  at  all  from  medication.    We  often  see  ipecac  and  other 
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