1 1 6  Sugar-coated  Pills.  { Am£% f ^ 
extremely  indigestible  matter,  which  must  undergo  a  thorough  transfor- 
mation before  it  can  be  taken  up  by  the  absorbents,  and  which,  if  it 
should  remain  would  produce  great  discomfort  or  even  endanger  life. 
This  labor  must  be  performed  either  by  the  fluids  which  pass  down 
intermingled  with  the  solid  matter,  or  else  by  the  secretions  of  that 
portion  of  the  intestines  themselves. 
But  even  should  this  not  be  the  case  and  such  a  fluid  not  be  present,, 
the  pill,  while  sojourning  here  and  in  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
bowels,  will  nevertheless  be  subjected  to  the  softening  and  solvent 
action  of  the  warmth  and  moisture  of  the  parts,  and  the  disintegrating 
effects  of  peristaltic  action,  while  at  the  same  time  absorption  will  take 
place,  even  from  this  remote  region,  and  the  medicinal  ingredients  will 
exert  their  therapeutic  effects  in  a  measure,  if  not  to  their  full  extent, 
because  whenever  a  medicinal  substance  comes  in  contact  with  a 
mucous  membrane  or  an  absorbing  surface,  under  favorable  conditions,, 
it  will  be  taken  up  and  exert  its  medicinal  effects.  This  is  illustrated 
by  the  effect  of  medicines  and  alimentary  substances  when  adminis- 
tered per  rectum,  or  when  medicinal  substances  are  administered  per 
vagina,  or  when  applied  to  a  denuded  surface  or  injected  into  the 
veins  or  under  the  skin,  or  when  absorbed  from  the  mucous  membrane 
of  the  air  passages. 
Thus  we  see  that  a  pill  finds  no  quiescent  state  or  haven  of  rest 
from  the  moment  it  enters  the  cardiac  orifice  until  it  passes  the  exit 
gate  of  the  rectum  ;  and  it  would  seem  to  me  that  a  pill,  whether 
coated  or  uncoated,  new  or  old,  would  have  to  be  insoluble,  indeed,  to 
be  able  to  stand  the  thorough  trituration  that  it  receives  in  the  stomach 
and  then  to  pass  unchanged  through  the  entire  intestinal  canal,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  thirty-five  feet.  Therefore  I  would  say  that  a  pill  that 
could  run  the  gauntlet  of  such  an  ordeal  deserves  to  escape.  And 
what  though  a  refractory  pill  should  occasionally  be  found  capable  of 
such  a  feat,  and  "  live  to  purge  another  day,"  this  would  not  warrant 
us  in  unqualifiedly  denouncing  the  practice  of  sugar-coating  pills,  a 
practice  which  confers  such  a  blessing  upon  the  invalid.  Because  we 
discern  a  spot  upon  the  sun's  disc,  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  at 
once  extinguish  that  glorious  luminary. 
Since  the  hue  and  cry  against  sugar  coated  pills  has  been  started  I 
have  heard  a  great  many  outlandish  stories  told  concerning  them  by 
medical  men.    A  friend  of  mine  in  one  of  our  wholesale  drug  houses 
