Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  > 
Mar.,  1877.  / 
Sugar-coated  Pills. 
117 
informed  me  some  time  ago  of  a  physician  in  Chester  county,  Pa., 
who  told  him  that  he  had  in  his  possession  a  half-pint  bottle  filled  with 
•sugar-coated  pills,  which  he  had  garnered,  that  had  passed  through  the 
alimentary  canals  of  his  patients  unchanged.  Another  physician,  resid- 
ing in  this  city,  informed  a  friend  of  mine  that  he  had  found  hahdfuls 
•of  sugar-coated  pills  that  had  passed  from  his  patients  unscathed. 
Now,  I  don't  like  to  question  the  veracity  of  these  gentlemen,  but  I 
am  constrained  to  say  that  I  don't  believe  these  stories. 
"  Lest  men  suspect  your  tale  untrue, 
Keep  probability  in  view." 
I  think  that  I  would  be  safe  in  offering  five  dollars  apiece  for  all  the 
•sugar  coated  pills  made  by  any  of  our  reputable  manufacturers  that  can 
be  obtained  and  presented  under  oath  as  having  passed  the  alimentary 
canal  undissolved  under  ordinary  conditions  of  that  organ.  I  doubt 
very  much  if  enough  could  be  collected  within  a  year  in  the  United 
States  to  fill  a  half-ounce  bottle.  I  really  think  that  these  over-zealous 
relic-hunters  have  mistaken  cherry-stones  for  sugar-coated  pills. 
When  the  mucous  coat  of  the  stomach  and  bowels  are  in  such  an 
excited  and  irritable  condition  as  is  sometimes  the  case  in  diarrhoea,  dysen- 
tery, cholera  morbus,  etc.,  peristaltic  action  may  be  so  excessive  as  to 
hasten  the  passage  of  substances  to  such  a  gait  that  time  might  not  be 
given  for  solution  or  perfect  digestion  to  take  place.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances it  might  be  possible  for  a  pill,  whether  coated  or  uncoated, 
new  or  old,  to  pass  through  the  alimentary  canal  undissolved.  Under 
such  conditions,  even  portions  of  food  may  pass  whole  or  unchanged^ 
which  under  ordinary  circumstances  would  be  very  digestible.  But 
these  are  exceptionable  cases,  and  even  in  such  cases,  I  believe  particles 
of  very  digestible  food  would  be  more  likely  to  pass  undigested  than 
would  medicinal  substances,  because  such  remedies  as  would  be  admin- 
istered in  such  cases  would  be  likely  to,  temporarily  at  least,  control 
and  restrain  inordinate  peristaltic  action,  so  as  to  allow  a  pill  to  be  dis- 
solved when  portions  of  food  might  pass  unchanged. 
I  have,  in  another  part  of  this  paper,  said  that  in  the  case  of  pills 
that  were  to  be  administered  in  diarrhoea,  etc.,  or  that  were  desired  to 
act  promptly,  there  might  be  some  advantage  in  their  being  freshly 
made  and  uncoated,  but  I  question  very  much  whether  there  is  actu- 
ally any  advantage  accruing  therefrom  even  in  such  cases.  Observa- 
tion and  experience  in  the  use  of  this  form  of  medication  would  seem 
