Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Mar.,  1877.  J 
Sugar-coated  Pills. 
charge  a  reasonable  profit,  our  customer  would  accuse  us  of  extortion 
while  the  physician  would  come  in  for  his  share  of  censure  for  pre- 
scribing such  high-priced  remedies.    Thus,  the  price  alone  I  consider  a 
very  serious  objection  to  these  pills. 
The  gelatin-coated  pills,  although  somewhat  higher  priced  than  the 
sugar-coated,  yet  are  much  more  reasonable  than  the  compressed.  As 
an  illustration  of  this,  I  will  here  quote  the  net  list  prices  of  a  manu- 
facturer, whose  compressed  pills  have  attained  prominence  and  are 
very  generally  prescribed  by  physicians  in  this  city,  comparing  them 
with  the  net  prices  of  sugar-coated  pills  of  our  leading  manuac- 
turers. 
Compressed.  Sugar-coated. 
Compound  cathartic  pills,  per  hundred,     .       .       .       $1.12       25  to  30  cents. 
Sulphate  of  quinia,  1  grain,  "  .       .       .1.57        70  to  95  " 
Lady  Webster's  pills,  "  ...         1.12  25  " 
Compound  rhubarb,  "  .       .       .1.12  38  " 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  prices  of  compressed  will  average  about 
four  times  the  price  of  the  same  kind  of  sugar  coated  pills  of  our  best 
manufacturers.  And  what  is  this  enhanced  price  all  for,  which  every 
man,  woman  and  child  will  have  to  pay,  when  these  pills  are  pre- 
scribed ?  It  is  simply,  in  my  opinion,  for  the  shape  of  the  pill,  which 
I  consider  not  so  good  or  desirable  as  that  of  the  sugar-coated  pill. 
These  prices  I  regard  as  excessive,  considering  the  cost  of  the 
material,  labor  and  time  in  manufacturing.  Now,  if  there  was  any 
earthly  advantage  therapeutically  in  these  pills  over  the  sugar-coated 
ones,  there  would  then  be  something  to  justify  the  physician  in  pre- 
scribing them  ;  but  it  will  require  some  stronger  evidence  to  convince 
me  of  their  superiority  than  the  mere  asseveration  of  their  patentees  or 
manufacturers.  We  want,  in  my  opinion,  no  better  pill  than  the 
sugar-coated,  when  it  is  properly  made.  Sugar-coating,  when  well 
done,  is  the  very  acme  of  elegance  of  all  forms  of  coating. 
So  far  as  the  sugar-coating  of  pills  is  concerned,  I  believe  that  all  of 
our  more  reputable  manufacturers  vie  with  each  other  in  the  beauty,, 
elegance  and  perfection  of  their  coating,  and  also  pay  due  regard  to 
the  solubility.  This  they  would  do  for  the  sake  of  their  own  reputa- 
tions and  for  the  popularity  of  their  products.  There  are,  I  have  no 
doubt,  some  who  might  not  be  over-conscientious  about  substituting 
cinchonia  for  quinia  or  podophyllin  for  extract  of  jalap,  in  the  pill 
mass,  and  who  would  not  deign  to  spoil  the  coating  for  the  sake  of 
