Aloctober,li9o£ni'}        Pharmaceutical  Preparations.  469 
The  building  of  railroads  and  rapid  communication  with  the  large 
cities  enables  the  pharmacist  of  to-day  to  obtain  his  preparations 
quicker  than  he  can  prepare  them  himself,  and  at  no  greater  cost. 
Besides,  the  problem  of  assay  and  standardization  subsequent  to 
manufacture  is  to  be  dealt  with,  which  in  every  well-regulated  labo- 
ratory to-day  is  a  department  of  itself,  for  the  present  condition  of 
pharmaceutical  science  demands  that  products  of  greater  exactness 
and  uniformity  be  presented  to  the  prescriber  than  was  possible  four 
decades  ago.  The  advances  made  during  that  time  enable  the 
manufacturer  to  better  control  the  problem  in  hand,  which  means 
by  preliminary  assay  the  securing  of  more  reliable  crude  material 
than  was  before  possible. 
The  tendency  at  the  present  time  is  altogether  in  favor  of  a  form 
of  medication  which  presents  the  medicament  in  the  most  compact, 
convenient,  and  at  the  same  time  stable  form  possible,  namely,  in 
the  form  of  compressed  tablets  or  tablet  triturates.  The  value  of 
this  form  of  medication  is  open  to  some  controversy.  Convenient 
as  they  are,  especially  in  first  aid  and  in  emergencies,  they  do  not, 
in  some  instances,  satisfy  the  criticism  of  the  chemist  or  the  exact- 
ing practitioner.  Many  of  them  have  been  called  into  existence  by 
physicians  desirous  to  please  fastidious  patients,  and  are  not  based 
upon  good  judgment  or  scientific  principles.  Often  it  would  be  wise 
to  discourage  rather  than  to  popularize  them.  This  refers  especially 
to  tablets  containing  organic  ingredients  of  feeble  chemical  stability, 
or  such  as  are  prone  to  change  by  oxidation  or  absorption  of  mois- 
ture. They  are  porous  bodies  containing  medicinal  substances 
highly  subdivided  and  in  some  instances  desiccated,  without  a  pro- 
tecting coating,  and  therefore  in  a  condition  to  be  readily  affected 
by  those  most  potent  factors — atmospheric  oxygen  and  moisture. 
Such  medications  are  unstable  unless  the  ingredients  are  resistant, 
and  many  combinations  should  therefore  be  discarded,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, nitroglycerin  and  digitalin,  nitroglycerin,  digitalin  and  heroin, 
nitroglycerin,  strychnine  and  morphine,  calcium  sulphide  and  the 
alkaloids,  phosphorus  or  zinc  phosphide,  single  or  in  combination, 
etc. 
The  use  of  soluble  elastic  gelatin  capsules  for  administering  un- 
palatable medicaments  has  made  it  possible  to  administer  oils, 
oleoresins  and  balsams,  or  a  solution  of  unpalatable  medicaments 
in  oil.  A  great  number  of  combinations  or  formulae  are  now  popular 
