588 
Remarks  on  Pills. 
Am  Tour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1879. 
full  force  of  its  meaning  to  the  old-fashioned,  recently  made  globular 
pill;  none  other  should  ever  have  been  countenanced  in  pharmacy. 
Pharmaceutical  ingenuity  never  presented  medicine  in  any  form  at 
once  so  convenient,  so  well  adapted  and  efficient  as  that  of  the  globular 
pill.  In  so  designating  it  we  wish  to  be  understood  as  referring  to  a 
freshly  prepared  pill  of  any  officinal  or  extemporaneous  formula,  the 
material  carefully  and  conscientiously  selected,  and  put  together  with 
judgment  and  skill,  in  other  words,  a  perfect  pill,  with  all  its  required 
conditions  properly  fulfilled.  We  venture  the  assertion,  bold  though 
it  may  seem,  that  its  popularity  will  long  outlive  the  various  new- 
fangled notions  which  the  tyranny  of  fashion  and  the  fondness  of  nov- 
elty have  imposed  upon  us,  Ought  we  not  courageously,  then,  to  stand 
by  the  integrity  of  this,  and  stoutly  resist  the  encroachments  upon  our 
right  of  domain — our  exclusive  right  to  compound  and  put  together — 
thus  placing  us  once  again  in  our  position  as  of  old,  where  we  shall  be 
willing  to  assume  the  responsibility  for,  and  feel  a  just  pride  in,  the 
character  of  our  productions  ? 
When  it  was  thought  to  be  necessary  (and  we  question  if  it  ever 
was  necessary)  to  make  pills  on  a  large  scale,  for  sale  at  wholesale,  the 
plan  of  jacketing  them  with  a  coating  suggested  itself  for  various  rea- 
sons— and  sugar  was  the  happy  idea.  A  pill  coating  in  substances 
prone  to  chemical  change  is  not  without  advantage,  but  there  is  a 
defined  limit,  and  the  manufacturers  have  long  since  passed  that  limit. 
As  an  expedient  to  conceal  taste,  and  humor  caprice,  the  sugar-coated 
pill  has  been  tolerated,  but  always  with  a  protest  from  the  more  conserv- 
ative element  in  our  profession.  In  answer  to  the  plea,  that  an 
impervious  coating  is  necessary  to  protect  unstable  compounds  in  pill 
form  from  atmospheric  influences,  we  reply,  in  emphatic  terms,  that  we 
want  no  such  medicines  prepared  in  advance  of  requirement — good 
work  will  be  spoiled  by  poor  tools — medical  skill  at  best  is  none  too 
effective.  Ought  we  not  to  aid  it,  then,  with  the  most  efficient  auxili- 
aries ? 
The  sugar-coated  pill,  the  most  popular  of  all,  stepped  into  use  upon 
the  indolence  of  the  apothecary  and  the  credulity  of  the  physician.  A 
serious  objection  to  the  sugar-coating  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  conceals  too 
much — it  is,  as  it  were,  a  blank  wall  between  us  and  the  object  of  our 
inspection.  We  purchase  these  pills  on  faith  as  to  what  they  may  con- 
lain,  and,  placing  them  on  our  shelves,  we  assume  a  responsibility  for 
