Pill

“ Can't you praise my pill?
Dr. Herd. (struggles with himself) . I—I cannot. You should not attempt to compound pills on your own account.
Rübub (breathing laboriously) . And yet there was a time when you, too——
Dr. Herd. (complacently) . Yes, it was certainly a pill that came as a lucky stepping-stone—but not a pill like that!
Rübub (vehemently) . Listen! Is that your last word? Is my aged mother to pass out of this world without ever knowing whether I am competent to construct an effective pill or not? ”

“ Every little while he dopes himself. If his stomach is on a strike he pops in a pill. If his head aches he takes a tablet. If he sneezes he takes a cold cure pill.
When anyone around speaks of a pain or ache he hands the person a pill.
The pill eater is a hypochondriac and very likely his doctor knows it. The salvation is that the doctor probably gives him harmless stuff in pill form. The patient doesn't know this and it's like a rabbit's foot or a piece of pork rubbed on a wart; it satisfies the mind and nature makes the cure. ”

“ If Mary were here she would say I needed a pill. Perhaps I need two, but not the pink ones already prepared. Everybody has a pill that's hard to swallow. /My/ pill might go down easily with some, and over theirs I might not blink, but—Well, a pill is a pill; facts are facts, and old age is old age. The thing is to face what is, shake your fist at it if necessary, but never meet it, if disagreeable, half-way. I never meet anything half-way. ”

“ Then there are many who take pills to make them sleep. That's a crime. It's murder in slow degrees for they are surely shortening their lives by this poison dope pill habit.
Mark this: Nature, and Nature alone, effects cures and it's in very, very few instances that a poison pill can be used to advantage.
You can keep well by getting good air, good water, good sunshine, good food, good exercise, good rest, good cheer and good thought. That is what I call my golden prescription, and it will do wonders for you, and every doctor will tell you so. ”

“ I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with a similar pill made without the poison. I determined at the time that when I had my chance, my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes, while I ate the pill that remained. It would be quite as deadly, and a good deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. ”

“ REGINALD. But it's so frightfully intellectual. It would overtax my brain.
THE DOCTOR. Oh, well, I suppose it would. Well, sleep. Perhaps I'd better give you something to send you off [he produces a medicine case] .
REGINALD. Whats this ? Veronal ?
THE DOCTOR. Dont be alarmed. Only the old-fashioned remedy: opium. Take this [Reginald takes a pill] : that will do the trick, I expect. If you find after half an hour that it has only excited you, take another. I'll leave one for you [he puts one on the plate, and pockets his medicine case] .
REGINALD. Better leave me a lot. I like pills. ”

“ From powdered foxglove, 12 gr.; calomel, powdered squills, and opium, of each 4 gr.; conserve of hips, q. s. For 12 pills.
2. (Dr A. T. Thomson.) Mercurial pill, 1 dr.; powdered squills, 20 gr.; confection of roses, q. s.; divided into 20 pills. The dose of either of the above is 1 pill, twice or thrice daily; in dropsy, &c.
Pills, Dixon’s. According to Dr Paris these pills consist of aloes, scammony, rhubarb, and a little tartar emetic, beaten up with syrup. “The following formula produces a pill precisely similar to this nostrum:—Take of compound extract of colocynth (Ph. L. 1836) , 4 dr. ”

“ American gamblers speak of “putting all the PILE on” when they fancy anything very much. “To go the whole PILE” runs level with our sporting phrase, “To go a raker.”
Pill, a doctor.—Military. Pill-driver, a peddling apothecary.
Pill, to blackball a man at a club. Sometimes a man who is blackballed is described as having received too much medicine.
Pill-box, a doctor’s carriage.
Pin, “to put in the PIN,” to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of PINS, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. ”

“ Each box had on its label the name of its pill contents, followed by the words: "From one to three as ordered by the physician." In some cases: "From two to six." There was nothing about the complaint for which the pill might be used.
Just a little difficult. Doctoring was not such an easy job after all. ”

“ Veratrine, 1 gr.; extract of henbane and liquorice powder, of each 12 gr.; mix, and divide into 12 pills.—Dose, 1 pill, every 3 hours; in dropsy, epilepsy, hysteria, paralysis, nervous palpitations, &c. This should be prepared and used with great caution.
Pills, Ward’s Red. Syn. Ward’s antimonial pills. Prep. From glass of antimony (finely levigated) , 4 oz.; dragon’s blood, 1 oz.; mountain wine, q. s.; to form a mass. For 11⁄2-gr. pills. Emetic. “They are recommended in obstinate rheumatism affections, in foulness of the stomach and bowels, &c. ”

“ A case th't sh'ld be treated, and be treated speedily.
I have—yes, here it is—a pill th't has been made by me.
Now, I have had occasion—" Said ye other, "In most cases
Your pills are excellently good, but h're, my friend, are traces
Of a lassitude, a languor, th't your pills c'ld hardly aid;
In short, they're rather violent for th's, I am afraid.
I have a tincture—" Said ye first, "Your tincture cannot touch
A case as difficult as th's, my pills are better much."
"Your pills, sir, are too violent." "Your tonic is too weak." ”

“ Likewise, how Nanse, being a Widow, went to the Doctor with Twa Fat Hens, to return thanks for the Pill, and how she wanted to Buy a Pill for herself, to gain a Neighbour Carle she liked, with an Account of what the Doctor said to her, and a Receipe how to make up this Pill, and an Advice to all Young Women how to Use it.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN & COUNTRY,
By R. MENZIES, Lawnmarket.
———
(Price One Penny.)
THE
MAGIC PILL.
IN yonder glen, beside a meadow ”

“ Take Socotrine aloes, two drams; colocynth, gamboge, rhubarb, and castile soap, each one dram; cayenne, thirty grains; oil cloves, thirty drops. Make into one hundred and twenty pills with extract of gentian or dandelion. Dose: For dyspepsia, inactive liver or costiveness, one or two pills once a day; as a cathartic, three to five pills at a dose. This is [148] a splendid pill. It cleanses the stomach, gives tone and energy to the digestive organs, restores the appetite, excites the liver and other secretory organs, without causing any debility. ”

“ But the main work of the pill will be done by the man's belief in its efficacy. I'm thinking out a medicine now which I expect will cure almost everything. It will cure, in any case, all the ailments that lead to organic disease. ”

“ A man can put one of these pills in a little vial of water, place the vial in his vest-pocket, go to Trafalgar Square, take the pill from the vial, throw it in the middle of the Square, and it will shatter everything within the four-mile radius, he himself having the glorious privilege of suffering instant martyrdom for the cause. ”

“ In obstructed and painful menstruation, hæmorrhages, &c.—Dose, 1 pill, thrice daily.
2. (Lallemande.) Aloes, ergot, and rue, of each 8 gr.; for 12 pills. As the last.
Pills of Er′gotine. Syn. Pilulæ ergotinæ, L. Prep. (Bonjean.) Ergotine (Bonjean’s) , 24 gr.; liquorice powder, 40 gr.; syrup, q. s. For 24 pills.—Dose, 3 to 6 daily; as an internal hæmostatic, &c.
Pills, Everlast′ing. Syn. Perpetual pills; Pilulæ æternæ:, P. perpetuæ, L. Small spheres of metallic antimony. They possess the property of purging as often as swallowed, but have now long fallen into disuse. ”

“ Pill Form (recommended) .—2s. 9d. per box; Three for 8s.; or Six for 13s. 9d.
Healine Lotion (same price as Internal Healine) is always necessary for bad Ulcerated Legs and open or deep-seated Wounds, and never fails to cure when used as directed.
Consultation by appointment only, for which a fee of 2s. 6d. will be charged.
An application for a bottle of liquid “Healine No. 1,” with a remittance of 3s., brought in return a box of the pills, with an intimation that these were recommended in preference. The box contained 60 pills, two to be taken three times a day. ”

“ E. 1817.) Exsiccated carbonate of soda, 4 parts; Castile soap, 3 parts; syrup, q. s. to form a mass. Antacid and slightly laxative.—Dose, 10 to 20 gr. This pill was a great favourite of the once celebrated Dr Beddoes.
Pills, Soot. (Dr Neligan.) Syn. Pilulæ fuliginis. Prep. Extract of soot, 1⁄2 dr.; compound galbanum pill, 1 scruple; oil of valerian, 15 minims. Make into 12 pills. Take 2 three times a day. For hysteria.
Pills, Speediman’s. Prep. (Cooley.) Aloes, 3 dr.; rhubarb, myrrh (all in powder) , and extract of chamomile, of each 1 dr.; oil of chamomile, 20 drops. For 4-gr. pills. ”

“ Funny how a pill thet ain’t got a feature on earth can look me out o’ countenance the way it can, and frustrate my speech. Talk about whited sepulchures, an’ ravenin’ wolves! I don’t know how come I to let on thet I was feeling’ puny to-night, nohow. I might’ve knew—with all them clo’es cedaubled over; though I can’t, ez the doctor says, see how me a-takin’ a pill is goin’ to help matters; but of co’se I wouldn’t let on to him, an’ he a bachelor. ”

“ She is to take one of these pills the moment the pain attending this discharge comes on. A pill may be taken every hour till the pain ceases: more than two will seldom be required; yet they must be taken in quantities sufficient to mitigate the pain. Let the patient keep either in or upon the bed, or at least in a recumbent posture, drink moderately of any diluting liquor, as herb teas, weak whey, or thin broth. When the time is past, a course of chalybeate bitters, in small doses, may be continued, till within a few days of the return ”

“ Everybody must have been taking pills. In one of the hotel rooms in the Strand they have found the luggage of a lady covered up by falling rubble and unburnt, and she was equipped with nine different sorts of pill and tabloid. The pill-carrying age followed the weapon-carrying age. They are equally strange to us. People’s skins must have been in a vile state. ”

“ They act pleasantly, properly, no griping, no calomel, no injury in any weather or climate. Reliable, healthful, a pleasant Family Pill, a great improvement, equally good for children or adults. The best, purest and safest, for Headache, Indigestion, Dyspepsia, Fullness, Biliousness, Liver Disease, &c. ”

“ An’ with that she up an’ wiped her hands on her apron, an’ went an’ selected this here pill out of a bottle of assorted sizes, an’ instructed me to take it. They never was a thing done mo’ delib’rate an’ kind—never on earth. But of co’se you an’ she know how it plegs me to take physic. You could mould out ice-cream in little pill shapes an’ it [101] would gag me, even ef ‘twas vanilly-flavored. An’ so, when I received it, why, I jest come out here to meditate. You can see it from where you set, doctor. ”

“ Many substances are, in themselves, so untractable, that the addition of some matter foreign to the active ingredients, is absolutely essential for imparting convenience of form. It is generally considered that very little skill and judgment is required in the selection of such a substance, provided it can fulfil the mechanical intention just alluded to—the fact however is, that the medicinal power of the pill may be materially controlled, modified, or even subverted, by the mode in which it is formed into a mass. ”

“ The regulus of antimony is used in the form of pills, which purge more or less in proportion to the acid they meet with; and as they undergo little or no change in passing through the body, they are called perpetual pills. ”

“ Of all the organs the Liver is most commonly out of sorts, and when it is so everything else goes wrong. The Liver is the great regulator.
The coppery taste in the mouth, the greasy feeling about the throat and stomach, the sour stomach, the bilious feeling in general, radically relieved by these pills. Safe in any weather or climate, always effective. They search every corner of Liver, Stomach and Bowels. If you want a thorough Pill, use them. 25 cents per box. Then invigorate and tone up the system with WELLS’ HEALTH RENEWER. $1.00 at Druggists.
[23] ”

“ This nostrum closely resembles in appearance, odour, and properties, the Plummer’s pill of the Pharmacopœia; the two are probably identical. (Cooley.)
Pill of Bro′mide of I′ron. Syn. Pilulæ ferri bromidi, L. Prep. (Magendie.) Bromide of iron and powdered gum Arabic, of each 12 gr.; conserve of roses, 20 gr.; mix, and divide into 20 pills. They should be kept in a dry, corked phial. Tonic and alterative.—Dose, 1 to 2, night and morning; in debility, especially that of scrofulous habits, in chlorosis, &c.
Pills of Bru′cine. Syn. Pilulæ bruciæ, L. Prep. (Magendie.) Brucine, 12 gr. ”

“ When, by some accident, a patient despaired of by doctors recovers after he has been dosed with a few of the ‘precious pills,’ the people of course extol their merit to the skies; while if he dies, his case is regarded as having been beyond cure, and the pills remain therefore the object of undiminished faith. ”

“ The language of those who advocate the administration of internal remedies, is to give so much of a mixture or so many pills, and if they produce vomiting, repeat the dose; but if a cure is to be effected by relieving the symptoms, why give those medicines which excite or aggravate them? ”

“ Some, like salts, operate to thin the blood, and reduce the system; others are stimulating; and others have a peculiar operation on certain organs. Of course, great discrimination and knowledge is needed, in order to select the kind, which is suitable to the particular disease, or to the particular constitution of the invalid. This shows the folly of using the many kinds of pills, and other quack medicines, where no knowledge can be had of their composition. Pills which are good for one kind of disease, might operate as poison in another state of the system. ”