Pills, medicines made in globules, of a convenient size for swallowing whole, the medicine being usually mixed up with some neutral substance such as breadcrumbs, hard soap, extract of liquorice, mucilage, syrup, treacle, and conserve of roses.
The coverings are liquorice powder, wheat flour, fine sugar, and lycopodium. In many cases pills are now enameled or silvered, which deprives them of most of their unpleasantness. Pills are a highly suitable form for administering medicines which operate in small
doses, or which are intended to act slowly or not to act at all until they reach the lower intestines.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.