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VOL. 76 (4), 459-478, 2010 INNOVATION VS. TRADITION: THE ELECTION…

capable of assuming not only the production of dyestuffs but also fer-
tilisers, explosives, sulphuric acid, etc. (13, 16). In spite of all the dif-
ficulties, more so, if we compare them with the Mediterranean Euro-
pean countries, England continued to be an important power in the
chemical pharmaceutical industry and drug sector.

Chemical drugs also sustained a considerable development in
Switzerland especially in Basle, one of the most important nuclei of
the world chemical pharmaceutical industry (12). The upsurge of
Swiss dye industries during the first 15 years of the 20th century, a
specially negative period for this type of activity in France and Eng-
land, can be explained by a cumulous of circumstances of synergistic
effect: specialisation in the fabrication of products, some of which
were authentic monopolies; quality of the commercialised products,
partly due to acceptable research planning; permissiveness and col-
laboration with the German dying industry; and greater facility for
the sale of its production due to its condition of neutrality.

The typical pharmaceutical dosage forms used by the pharmaceu-
tical industries in the Central-European countries was tablets. We owe
the invention of tablets to the Englishman William Brockedon who,
on December 1843, patented this product in his country under the
domination of “Shaping pills, lozenges and black lead by pressure in
dyes”. His intention was to eliminate from the pill formulation all the
excipients, generally of a glutinous cohesion nature which made the
later desegregation dissolution and internal absorption of these prepa-
rations more difficult. On general lines, the idea of Brockedon was
formed by a cylindrical compressor, a matrix and mortar, which the
author himself would describe exhaustively in the text corresponding
to the patent of his invention (17, 18). The operation that characteris-
es this pharmaceutical form and allows the preparation to be convert-
ed in the most adaptable way for the requirements and the technolo-
gy of the new medicinal industry. The fabrication of tablets is,
essentially, industrial. If at any time dispensary elaborations were car-
ried out, principally in the countries of the European Mediterranean
area, these were made possible thanks to the adaptation of manufac-
turing technology to the necessities of the chemist.

The pharmaceutical form invented by Brockedon remained inert
for nearly 30 years. During the period 1843 to 1872, work relative to

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