"Did you take your medicine today?"  "How many pharmaceutical pills do you take a day?"  Maybe these questions are just some of the many you get asked when taking pharmaceutical pills. Human beings have been carefully prescribing medicinal pills as far back as the Sumerian days, somewhere around 2,000 B.C. From beautiful Greece to the Islamic Golden Age located in Iraq, these wonderful pain-killing pills have truly exploded into a booming multi-billion dollar industry. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of professional, hard-working pharmacists employed in the blessed United States of America alone. But what is the REAL history of such a growing, multi-billion dollar industry? Well, these synthetic, specialized capsules were essentially created so that specific amounts of medicinal substances could be given to patients worldwide. An interesting fact you probably did not know is, around 4,000 or so years ago, these special things called 'Pharmaceutical pills' were basically general liquid substances. Think of something like the following: "There becomes a certain inscription found on an old, ancient Egyptian clay tablet, giving careful instructions to the person on how to gently pulverize seeds, plant leaves and resins, and finally being about to dissipate them in a liquid substance of choice. Something else interesting, these small tablets were actually initially seen in Egypt. In Egypt, you may have seen these Pharmaceutical pills made from simple ingredients such as wild honey, homemade bread dough, or even grease. As various medicinal plants would be slowly minimized to a fine powder, other active ingredients would then be slowly mixed in with these simple substances as well. They would then be formed into small balls or pills, formed by the human fingers. In fact, some of the earliest ingredients of modern-day capsules included such things like myrrh, saffron, tree resins, and fresh cinnamon. Fast-forward to the depressing medieval times, you might have seen individuals carefully coat various pills with a slimy, sticky plant substance along with other materials so that they would essentially become much easier for people to swallow and would actually taste much better too. There would also be some tablets rolled in exotic spices, and some other pills would also become coated with silver and even gold.  There was also a weird system of creating these pharmaceutical pills known as "Gilding of pills" that took place in the 19th century. It was our dearly beloved medicines that eventually took pill form popularity in 17th century England. Different capsule manufacturers would soon be given patent rights directly from the official king, for their special formulas. There was even one type of strange patented pill derived from the 18th century known simply as the "Hooper's Female Pills," which were supposed to promise purging and anti-hysteric-like ingredients. With all of these amazing forms and types of pills created, there was just one drawback to them: The tablets actual preparation had required something called moisture. Surprisingly, this 'moisture' was found to actually deactivate the actual drugs contained. It would then become in the 1800s, that manufactures around the world would then start to gelatin-coat and sugar-coat these famous things called drugs. It was also at this time that modern-day gelatin pills were designed too. In the year 1843, a well-known English scientist known by the name of William Brockedon, would go on to create a very different type of pill form. He basically put powder in a small tube, carefully compressed the powder with a small mallet, and watched it slowly solidify. It was this kind of amazing invention from Brockedon that would become very popular in future days ahead.