140 
POPULAR SCIENCE -I^EWS. 
[Sf.ptembeii, 1891. 
the tree. The great emotional wave, however, 
had its full tide. 
Of the many indefinite distresses to which hu- 
man nature is subject, there is none more real 
than that aroused by unexplained natural phe- 
nomena and the consequent fright. The result 
is known by many names : nerves, spleen, va- 
pors, megrims, ennui, and last and most expres- 
sive name, because always applicable, — hysteria. 
[The Hospital.] 
PKESCRIFnONS AND THEIR OWNERS. 
All classes of physicians have long felt that 
the honor and glory of consulting practice had its 
drawbacks, and that one of those drawbacks was 
the giving of prescriptions over which no profes- 
sional control was retained. In the case of the 
older consultants, whose fee ranges from two 
guineas upwards for each consultation, and who 
can always command full consulting rooms, this 
is a matter of comparatively small importance; 
but the question assumes a very different com- 
plexion when the family physician receives the 
small fee of five shillings for a professional visit, 
and gives up to the patient for his unrestrained 
use a prescription which may run for a week, a 
month, a year, or a lifetime. It is hardly surpris- 
ing that under these circumstances some I'ather 
sliarp notes of alarm should have been sounded in 
the professional journals, nor is it very strange 
that those notes of alarm should have been fol- 
lowed by suggestions indicative rather of fear 
than of wisdom. One family physician proposes 
to claim an absolute medical proprietorship in 
prescriptions. '• My prescriptions are mine," says 
he, " and I mean to stick to them."' He has been 
driven to this bold attitude of self-defence by the 
discovery that one of his lady patients lent a par- 
ticular prescription of his to eight ladies, and so, 
as he puts it, practically* robbed him of eight fees. 
Another family physician becomes quite Jesuiti- 
cally hair-splitting in his attempt to deal with the 
difHcult and complicated question. " My own 
opinion," he says, "is, and always has been, that 
the prescription does not legally belong to any of 
the parties concerned, but should be destroyed 
after it has fulfilled its mission." The idea of a 
prescription "fulfilling its mission," is distinctly 
poetical and original. This gentleman continues : 
" We pay for a railway ticket and it is taken from 
us on completing the journey. The prescription 
is nothing more than a convenient missive " — 
missive is good — "between doctor and chemist, 
and probably would not be entrusted to the pa- 
tient if we had any more convenient way of 
communicating our order. We do not address the 
prescription to the patient ; we advise the chemist 
how he has to compound a certain number of 
ingredients for the patient, and this being done, 
the prescription should be destroyed or returned 
to the author." 
Now all this is exceedingly interesting and in- 
structive to the student of psychology, as that 
science asserts itself in the medical mind. It 
shows how the "natural man" still exercises a 
dominating influence over the professionally dif- 
ferentiated specialist. The first doctor stands 
forth with all the truculence of a medical Dick 
Turpin, and insists that his prescriptions shall be 
returned to him on pain of — we know not what. 
The second glides into the subject with insinuat- 
ing logic, and shows how proper and natural it 
is that the doctor, who is the " author " of a 
prescription, shall retain all the powers of copy- 
right in his own work. It is a pity that patients 
do not occasionally read professional journals. 
The discussion would have been greatly improved, 
from the point of general edification, if one or 
two patients had added their contribotions. Ar- 
guments are mostly inconclusive which discuss 
one side of the question. 
It seems to us that the interest of patients and 
doctor are not opposed to each other in this mat- 
ter, but are identical. On the one hand, those 
doctors who wish both "to ear th(^ir cake and 
have it," make a mistake; anl on the other, 
those patients who use a presciip'ion for a longer 
time than it is ordered to be used, or give it to 
their friends, make a still greater mistake. As a 
matter of fact, where proper relations subsist 
between doctor and patient, it is probable that 
very little injustice is done to the former. One 
thing seems to be quite certain, and that is, that 
the doctor who gives a prescription to his patient 
cannot both give and keep it. All he can do is to 
instruct the sick person how long to take the 
medicine prescribed. If the latter continues to 
take it longer, he is exceedingly foolish. No 
honorable doctor ever thinks of limiting the time 
during which a prescription may be used merely 
for the sake of getting an additional consultation 
fee out of his patient. Any patient who has good 
reason to believe that his doctor is keeping liim an 
unnecessary length of time on his visiting or con- 
sulting list ought to seek another doctor iit once ; 
and any doctor who asks his patient to return to 
his consulting room when there is no necessitj' 
for further consultation, is a deliberate cheat, and 
deserves all the qpntempt and obloquy which can 
be poured upon him. The physician, including, 
of course, every member of the profession, oc- 
cupies a position of peculiar delicacy towards his 
patient. The patient is ignorant, the physician 
has knowledge; the patient is fearful, the phy- 
sician has the confidence of experience. What 
kind of a doctor is he then who takes advantage 
of his patient's trustfulness to worry his mind 
with fear, and to extract from his pocket un- 
necessary fees? He is a scoundrel. 
But on the other hand, whilst physicians must 
be as honorable as Caesar's wife, because their 
position is one of such unlimited freedom, pa- 
tients must not forget that he who dispenses 
honor and justice with his prescriptions, is en- 
titled to honor and justice in return. Wise men 
and women clients will use a remedy for the 
exact period for which it has been prescribed. If 
thej' use it a very little longer the reasonable phy- 
sician will not object; and they will probably 
not do themselves any great harm. But they 
should remember that in using a prescription 
longer than the specified time, there is always a 
possibility of their doing a serious injury to tlieir 
own health ; and this injury to their health is an 
injury and injustice to the physician ; not, be it 
noted, in the mere loss of one or two paltry fees, 
but in the wound it may inflict upon his reputa- 
tion and his feelings in that his misused prescrip- 
tion has been been a source of injury rather than 
of benefit to his patient. 
Should patients ever give medical prescriptions 
to other persons? As a rule, certainly not. They 
may do untold injurj' by such acts. This is not 
said to frighten them ; it is plainly and simply 
true. Modern remedies are of such a kind that 
they ought only to be handled by experts. The 
subject is of much importance, and. space forbids 
us to expound the patient's aspect of the case as 
fully as it demands. But this is to be insisted 
upon, that if a high sense of duty, compels the 
doctor to shrink with disgust from taking the 
least advantage of his patient, the very same 
sense of duty should compel the patient to make 
it a matter of conscience to avoid doing any Uiiid 
of injury to the doctor. 
[Chambers's Journal.] 
JEWELS AS MEDICINES. 
Although popularly supposed to be itself a 
deadly poison, the diamond has from remote ages 
been credited with the power of protecting tlie 
wearer from the evil ettects of other jjoisons, a 
reputation which it retained until compiiratively 
recent times. According to Pliny, it also keeps 
ofl' insanity. Amber, too, was supposed to pos- 
sess the latter virtue. Besides the diamond, sev- 
eral other stones were supposed to possess medi- 
cinal virtues. 
The ruby was considered good for derange- 
ments of the liver as well as for bad eyes. 
The sapphire and emerald were also credited 
with properties which rendered them capable of 
influencing ophthalmic disorders, and there is a 
superstitious belief that serpe"nts are blinded by 
looking at the latter stone. 
The turquoise, although not credited with either 
remedial or protective properties so far as disease 
was concerned, was nevertheless regarded as a 
liind of sympathetic indicator, the intensity of its 
color being supposed to fluctuate witli the health 
of the weaier. The latter, moreover, by virtue of 
the stone he carried, could, it was said, fall from 
any height with impunity. The Marquis ot 
Vilena"s fool, however, was somewhat nearer the 
truth when he reversed the popular superstition 
in his assertion that the wearer of a turquoise 
might fall fiom the top of a high tower and be 
dashed to pieces w ithout breaking the stone. 
The opal was looked upon as a thunder stone, 
and although many women now appear to have a 
strong superstitious prejudice against wearing 
one, it was in bygone days held in the highest 
estimation, for it was supposed to combine the 
virtues of several other gems. - 
On the other hand, the onyx — so named on 
account of its resemblance to the color of the 
finger-nails — could scarcely have been a nice stone 
to wear; for, according to mediicval superstition, 
it rendered one particularly susceptible to annoy- 
ance from nightmares and demons. 
Temperance advocates, if they have any legard 
for the beliefs of the Greeks and Romans, might 
seriously consider the advisability of distributing 
amethysts among drunkards, for it was supposed 
that these stones jjrevented intoxication. 
Coral was maiie use of by the Romans as a pio- 
tection against the evil eye, and jjopular supersti- 
tion has credited the topaz with the power of 
depriving boiling water ot its heat. 
Perhaps the most wonderful properties, how- 
ever, were ascribed to the chimerical stones which 
many creatures were supposed to carry in their 
heads. Most of our readers have no doubt heard 
of the precious jewel which the toad carries in his 
brain-box, and so-called toad-stones, which were 
in reality the teeth of fossil fish, were formerly 
worn in finger rings as a protection against 
poisons. 
It was thought that the best stones were those 
voluntarily ejected by the living toads ; but as the 
latter were not addicted to fi-eely giving up their 
treasures in that way, it was necessary to procure 
the coveted articles by other means, and the rec- 
ognized method was to decapitate the hapless 
batrachian at the instant he swallows his breath. 
The feat naturally demanded considerable celerity, 
such as could only be acquired by constant prac- 
tice; and it is not unreasonable, therefore, to 
assume that although the endeavors to gain pos- 
