444 NOTES ON PRESCRIBING. 



lees. is in accordance with its derivation, 1 which the feminine "Natica* 

 is riot. But in making these criticisms it must be admitted that 

 in the large majority of cases the names employed in the British 

 Pharmacopeia have been well selected, and are as free from 

 objection on the score of ambiguity or inconsistency as any 

 names can be. 



In the selection of names to be used, as well as in the intro- 

 duction of new formulae, or the omission of old, it appears to 

 me that more regard should be had to existing custom and 

 practice. Thus names that are familiar and in constant use 

 should not be hastily changed; medicines that aie hitherto 

 unknown should not make their first appearance in a pharma- 

 copoeia; and old medicines which are in daily employment 

 should not be suddenly discarded, or have their composition 

 materially altered. 2 



NOTES ON PEESCRIBING. 



(Receptirkunst.} 



1867. ALTHOUGH more than fifty years have elapsed since the 

 The Pharma- ^ earne( i Dr. Paris placed before the medical profession his observa- 

 cologiaof tions on the theory and art of medical combination, it may 

 safely be asserted that nothing has been since written on the 

 same subject more replete with sound and accurate informa- 

 tion. 



Yet every year adds to our experience : not only are new drugs 

 introduced, but new combinations and new forms of administra- 

 tion are also adopted ; and the prescriptions of the present day 

 differ as much in character from those that found their way to 



1 Matico is the diminutive of Mateo, the Spanish for Matthew, that 

 having been the name of the soldier to whom tradition ascribes the discovery 

 of the styptic property of the drug. 



3 As illustrations of these latter propositions may be mentioned the 

 introduction of oil of elder flowers into the London Pharmacopoeia of 

 1836; the omission of compound extract of colocynth from that of 1851 ; 

 the alteration in the composition of the steel wine and ipecacuanha wine 

 in the pharmacopoeia of 1824 ; and the augmentation of strength in the 

 Liquor Ammonia acetatis of that of 1864. 



