NOTES ON PRESCRIBING. 449 



venience to the pharmacist and risk to the patient, than that of 1867. 

 ordering medicines in an excessively concentrated form. The Concentrated 

 object for doing so is in most cases that the patient may obtain formulffi - 

 a large supply of medicine at a small outlay; in others, because 

 medicine in a concentrated form is more convenient for being 

 carried from place to place. That the prescriber should have a 

 due regard for the pocket of his patient and wish to diminish 

 as much as possible the expenses attendant on sickness, is 

 doubtless commendable. But when this is done at the expense 

 of safety and of efficacy, it becomes an abuse which demands 

 rectification. 



All druggists know that forty or fifty years ago, liquid 

 medicines for internal use were very commonly prescribed in 

 the form of draughts, or doses each contained in a single bottle ; 

 that these have gradually been superseded by mixtures, con- 

 taining usually 6, 8, or 12 doses, and that these last are now 

 often replaced by highly concentrated and smaller mixtures 

 technically called drops, each bottle of which contains a large Drops, 

 number of doses. Most will admit that the dispensing of 

 medicines in the form of draughts except in rare cases, involves 

 more labour and expense than are necessary for any purposes 

 of accuracy or convenience. But in resorting to the compounds 

 which are now prescribed as drops, we are going to the other 

 extreme. It is a practice of recent introduction and finds no 

 place in the Pharmacologia of Dr. Paris, who does not give a 

 single specimen of such a maimer of prescribing. 



As evidence of the objectionable character of prescribing 

 medicine in a very concentrated shape, I shall quote a few 

 prescriptions, all of which 1 have myself lately observed. 



R Liquoris strychnise 3ij 

 Tinctune valerianae iij 

 Spiritus chloroformi j 

 - carnphorse 3iij 

 Magnesias sulphatis j 

 Misturse camphorae ad gviij 

 Misce. Sumat cochleare unum magnum pro dosi. 



G o 



