452 NOTES ON PRESCRIBING. 



1867. about 150 doses of the strongest tincture of aconite is supplied 

 Con ~ rated with directions that a dose is to be taken every three hours, 

 formulae. j n the second nearly a hundred doses of strychnine are ordered 

 to be placed at once in the hands of the patient. The third 

 prescribes five weeks' supply of strychnine in a ten-drachm 

 mixture, and is also deserving notice for the complicated direc- 

 tions to the patient for calculating his dose. The fourth is 

 objectionable from the fact that the ingredients are decomposed 

 for want of a suitable excipient, the resin of the bark being 

 precipitated on the bottom and sides of .the bottle, so that it is 

 impossible for the patient to obtain the intended dose. ISTo 

 such difficulty would arise if each ingredient were reasonably 

 diluted previous to mixing, and the dose apportioned accordingly. 

 The fifth formula is dangerous from ordering the arsenic to be 

 treacherously disguised in the form of a very palatable syrup, 

 which might in ignorance be taken far too freely. 



The experience of any dispensing pharmacist will readily 

 testify that prescriptions such as those here quoted are now-a- 

 days by no means unfrequent. That they are highly objection- 

 able all will allow, inasmuch as in many cases they do justice 

 neither to the patient, the physician, nor the pharmacist. Those 

 of the last category are reprehensible for the sake of the patient 

 Dangers of who is furnished with a large supply of potent, or it may be 

 1 " even dangerous medicine, which is to be taken for a lengthened 

 period, almost according to his own pleasure and judgment ; 

 for the sake of the physician who by such prescriptions must 

 often deprive himself of the opportunity of watching the effect 

 of the remedies he orders; and, lastly, for the sake of the 

 pharmacist, on whom is thrown a heavy risk of error and 

 accident, counterbalanced by no proportionate increase of profit, 

 but actually accompanied by a much diminished scale of 

 remuneration. 



