26 MATER i A MEDIC A AND THERAPEUTICS. 



It will be seen that the first three parts of the 

 prescription are in Latin ; the signature or directions 

 to the patient in English. The names of the drugs or 

 preparations are in the genitive case, the quantities 

 standing in the accusative case, governed by recipe : 



Recipe, Spiritus Myristicce, minima sex. 



Take, of Spirit of Nutmeg, six minims. 



A few abbreviations and signs are allowed, viz. : 

 R for recipe; m., misce; S. t signa; ad., ana (ava), of 

 eachjjft, fiat, make; q.s., quantum sufficit, a suffi- 

 ciency ; ad, up to, to amount to (the full phrase being 

 quantum sufficit ad); c., cum, with; no., numerus, 

 number; p.r.n., pro re nata. as required, occasionally; 

 rep., repetatur, let it be repeated ; ss.,Js., semi, or semis, 

 a half. 



The names of drugs must always be written in 

 full wherever there can .be the smallest possibility of 

 error. It is not only inelegant, but dangerous, to use 

 such abbreviations as Add. Hydroc. DiL, and Hyd. 

 Cldor. 



The various weights and measures are expressed 

 by characters and figures, very rarely by words, placed 

 distinctly at the end of the line occupied by the name 

 of each ingredient; but if two or more consecutive 

 ingredients are ordered in equal quantity, it is usual, 

 instead of repeating this each time, to write it only 

 once after the last of them, preceded by the sign ad, of 

 each. 



