NOTES ON PRESCRIBING. 
553 
^ Potass 8 R chloratis 
Boracis afi 5 SS 
llydrargyri bichloridi gr. ir 
Glycerin?e |ss 
Aquae ad ^viij 
Misce. 
Although hardly coming under this section, and rather deserving to be ranged 
under the head of ill-contrived formidx, may be instanced the following : 
p, Unguenti hydrarg. nitratis' 5 iij 
- cetacei 
Idquoris potassge 5 !] 
Linimenti saponis ad ^vi 
Misce. Sit linimentum capiti omni nocte infricandura. 
P> Confectionis opii 5 !] 
Olei terebinthiuae 5 is 8 
Sp. ammoniae aromat. ^iij 
— camphorae Siij 
Fiat linimentum. 
Potassii iodidi 5 ! 
Morphise acetatis gr. x 
Aceti colchici 5 iv 
Olei sulphurati 5 ! 
Misce. Fiat linimentum. 
The next subject on which I must beg leave to offer a few remarhs is the 
Undue concentration of Medicines. There is no practice in the modern 
method of prescribing more fraught with inconvenience to the pharmaceutist, 
and risk to the patient, than that of ordering medicines in an excessively con¬ 
centrated form. The object for doing so is in most cases that the patient may 
obtain a large supply of medicine at a small outlay ;—in others, because medi¬ 
cine 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 con¬ 
tained in a single bottle ;—that these have gradually been superseded by mix- 
tia'es., containing 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 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 manner 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 I have myself 
lately observed. 
VOL. VIII. 2 0 
