Am.  Jour.  Pliarm. ) 
Mar.,  1881.  j 
Editorial. 
141 
some  of  the  earlier  volumes  are  offered,  a  list  of  which  will  be  found  among 
the  advertisements. 
Orthography  of  the  Metric  Units. — The  rejoinder  by  Professor 
Remington,  published  on  page  100,  calls  again  for  a  few  editorial  remarks, 
which  we  propose  to  make  as  brief  as  possible. 
On  page  10  Prof.  Remington  suggested  to  retain  meter  for  a  measurer  and 
metre  for  the  measure.  It  seems  that  our  editorial  remarks,  quoted  again 
on  page  100,  require  a  further  elucidation,  which  we  think  can  be  rendered 
thus:  "The  measure  for  the  metre,  commonly  called  a  metre  stick  or  a 
metre  tape,  is  a  meter,  or,  perhaps  still  better,  a  metre-meter." 
The  history  of  the  French  word  thermometre,  as  given  by  Prof,  Reming- 
ton, proves  the  judiciousness  of  the  French  in  adapting  the  orthography  of 
words  of  foreign  origin  to  that  of  their  own  language ;  and  nothing  more  nor 
less  is  proposed  for  the  English  language  in  the  case  under  discussion. 
The  case  of  gr.  as  an  abbreviation  for  grain,  and  in  France  and  Ital3^  also 
for  gram,  is  not  stated  correctly  on  page  101.  We  not  only  admit  that  such 
is  the  case,  but  we  also  assert  that  this  identity  has,  to  tlie  best  of  our  knowl- 
edge, never  been  the  source  of  error  in  the  countries  named.  What  would 
be  thought  of  a  medical  or  any  other  writer  who,  in  an  article,  would  give 
both  apothecaries'  and  metric  weights,  and  then  state,  "  Given  in  doses  of 
tiuo  gr.^^''  we  leave  our  readers  to  judge. 
The  prescription  quoted  on  page  102  is  not  in  any  recognized  style ;  if 
intended  for  grain  it  would  be  written  all  the  world  over  gr.  i ;  if  intended 
for  gram  it  w^ould  be  1*00,  without  any  further  addition.  The  man  who 
would  put  up  such  a  prescription,  dispensing  one  gram  of  morphia  in 
ten  powders,  without  previously  consulting  the  prescriber,  w^ould  deserve 
to  be  indicted  for  manslaughter ;  and  the  physician  who  would  write  such 
a  prescription  without  other  directions  than  those  given,  deserves  to  be 
censured.  This  case  would  be  exactly  parallel  to  the  one  quoted  on  page 
103,  of  the  merits  of  which  we  know  nothing  except  what  is  there  stated. 
It  was  evidently  a  mistake  caused  by  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  phy- 
sician, and  a  gross  blunder  on  the  part  of  the  assistant  in  dispensing  15 
grams  of  a  tincture  containing  1-5  gram  of  opium,  to  be  used  in  doses  equiv- 
alent to  0*5  gram  of  the  latter.  If  the  assistant  had  acted  w^ith  proper  care 
no  life  would  have  been  sacrificed,  and  the  physician's  mistake  would  have 
been  discovered,  and,  of  course,  corrected.  Mistakes  and  blunders  similar 
to  this  one  have  been  by  far  more  numerous  with  the  old  signs  designating 
apothecaries'  weights  and  measures,  and  often  not  nearly  as  easily  dis- 
coverable as  in  the  above  case. 
Those  who  know  the  pharmaceutical  literature  of  France,  and,  in  recent 
years,  that  of  Germany  and  other  European  countries,  we  think  will  agree 
that  for  simplicity,  as  far  as  the  designation  of  quantities  is  concerned, 
it  leaves  nothing  to  desire,  for  all  values  are  given  in  ordinary  figures,  and 
invariably  mean  gram.^  unless  otherwise  designated,  for  which  there  is 
rarely  occasion,  since,  as  a  rule,  all  medicines  are  weighed. 
From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  obvious  that  we  do  not  approve  of  the 
abbreviation  g.  for  gram,  adopted  by  the  Metric  Bureau. 
