Am.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
Ma  j',  1902.  J 
Spoonful  Doses. 
223 
Eight  for  various  reasons — chiefly  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  with 
the  French — preferred  the  figures  5,  10  and  20.  The  argument  that 
was  advanced  by  several  who  were  in  favor  of  the  latter  equivalent 
was,  that  it  would  preserve  the  comparative  relation  of  the  equiva- 
lents for  spoons  as  used  at  the  present  time,  and  that  in  addition  it 
would  correspond  with  the  equivalents  as  used  in  France,  so  that  if 
we  should  adopt  the  same  in  this  country  we  would  follow  out  the 
lines  of  adopting  some  universally  used  equivalents. 
The  available  data  at  the  writer's  command  does  not  allow  him  to 
make  any  definite  statement  as  to  the  practices  or  equivalents  that 
are  used  in  the  various  European  countries.  As  is  well  known,  both 
in  this  country  as  well  as  in  England,  the  equivalents  for  tea,  dessert 
and  tablespoon,  are  I,  2  and  4  drams,  respectively.  In  Germany, 
however,  where  the  various  galenical  preparations  are  made  entirely 
by  weight,  the  prescriptions  are  also  compounded  in  the  same  way. 
The  resulting  doses,  however,  are  usually  measured  out  in  spoonful 
quantities,  and  the  equivalents,  according  to  which  the  apothecary  is 
directed  to  estimate  the  maximum  doses  of  active  or  poisonous 
drugs,  are  as  follows  : 
Teaspoonful,  from  3  to  5  grammes. 
Children's  spoonful,  from  6  to  8  grammes. 
Tablespoonful,  from   10  to  15  grammes. 
It  will  be  noted  that  these  equivalents  do  not  at  all  correspond 
with  those  supposedly  in  use  in  France. 
In  reference  to  the  latter  country,  both  the  United  States  Dis- 
pensatory and  Dorvault's  L'Ofiicine  give  5,  10  and  20  c.c.  as  the 
approximate  equivalents  for  the  various  spoons. 
The  late  Professor  Maisch,  in  a  table  of  equivalents  published  in 
the  National  Dispensatory,  gives  5,  10  and  15  c.c.  as  the  equivalents 
used  in  France  for  tea,  dessert  and  tablespoonful.  An  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  writer  to  trace  the  origin  of  this  particular  table  did 
not  result  very  satisfactory.  The  sole  surviving  editor  of  the  recent 
edition  of  that  work,  in  answer  to  a  letter  of  inquiry,  stated  that  he 
was  not  acquainted  with  the  source  of  the  quotation  but  felt  sure 
that  it  was  verihed,  as  its  author  was  acknowledged  to  have  been 
most  careful  and  conscientious  with  all  quotations. 
The  proposition  to  use  4,  8,  and  16  c.c.  as  the  metric  equiva- 
lents for  the  various  sizes  of  spoons  can  hardly  be  called  a  happy 
one,  owing  to  the  fact  that  square  numbers  do  not  fit  in  well  with 
