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Drops  as  Dose  Measures. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pkarru 
1      August,  1902. 
to  this  paper  by  Durand,  a  Doctor  Shuttleworth  of  Liverpool  was 
the  first  to  call  attention  to  the  danger  attending  the  administration 
of  potent  remedies  in  doses.  Dr.  Shuttleworth,  in  an  elaborate 
paper,  is  said  to  have  called  attention  to  the  variation  or  difference 
in  the  weight  of  drops  of  different  substances.  According  to 
Durand,  the  discussion  that  ensued  from  this  particular  paper  was 
the  direct  cause  of  the  adoption,  by  the  College  of  Physicians  ot 
London,  of  the  minim,  this  latter,  as  is  well  known,  being  the 
sixtieth  part  of  a  fluid  drachm. 
That  this  term  was  soon  confounded  with  being  the  equivalent  of 
a  drop  is  evident  from  the  definition  of  a  minim  given  by  W.  T. 
Brande,  a  writer  on  chemical  subjects,  in  the  early  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Brande  describes  the  minim  as  being  "  the 
smallest  liquid  measure — generally  regarded  as  being  about  equal 
to  one  drop." 
Among  the  men  who  have  contributed  to  the  confusion  and  mis- 
apprehension that  exists  at  the  present  time  on  the  subject  of 
drops,  probably  no  one  individual  has  contributed  more  than 
Hahnemann,  the  founder  ot  homeopathy.  As  is  well  known,  he 
adopted  the  drop  as  the  standard  of  capacity  in  making  dilutions. 
According  to  Hahnemann,  the  weight  of  a  drop  of  water,  or  of  a 
solution  of  a  substance  in  water,  is  the  equivalent  of  one  grain  in 
weight;  a  drop  of  alcohol,  or  alcoholic  liquid,  is  the  equivalent  oi 
hall  a  drop  of  water,  or  half  a  grain  in  weight.  These  equivalents 
are  still  used  by  homeopathic  practitioners,  and  are  made  the  basis 
of  the  formulas  for  dilutions  as  given  in  the  latest  edition  of  the 
Homeopathic  Pharmacopoeia  by  Schwabe. 
Hahnemann,  however,  was  not  alone  in  making  general  state- 
ments of  this  kind.  Among  others,  the  "  Pharmacopoeia  of  the 
Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  Boston,  1808,"  says  that  "  6o  drops 
of  water,  ioo  of  diluted  alcohol,  or  120  of  alcohol  are  equal  to  a 
drachm  by  measure." 
These  general  statements  or  teachings  gradually  gave  way,  in 
regular  practice  at  least,  to  a  more  or  less  complete  acceptation  ot 
one  or  the  other  of  the  numerous  drop-tables  that  have  been  pub- 
lished from  time  to  time.  The  first  of  these  that  was  generally 
adopted  in  this  country  was  the  one  by  Durand,  mentioned  above. 
In  including  this  in  the  different  formularies  and  dispensatories  it 
was  generally  revised  so  as  to  make  it  read  :  "  The  approximate 
