EDITORIAL. 
287 
From the same source, we are informed that Dr. McNeal wrote for castor 
oil under the name of "01. Resini" but according to Mr. Shoemaker, [North 
American, June 3d,) the " i's " were not dotted, and the "e" looked as much 
like an "o" as anything else, so as to give the appearance of "Rosmi." 
In commenting on this unfortunate occurrence, it is only with a view to 
guard future practice, by a recurrence to past experience. The physician 
was censurable, 1st, for prescribing a substance not used in medicine, viz. 
(Rosin oil,) and which he did not intend ; 2d, he was blamable for writing 
his prescription so miserably bad, that the apothecary read it a third sub- 
stance, also not intended. 3d, he may have been wrong in directing twenty- 
four drops of the oil of wormseed for a dose, to be repeated, but as he in- 
tended it to be given with castor oil, the modifying influence of the latter, 
by diluting it and urging it along the alimentary canal, might have rendered 
it innocuous, or at least not fatal. 
On the other hand, the apothecary was culpable, 1st, in dispensing the 
prescription, even if it had been plainly written, as understood by him, be- 
cause he should have known that the oils of rosemary and wormseed have 
few therapeutic properties in common ; that the first is rarely if ever used in- 
ternally, and the latter, never externally ; 2d, admitting they might have 
been intended together, the dose indicated in the prescription should have 
deterred him from dispensing it until the physician had been consulted. 
We cannot better convey our sentiments on this point, frequently before ex- 
pressed, than by quoting the following paragraph from a lecture published 
several years ago: 
"It should be a constant rule in compounding every prescription, to recur to 
the questions, is this as the doctor designed ? are the doses within 'propriety ? 
or if extraordinary, does the case demand it ? If the directions for use are ap- 
pended, a judgment can at once be arrived at ; if not, a little tact will gain 
the necessary data by enquiries of the messenger skillfully propounded; and it is 
better even to delay the dispensation of the prescription until the physician has 
been consulted, rather than peril the life of the patient, or the reputation of his 
medical servitors." (See vol. xix. page 251 of this Journal.) 
In this instance, had these rules been observed, the physician would have 
been spared the mortification arising from exposed ignorance, and the pain- 
ful reflection that his carelessness has been the primary cause of the death 
of a fellow-creature ; while the apothecary, instead of being accessory in 
act to the mournful result, would have had the gratifying consciousness 
of having shielded the physician from censure and the patient from 
harm. 
Much, has been written and published in the newspapers about the necessity 
of physicians writing their prescriptions in English, as a remedial policy for 
these distressing occurrences. Were these reformers better informed on the 
subject, they would withdraw their suggestion as being pregnant with evils far 
greater than those they propose to remove. For instance, take the root of 
Hydrastis Canadensis, one physician would direct, " Take of Golden Seal 
