REVIEW. 
325 
val to call on the practitioner and advise with him. Otherwise, 
unless the error be startling, and the physician not to to be found, 
he should put up the prescription without any alteration ; or if any 
be made, he should not fail afterwards to inform the physician of 
what he has done." In this respect, Mr. D. adopts Mr. Vee's 
opinion in preference to that of Mr. Bouchardat, who, maintains 
that in no case a pharmaceutist has aright to alter the prescription 
of a physician. 
In order to save hesitation and anxiety to the pharmaceutist, and 
sometimes an unpleasant feeling between physician and pharma- 
ceutist, Mr. Dorvault proposes that, every time a large dose of an 
active medicine is prescribed, it shall be stated, first in the ordinary 
figures of weights and measures, and then repeated in full writing 
on the margin or at the foot of the prescription. 
" As it is granted that the practitioner calculates on the good 
quality of the medicine which he prescribes, his task is, as it were, 
accomplished the moment he has written his prescription. He, as 
well as the patient, rests in confidence on the ability and the un- 
controlled honesty of the pharmaceutist. If the latter feels the 
importance and gravity of his office, he will know how to ap- 
preciate the obligation imposed on him by this implicit confidence, 
of which he should endeavor to render himself worthy by the most 
scrupulous attention and fathfulness in putting up the prescription. 
He should never, of his own accord, substitute one article for 
another, through neglect, or with a view to a sordid interest." 
" The substitution of one medicine for another, may give rise 
to grievous consequences. It is calculated to deceive the practi- 
tioner as to the action of remedial agents, to confuse his former 
notion of materia medica, or induce him to suspect his own diag- 
nosis." 
" The curtailing of the dose of an article prescribed by 
the physician, having for its object an illicit profit, may be pro- 
ductive of still more calamitous consequences. Let us suppose, 
for instance, that an article prescribed in a rational dose, be cur- 
tailed by the faithlessness of the pharmaceutist, and thus fail to 
produce the desired effect ; the physician, naturally ascribing the 
failure of his medicine to the insufficiency of the dose, will in- 
crease it successively, until he arrives at a toxical dose. Let us 
suppose then, that the same prescription be sent to another store 
