THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
FEBRUARY,  1877. 
THE  METRICAL  SYSTEM  IN  PRESCRIPTIONS, 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
{Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  January  16,  1877.) 
Under  the  above  title,  Dr.  Albert  N.  Blodgett  of  Boston  has  com- 
municated a  paper  to  the  Boston  "  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal "  of 
Dec.  21,  which  was  also  copied,  without  comment,  in  the  "  Druggists' 
Circular  "  for  January.    The  avowed  purpose  of  Dr.  Blodgeti's  article 
is  to  comment  upon  a  paper,  written  by  me  for  the  "  Medical  and  Sur- 
gical Reporter"  of  Philadelphia,  Sept.  9,  1876,  and  republished  in  the 
October  number,  1876,  of  the  "Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,"  in  which  I 
endeavored  to  show  how,  with  little  trouble  on  the  part  of  physicians, 
not  only  the  solid  articles,  but  likewise  the  liquid  preparations  of  our 
present  "  Pharmacopoeia "  might  be  prescribed  by  metric  weights. 
The  latter  part  of  my  subject  is  the  main,  perhaps  the  only  fault,  which 
Dr.  Blodgett  has  to  find  with  my  paper,  and  which  he  criticizes  as 
follows :   "  The  guide  which  most  physicians  follow  in  prescribing 
liquids  is  the  volume  of  the  liquid  employed  ;  and  this  principle  finds  a 
ready  and  simple  application  in  the  metrical  system  as  adopted  in  the 
larger  universities  and  hospitals  of  Europe  where  this  system  is  in  use, 
as  well  as  in  the  hands  of  scientific  men  generally  in  those  countries — 
a  fact  which  I  am  sorry  Professor  Maisch  has  overlooked." 
Now,  in  discussing  the  use  of  the  metrical  system  in  prescriptions, 
the  question  should  not  be  mixed  up  with  the  manner  in  which  that 
system  is  employed  in  the  various  arts  and  sciences.  I  am  well  aware 
that  measures  are  at  the  present  time  more  frequently  employed  in 
chemical  assays  than  weights,  and  have  employed  them  myself  for 
many  years  ;  but  as  to  their  use  in  pharmacy,  it  is  stated  in  my  paper 
above  referred  to  that  "  the  Pharmacopoeias  of  Continental  Europe  and 
the  prescriptions  of  physicians  in  those  countries  express  all  quantities  by 
weight  only,  whether  the  material  directed  be  solid  cr  liquid."    In  the  pas- 
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