50  The  Metrical  System  in  Prescriptions.  {AmF^i8^am' 
sage  quoted  before,  Dr.  Blodgett  hints  at  a  different  practice  in  the  larger 
universities  and  hospitals  of  Europe,  and  in  another  place  makes  the  state- 
ment that  "  the  druggist  is  expected  to  know  how  to  dispense  the 
articles  without  the  special  signs  gmm.  or  cc,  and  to  understand  solids 
as  prescribed  in  grams  and  liquids  in  cubic  centimetres  "  Let  us  examine 
the  correctness  of  these  assertions. 
Professor  Dr.  Carl  D.  von  Schroff,  of  the  University  of  Vienna,  in 
his  valuable  "  Lehrbuch  der  Pharmacologic  "  uses  the  following  lan- 
guage :  "  The  doses  of  medicines  are  measured  by  weight "  (Die  Arz- 
neigabe  messen  wir  nach  dem  Gewichte)  ;  and  again  :  "  Liquid  medi- 
cines likewise  are  very  properly  measured  by  weight"  (Auch  die  flussi- 
gen  Arzneien  werden  mit  Recht  durch  das  Gewicht  gemessen).  Dr. 
Hager  in  his  "  Erster  Unterricht  des  Pharmaceuten "  explains  the 
manner  of  weighing  liquids  correctly,  and  very  properly  remarks  that 
4tan  excess  of  one  in  mixtures  is  a  loss  and  indicative  of  negligence 
(luderliche  Arbeit) also  that  c*  an  exact  and  conscientious  apothecary 
weighs  always  correctly Prof.  A.  Andouard  of  Nantes  remarks  in  his 
"  Elements  de  Pharmacie  "  that  the  prescribing  by  drops  is  defective, 
and  should  always  be  replaced  by  prescribing  by  weights,  the  only  method 
by  which  errors  in  doses  can  be  avoided  (La  prescription  me'dicale  par 
goutte  est  defectueuse  et  devrait  toujours  etre  remplacee  par  la  pre- 
scription en  poids,  la  seule  qui  ne  puisse  donner  lieu  a  des  erreurs  de 
dosage). 
The  use  of  weights  only  in  the  making  of  pharmaceutical  preparations 
and  in  the  dispensing  of  prescriptions  is  so  well  established  throughout 
all  Europe,  with  the  sole  exception  of  Great  Britain,  that  since  the  adop- 
tion in  medicine  of  the  metrical  system  by  the  different  nations  of  Europe, 
the  proportions  of  the  various  ingredients  in  formulas  and  prescriptions 
are  usually  given  in  figures  only,  because  every  interested  person  under- 
stands that  these  figures  represent  grams  in  all  cases,  and  not  merely 
grams  for  solids  and  cubic  centimetres  for  liquids.  For  this  reason,  the 
designation  gram  is  usually  not  met  with  ;  but  the  observant  peruser  of 
European  pharmaceutical  and  medical  literature  may  glean  from  many 
incidental  remarks  that  weights  alone  are  intended  in  all  cases,  unless 
otherwise  directed.  Dorvault's  "l'Officine"  (8th  edition,  1872) 
contains  numerous  formulas  from  the  various  pharmacopoeias,  formerly 
officinal  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  all  cases  the  weights  and  measures 
have  been  calculated  in  the  approximate  gram-values  ;  nevertheless  the 
