NOTES  ON  PRESCRIBING. 
347 
Misce.  Signa — Take  ten  minims  by  measure  in  water 
every  morning  before  breakfast,  and  increase  the 
dose  every  other  morning  by  one  minim  up  to  18  or 
20  minims. 
R  Ext.  cinchonse  liquidi, 
Liquoris  calcii  chloridi  aa  £ss. 
Fiant  guttae. 
R  Acidi  arseniosi  gr.  ij. 
Syrupi  zingiberis  5ij. 
Fiat  mistura. 
In  the  five  formulae  above  quoted,  the  medicines  are  ordered 
to  be  furnished  to  the  patient  in  (as  it  seems  to  me)  a  form  far 
too  concentrated.  By  the  first  of  them  a  bottle  containing  about 
150  doses  of  the  strongest  Tincture  of  Aconite  is  supplied  with 
directions  that  a  dose  is  to  be  taken  every  three  hours.  In  the 
second  nearly  a  hundred  doses  of  Strychnine  are  ordered  to  be 
placed  at  once  in  the  hands  of  the  patient.  The  third  prescribes 
five  weeks'  supply  of  strychnine  in  a  ten-dram  mixture,  and  is 
also  deserving  notice  for  the  complicated  directions  to  the  pa- 
tient for  calculating  his  dose.  The  fourth  is  objectionable  from 
the  fact  that  the  ingredients  are  decomposed  for  want  of  a  suit- 
able excipient,  the  resin  of  the  bark  being  precipitated  on  the 
bottom  and  sides  of  the  bottle,  so  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  pa- 
tient to  obtain  the  intended  dose.  No  such  difficulty  would  arise 
if  each  ingredient  were  reasonably  diluted  previous  to  mixing, 
and  the  dose  apportioned  accordingly.  The  fifth  formula  is 
dangerous  from  ordering  the  arsenic  to  be  treacherously  disguised 
in  the  form  of  a  very  palatable  syrup,  which  might  in  ignorance 
be  taken  far  too  freely. 
The  experience  of  any  dispensing  pharmaceutist  will  readily 
testify  that  prescriptions  such  as  those  here  quoted  are  now-a- 
days  by  no  means  unfrequent.  That  they  are  highly  objection- 
able all  will  allow,  inasmuch  as  in  many  cases  they  do  justice 
neither  to  the  patient,  the  physician  nor  the  pharmaceutist. 
Those  of  the  last  category  aro  reprehensible  for  the  sake  of  the 
patient,  who  is  furnished  with  a  large  supply  of  potent,  or  it  may 
be  even  dangerous  medicine  which  is  to  be  taken  for  a  length- 
