472 
EDITORIAL. 
the  prescribe!*,  it  should  bear  Ms  name.  The  specific  conditions  above 
recited  form  an  implied  contract  between  the  physician  and  patient,  con- 
sisting of  two  elements  :  first,  that  the  prescription  exhibits  ordinary 
skill  in  its  composition  ;  and,  second,  that  it  is,  according  to  the  best 
judgment  of  the  physician,  suited  to  the  necessities  of  a  particular  patient 
at  a  particular  time.  The  unities  of  skill,  present  or  contingent  patho- 
logical necessity,  coupled  to  individual  wants,  must  all  reveal  themselves 
in  the  prescription.  For,  unless  without  a  date,  or  without  a  patient's 
name,  uo  prescription  implies  universality  of  use,  or  illimitability  of  time. 
Again,  as  the  physician's  reputation  is  involved  as  much  in  his  prescrip- 
tions as  in  his  treatment,  of  which  they,  in  fact,  form  a  part  ;  and  in  case 
of  a  suit  for  malpractice,  his  ordinary  skill  will  be  tested  no  less  by  the 
one  than  the  other,  it  is  important  that  he  should  sign  his  prescriptions, 
since  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  their  paternity  can  be  verified.  A  patient 
has  a  right  to  refuse  receiving  a  prescription  from  a  physician  who  will 
not  sign  it;  nor  should  an  apothecary  be  allowed  to  compound  an  anony- 
mous one.  The  refusal  to  sign,  of  itself,  casts  suspicion  upon  its  merits, 
and  practitioners  should  bear  in  mind  that  a  man's  reputation  for  judg- 
ment and  self-reliance,  as  well  as  skill,  may  turn  on  precisely  such  triviali- 
ties as  these.  In  reality,  however,  these  are  not  trivialities,  for  they  con- 
stitute safe-guards  precisely  as  no  one  would  accept  a  check  unsigned, 
nor  would  the  teller  of  a  bank  pay  one,  even  though  the  drawer  pre- 
sented it  himself.  It  is  here  that  physicians  too  often  neglect  the  first 
duty  which  they  owe  to  themselves  when  prescribing,  viz.,  that  of  invest- 
ing the  prescription  with  a  character  of  scientific  accuracy  commensurate 
with  their  own,  and  a  legal  precision  indicative  of  the  responsibility  ihey 
assume  in  issuing  it.  In  the  majority  of  instances,  as  all  will  testify,  no 
signature  is  appended  to  a  prescription,  for  let  it  be  remembered  that 
initials  do  not  constitute  a  legal  signature.  Here  is  the  first  and  fatal 
omission.  Next,  a  date  is  rarely  appended  to  a  prescription,  although 
no  one  would  pretend  that  any  prescription,  however  good  to-day,  is  ap- 
plicable to  all  time  or  circumstances,  irrespective  of  a  renewal  by  the 
physician  after  investigation  of  the  patient's  condition.  And,  lastly, 
the  patient's  name  is  not  usually  stated  in  it,  thus  omitting  the  most  im- 
portant evidence  of  its  having  been  issued  in  favor  of  a  particular  per- 
son. Let  any  one  who  doubts  this  universal  omission  of  self-protection 
on  the  part  of  physicians,  step  into  any  one  of  our  large  druggists  and 
examine  their  prescription  book,  and  he  will  acknowledge  that  we  have 
not  overstated  the  facts.  Under  these  circumstances,  therefore,  and 
since  prescriptions  are  so  often  signed  by  initials  alone,  which  are  equiv- 
alent to  no  signature  ;  without  date,  which  limits  them  to  no  time;  and 
without  name  of  person,  which  restricts  them  to  no  individual  in  particu- 
lar, why  blame  a  druggist  for  renewing  a  prescription,  or  even  originally 
compounding  it,  since  he  may  never  have  seen  the  prescription  before, 
and  cannot  be  presumed  to  know  that  it  had  previously  been  compoun- 
ded ?    Why  blame  him  exclusively  ? 
The  perfunctory  way  in  which  too  many  physicians  write  their  prescrip- 
tions, is  the  fertile  source  of  the  evil  so  greatly  complained  of;  and 
whenever,  with  a  better  and  more  realizing  sense  of  the  responsibility 
attached  to  the  art  of  prescribing,  practitioners  shall  ennoble  their  orders 
upon  druggists,  by  giving  them  at  least  as  much  legal  accuracy  as  belongs 
to  an  order  upon  a  grocer,  the  opportunity  and  the  disposition  to  renew 
prescriptions  without  authority  by  druggists,  will  both  disappear. 
In  order  to  promote  such  a  reform,  let  our  stationers  publish  for  the 
use  of  physicians  blank-books  like  check-books,  printed  in  some  such 
form  as  this  : 
