490  A  Sign  to  Mark  Unusual  Doses,  etc.  {^J^tfif* 
come  with  greater  propriety  from  medical  men  themselves.  I  believe, 
however,  in  the  light  of  a  recent  painful  event,  that  the  time  has  ar- 
rived when  the  adoption  of  a  distinctive  sign  will  be  welcomed  both 
by  the  prescriber  and  the  dispenser. 
The  interests  of  pharmaceutists  are  in  a  great  measure  so  identical 
and  so  intimately  bound  up  with  the  physician's  interest  in  his  pa- 
tients' welfare,  that  the  adoption  of  a  sign,  if  recommended  by  this 
Conference,  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  be  received  by  the  medical  profes- 
sion with  proper  consideration  and  respect. 
An  unusual  dose  I  define  as  a  dose  in  excess  of  the  maximum  adult 
dose  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  or  a  dose  exceeding  that  commonly  ad- 
ministered. 
Our  experience  as  dispensers  of  medicines  will  have  fully  proved  to 
us  that  the  marking  of  unusual  doses  would  be  accepted  as  a  long  de- 
sired boon  by  all  concerned. 
The  prescriber,  in  employing  an  accepted  sign,  of  easy  recognition, 
would  be  assured  by  its  use  that  it  would  remove  all  hesitation  and 
questioning  doubt  from  the  mind  of  the  dispenser,  and  that  it  would 
ensure  for  his  patients  the  receiving  of  the  prescribed  medicines  with- 
out needless  delay — which  delay,  in  some  cases,  may  mean  loss  of  life 
or  the  suffering  of  unnecessary  pain  and  watchfulness. 
The  pharmaceutist,  whose  occupation  it  wrould  be  to  dispense  the 
duly  marked  doses,  would  greet  these  unmistakeable  signs  with  gen- 
uine pleasure  and  relief,  and  their  use  would  save  him  eonsiderable 
anxiety,  as  well  as  the  loss  of  much  time  and  the  inconvenience  so 
often  caused  in  seeking  out  the  prescriber's  real  intentions. 
I  shall  not  take  up  time  in  citing  cases  which  have  occurred  to  me 
individually,  or  in  alluding  to  any  brought  under  my  notice,  to  prove 
that  the  use  of  a  sign  is  imperatively  demanded  by  the  exigencies  of 
the  case.  Every  one  present  whose  vocation  it  is  to  dispense  prescrip- 
tions will  call  to  mind  frequent  instances  when  an  indicating  sign  to 
mark  the  unusual  doses  would  have  saved  considerable  time,  trouble, 
and  vexation. 
It  is  certainly  very  remarkable  that,  in  this  country  of  practical 
expedients,  a  rule  of  this  kind  should  not  years  ago  have  been  in  use. 
In  Germany  and  Austria,  where  many  things  are  arranged  by  the 
strong  hands  of  the  state,  a  clearly  defined  rule,  of  a  too  arbitrary 
character  for  adoption  here,  set  forth  in  the  pharmacopoeias  of  those 
.countries,  has  been  employed  for  some  time,  and  this  fact  is  presump- 
