350       Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  {Am^u°iy%89h8arm' 
TiENIAFUGE. 
R .    Salicylic  acid,  .  7  grains. 
Ethereal  extract  of  male  fern,    9  grains. 
Oil  of  cinnamon,  10  drops. 
Gum  arabic,  2  drams. 
Simple  syrup,  iyz  fluidounces. 
Distilled  water,  3  fluidounces. 
To  be  taken  fasting,  in  the  morning,  in  two  parts,  with  an  hour's  interval. — 
Phil.  Med.  Jour.,  April  9,  1898. 
ENGLISH  IN  PRESCRIPTION-WRITING. 
We  think  it  time  that  Latin  should  not  be  used  any  longer  in 
writing  prescriptions.  There  is  not  one  in  a  hundred  physicians 
who  can  write  Latin  correctly,  and  a  prescription  that  is  one-half  or 
one-fourth  in  Latin  and  the  rest  in  English  is  bastardly  ridiculous. 
We  all  hide  our  philologic  ignorance  under  contractions  that  lead  to 
ambiguity  and  even  danger,  and,  when  we  can  no  longer  hold  out 
with  our  wretched  sham,  we  are  compelled  to  plunge  into  English 
for  the  directions.  All  arguments  for  this  mediaeval  nonsense  do 
not  amount  to  a  pinch  of  snuff.  As  for  hiding  the  knowledge  of 
the  drug  from  the  patient,  and  the  advantage  of  patients  travelling 
abroad,  the  facts  need  only  to  be  looked  squarely  in  the  face,  and 
the  argument  for  Latin  becomes  a  bad  boomerang.  The  practice  is 
a  pompous  bit  of  humbug,  which  should  be  left  to  medievalists  and 
not  scientists.  So  soon  as  we  get  our  therapeutics  out  into  the  day- 
light of  common  sense  and  genuine  science,  we  shall  surely  dis- 
pense with  the  sorry  jumble  of  bad  Latin  and  poor  English,  illus- 
trated by  nine-tenths  of  the  actual  prescriptions  on  file  to-day  at 
the  drug  stores. — Philad.  Med.  Jour.,  April  19,  1898. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
ASSAY  OF  BELLADONNA  LEAVES. 
W.  A.  Puckner  [Pharm.  Rev.,  1898,  p.  180)  proposes  the  following 
modification  of  C.  C.  Keller's  Method  [Schweiz.  Wochenschr.  f. 
Chem.  u.  Pharm.,  1894;  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1894,  p. 
42)  for  the  assay  of  those  alkaloidal  drugs  where  it  is  necessary  to 
use  relatively  large  quantities  of  material,  as,  for  instance,  with 
belladonna,  henbane,  etc- 
To  10  grammes  pi  drug,  dried  and  powdered,  as  by  Keller's 
method,  contained  in  a  flask  of  75-100  c.c.  capacity,  add  50  c.c.  of 
