Excerpt from A Manual of Prescription: With a Full Explanation of the Methods of Correctly Writing Prescriptions, a Table of Doses Expressed in Both the Apothecaries' and Metric Systems; Rules for Avoiding Incompatibilities and for Combining Medicine

The work of Gerrish is most complete and useful as far as it goes, but is too limited in its scope.

In these pages an effort has been made to supply what, in the experience of the writer, has been found to be most required. In the preparation of such a work there is, of course, little chance for originality of thought a careful collection and arrangement of what has been said before being about all that could be done. I have drawn, therefore, freely from the works of others, especially from the three mentioned, and hope that the selection will prove advantageous to the student and convenient to the teacher.

If the elaboration of details seem at times nu necessary, I must beg the critic to remember that it is done for the benefit of those who are at the very threshold, and to whom the whole subject is one of perplexity and mystery.

The introduction of a chapter on the Metric Sys tem supplies a deficiency very much felt, and is certainly demanded by the times. The method of writing this system here given is that employed on the continent of Europe and elsewhere. Whether the exclusive use of the Gravimetric method is the best and most desirable is perhaps open to question still it is the method generally employed, and is therefore the one here taught.

The arrangement of the drugs in the posological tables will commend itself to most, while the giving of the dose in metric terms will certainly greatly enhance its value. Perhaps the greatest difficulty met with was the determination of the proper doses. To this great care has been given but at best the result must be very unsatisfactory, for reasons given elsewhere.

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