Pharmacologia / by J.A. Paris.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacologia / by J.A. Paris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    not hit the mark.” Sir Gilbert Blane * has given us a similar anecdote ; a practitioner being asked by his patient why he put so many ingredients into his pre- scription, is said to have answered more facetiously than philosophically, u in order that the disease may take which it likes best.” A patient in the hands of such a practitioner has not a much better chance than the Chinese Mandarin who, upon being attacked with any disorder, calls in twelve or more physicians, and swallows in one mixture all the potions which each separately prescribes! Let not the young practitioner however be so de- ceived; he should remember that unless he be well acquainted with the mutual actions which bodies exert upon each other, and upon the living system, it may be laid down as an axiom, that in proportion as he complicates a medicine, he does but multiply the chances of its failure. Superflua nunquam non nocent : let him cherish this maxim in his remem- brance, and in forming compounds, always discard from them every element which has not its mode of action clearly defined, and as thoroughly understood. The perfection of a Medicinal Prescription may be defined by three words; it should be Precise (in its directionsConcise (in its construction,) Decisive (in its operation.) It should carry upon its very face an air of energy and decision, and speak intelligibly the indications which it is to fulfil. It may be laid down as a position which is not in much danger of being controverted, that where the intention of a me- dicinal compound is obscure, its operation will be imbecile. A Medicinal Formula has been divided into four constituent parts, a division which will be found to >* Medical Logic, Edit. 2. p. 192, able.