MATERIA MEDICA AND PRESCRIPTION WRITING WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY OSCAR W. BETHEA, M.D., Ph.G., F.C.S. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA AND INSTRUCTOR IN PRESCRIPTION PHILADELPHIA F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS ENGLISH DEPOT STANLEY PHILLIPS, LONDON TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER A KNOWLEDGE OF WHOSE HIGH IDEALS, UNSELFISH AMBITIONS, AND UNSWERVING DEVOTION TO DUTY HAVE PROVEN A NEVER FAILING SOURCE OF INSPIRATION. THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR Authority to use for comment the Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America, Eighth Decennial Revision, in this Volume, has been granted by the Board of Trustees of the United States Pharmacopoeial Convention, which Board of Trustees is in no way responsible for the accuracy of any translation of the official weights and measures or for any statements as to strength of official preparations. PREFACE. IN the treatment of disease a physician is usually confronted with the following problems which must be considered in the order given :— What is the true condition of the patient? What changes should be produced in that condition? What agents will best effect those changes? In what form and by what methods should those agents be employed to obtain the best possible results? How should his orders for those agents be written so as to serve the best interests of the patient and his associates? The first three of these propositions are exhaustively treated in many excellent volumes and are ably taught in the medical schools, but the last two of the propositions are often neglected. For example the student is taught how to diagnose certain blood conditions, the changes that should be effected, and that Iron is the drug to bring about these desired results. It is often neglected to impress upon the student what preparations of iron will best meet the demands of particular conditions, the precautions to be observed in employing them, how to correctly prescribe them, alone or in combination, and, if in combination, with what forms or preparations of the other agents; how to order for the safest, most convenient and agreeable administration; how to use the correct names, conveniently estimate the proper quantities, the best hours for administration, and the many other matters an ignorance of which may render the physician unable to properly put to practical use his .knowledge of the other departments of medical science. Such instruction is the particular object of this book. The purpose has been to handle the subject-matter in such a practical way as to render the work a dependable one for every-day service. |