Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-11-13
R,form for the Doctors.


No ope can read The circumstances
connected with the death Of Mrs. Hecht,
ss rela,ed before the coroner yesterday,
wi,hout being impressed with their dis
,ressine character, or without being set
,o,hinkinr about matter that demands
more effective attention than II has yet
received in this city. A lady troubled
with A slight disorder OF the nerves, but
otherwise in ordinary health, who had
been in the habit Of taking familiar and
harmless medicine on a doctors pre-
scription, sends for renewal OF II 10 the
drug store where il had always been put
up. and BY a fatal error in reading the
abbreviated words of the prescription, on
the part of the druggists attendant gets
n deadly poison, which in a few hours
DESTROYS her life. During the short in
terval between her usual health and her
sudden death, she suffers intense agony,
and the terrible necessities Of the case
require a severity Of medical treatment
that must have added fsarfally to the
rrievous distress Of her husband, family
and friends. Such a calamity must touch
the feelings OF every man and woman,
doctor and layman. 1t must set them to
thinking not only upon the multitude OF
invisible perils that surround all our lives,
but excite the medical faculty. the col
leges, the apothecaries' associations, and
the Legislature, TO come TO some better
and safer settlement ofthe subject of pre-
scrip,ions, how they shall be written, and
who shall not compound them, than has
yet been vouchsafed TO the public.
We are fully aware that some Of the
demands made on the medical faculty,
under the stimulus of such terrible &C.
currences as this, are notfully practica-
BILE. Yet still there are substantial re-
forms which are entirely so. A brief
statement of the case will explain what
may be done easily and what il is diff
cult to do. First, nearly all the articles
used as medical agents or remedies have
technical names, generally Latin; sec.
ond, in writing prescriptions to be COM
pounded of these articles, il is the GUS
tom to abbreridfe these technical terms;
third, it is the habit of many doctors to
write these abbreviated Latin terms in
hurry, and with but little attention to
their legibility. With respect to the first
of these points, all well-informed people
are aware that the technical or Latin
terms are used for the sake of insuring
uniformity = that the same remedy
shall have the same name everywhere,
and thus avoid the dangers of q con-
fusion of names. They understand,
also, that there is a further reason
for it, in the fact that many of the most
effective modern remedies are purely
chemical combinations that have no COM
mon or ordinary names, and must be de-
scribed by their technical names. II
must be acknowledged, therefore, that
there is great difficulty in making pop
ular reform in this branch of the subject,
but there is no difficulty in the way of
reform as TO the other two points, nor are
there any concerning others to be pres
emily mentioned. The doctors and the |
apotbecaries owe it not less to themselves |
than they do to the people, who are the |
aggregate of their patients and custom
ers, to insist upon a reform of the whole |
practice of writing authorizations of the |
technical namesof their remedies, and of
sending off their prescriptions in scrawls |
that are almost illegible, and that would |
be difficult to read even if the words were |
spelled out in full and in common En- |
glsh. Life and death are matters of |
serious import, and demand that time |
should be taken to write the few words |
required, plainly and carefully and in
fall, so that as shall not be taken for A.,
and somebody's life be lost by the hurry
Of the doctor and the blunder of the |
apothecary..
These customs and habits of the doc
tors rest upon the presumption that all |
doctors and all apothecaries and their |
attendants thoroughly understand their
business, presumption that is unfortu
nately unfounded in fact The frequent
fatal mistakes in putting up prescrip- |
ions show that the system of the medi- |
,al faculty, aud of the apothecaries,
should not be founded on the idea that |,
every one is we'll skilled and careful, but
.ather upon the opposite idea that some
ire certain to be nnskilled and careless.
Prescriptions should, therefore, always
De written in full view of the fact that
hey may go into the hands of such per-
sons to be compounded; and the putting
,f them up by apothecaries should al
ways beaccompanied by q full conscious
ress of the fact that they have been
written by hssty, absent.minded. care
ess or ignorant doctors. In nc, case
should the compromising of pre-
,criptions ever be intrusted to any
but PROFESSIONALLY competent per-
sons. If the only fully competent
persons be absent, the mixing of
and the selling of
any poison should be imperatively for
hidden until he returns; and, indeed, it
would be well to shut up the shop. Then
IS to the dispensing of poisonous medi-
,ines, there is some reform needed here.
It so happens that some of these are
among the most valued remedies, and in
he present state Of medical science it is
thought they must be used. Granting
his, is not the great intellectual ability
IF the medical fraternity of Philadelphia
equal to the task Of sevising system by
which every prescription containing a
poison shall contain a plain and unmis-
akabIe varying to the apothecary to
take core' Under such practice, even
an incapable person, like this unfortunate
Young man Bower, never could have
assafetida for a poison like
stropia or belladonna. The mere abb
;ence Of the warning would have shown
bin that poison was not to be used
Ledger.