The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-18
WHO OWNS A PRESCRIPTION
Does 1t or Docs 1t Not Belong to Him
Who Pays for 1t:
Chicago-Times Herald.

Chicago-Times Herald.
An interesting discussion has beer
started by the New York Times with re-
gard to the ownership OF prescriptions
furnished by doctors. Somebody. II seems
wrote to the paper complaining that he
paid doctor for a prescription which he
asked for after 1t had been filled by a
druggist. The latter refused to deliver it,
on the ground that the patient had nc
ownership in it. The sick man had pre-
sented a document calling for certain
drugs which had been mixed for him. He
had paid for the medicine, and there the
transaction ended.
The prescription the druggist held to
have been written for him by the doctor
the patient being a mere incident in the
proceedings. This the patient thought un-
fair, and said SO in print. Now the doc
tors and druggists are writing about ii,
and while there is a difference of opinion
among them as to whether the man who
lnventS prescription or the one who fills
1t becomes the perpetual owner they are
unanimous in the declaration that the
person who pays the doctor for furnish
ing it and then goes further and puts
money into the hands OF the druggist,
who compounds the nostrums 1t calls for
has no right or title to 1T whatever. He
is merely messenger, in the opinions OF
both doctors and druggists. who carries
the prescription from one place to another,
and, having performed that duty, all
that remains for him Is to take his medi-
cine.
II ~ not QlIucult TO Understand why q
druggist should want to retain possession
OF prescriptions. When he hands a pre-
scr1ption out with the medicine ii calls
Tor the patient may go elsewhere to have
1t refilled, in case that becomes necessary.
AS for the doctors, they probably figure
that IT is always bad thing to have a
prescription filled a second time, anyway.
The medicine that cures to-day may poison
pay his fee for the little slip of paper
with the big r at the upper left-hand cor
ner so as to be sure.
This question of the ownership of pre-
scorpions may have something to do with
the fact that they are not written in plain
English. A man with prescription that
he could read would be a dangerous per-
son. He might sit down on the curbstone
or In the stairway between the doctors Of
fce and the drug store and make a copy
Of the document. Then there would be no
telling what might follow. If he had a
pain under his left shoulder-blade and the
had copied cured il, he would, in about nine
cases out of ten, be mean-spirited enough
to try the same thing the next time he had
similar pain.
prescription to his friends, If they hap
pened to have pains under their left shoul-
der-biades- This is matter of far-reach-
ing Importance. There is no telling where
II might end. No wonder the doctors use
Latin and write il badly that "a man
who can read Horace and Virgil an the
original is unable to make out any more
than Sig" and isn't even sure OF that,
when he sits down to decipher a prescrip-
ton for medicine.
The doctors scott at faith-curing, but
exact the most implicit faith from their
patients. The person who obtains a pre-
scr1ption for that rundown feeling or a
loss of appetite ordinarily hasn't the faint
est idea whether he is being dosed with
ouinine, strychnine, paris green or wagon
grease All he does is take II and trust to
luck. There is considerable faith cure
When 1t cures-about that, after all.