A guide to therapeutics / by Robert Farquharson.

  • Farquharson, Robert, 1836-1918.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to therapeutics / by Robert Farquharson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    awkwardness in using practically the theoretical knowledge which he has laboriously obtained. The time at his teacher's disposal is so short that he has to run hurriedly from one drug to another, and bring into immediate relation remedies which differ so widely in their effects as to excite some not unnatural confusion in the minds of his hearers. It is therefore not an uncommon thing to hear students say that they do not think they will ever be able to remember the doses of the principal medicines. Then we must remember that, during attendance on out-patient practice, prescribing is either done on very routine principles, or considerations of time and convenience render it advisable to order most drugs according to registered formulae, which are merely referred to on the patient's notes by name. Thus, although the student may know that dyspepsia may be treated by mist. alk. amara, or debility by mist, quinise, he would perhaps experience some difficulty in writing a pre- scription suitable for either case. In the wards, of course, he sees much more prescribing, but is perhaps not often called upon to do it for himself, so that when he settles down on his own account, it will be some time before he can handle medicines with that ease, confidence, and certainty which can only con- duce to the comfort of his patients and his own ultimate success. Now, it cannot be out of place to urge upon him, here, the great importance of frequently exercising himself in this art. Let him put problems to himself; let him run his eye through his text-books, and endeavour to order the several drugs in varied combination; when he meets with the recom- mendation to treat a certain disease in a certain way, let him there and then expand these more or less vague directions into the form of a prescription; and so, at last, due blending of in- gredients, with the avoidance of incompatibles and the conceal- ment of nauseous properties, will come to him with perfect ease and efficiency. Another point, the mere mention of which may cause a smile, is the importance of occasionally inspecting, or even tasting, the mixtures we prescribe for our patients. Experi-