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What does the word prescription mean?

• The formula which the physician writes for the composition of medicines adapted to any case of disease. A prescription should be as simple as possible, and should bear upon its face the evidence of the objects to be fulfilled by it. No article should form part of it, unless adapted for serving some useful purpose. A compound prescription has been divided into four parts: -the basis or principal ingredient of the prescription; the ad’juvans, or that which is designed to promote the action of the former; the cor'rigens, or that intended to correct its operation, or obviate any unpleasant symptom which it may be apt to produce: and the constit’uens, excip'iens or vehic'ulum, Constitu'ent, Exrip'ient or ve'hicle, the substance which gives to the other ingredients consistence or form. It is obvious, however, that most prescriptions are more simple than this. The basis, for example, may require neither adjuvant, corrigent, nor constituent. Dr. Paris has given the following synopsis of the principles of medicinal combination, Jamatotaxiolog"ia, lamatonyntaxiolog"ia, Ara form'ulas med'icas concinnan'di, which may serve as an instructive guide to the prescriber: OBJECT I. TO PROMOTE THE ACTION OF THE BASIS. A. By combining the several different forms or preparations of the same substance. B. By combining the basis with substances which are of the same nature; i. e., which are individually capable of producing the same effects, with less energy than when in combination with each other. C. By combining the basis with substances of a different nature, and which do not exert any chemical influence upon it, but are found by experience, or inferred by analogy, to be capable of rendering the stomach or system more susceptible of its action. OBJECT II. TO CORRECT THE OPERATION OF THE BASIS BY OBVIATING ANT UNPLEASANT EFFECTS IT MIGHT BE LIKELY TO OCCASION, AND WHICH WOULD PERVERT ITS INTENDED ACTION, AND DEFEAT THE OBJECT OP ITS EXHIBITION. A. By chymically neutralizing or mechanically separating the offending ingredient. B. By adding some substance calculated to guard the stomach or system against its deleterious effects. OBJECT III. TO OBTAIN THE JOINT OPERATION OF TWO OR MORE MEDICINES. A. By uniting those medicines which are calculated to produce the same ultimate results, but by modes of operation totally different. B. By combining medicines which have entirely different powers; and which are required to obviate different symptoms, or to answer different indications. OBJECT IV. TO OBTAIN A NEW AND ACTIVE REMEDY, NOT AFFORDED BY ANY SINGLE SUBSTANCE. A. By combining medicines which excite different actions in the stomach and system, in consequence of which new or modified results are produced. B. By combining substances which have the property of acting chymically upon each other; the results of which are :-a. The formation of new compounds; b. The decomposition of the original ingredients, and the development of the more active elements. C. By combining substances, between which no other change is induced than a diminution or increase in the solubility of the principles in which their medicinal virtues reside. a. By the intervention of substances that act chymically. b. By the addition of ingredients whose operation is entirely mechanical. OBJECT V. TO AFFORD AN ELIGIBLE FORM. A. By which the efficacy of the remedy is enhanced. B. By which its aspect or flavour is rendered more agreeable, or its mode of administration more convenient. C. By which it is preserved from the spontaneous decomposition to which it is liable. [ The vocabulary in the author's "Medical Student" Philad., 1844, will aid the student not only in translating, but in writing his prescriptions more solito.]

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