The Secrets of Specialists/Chapter 31

When physicians commence to awaken to the fact that oftentimes pharmacists can be counted as one of his greatest competitors, and that pharmacy of the old school has degenerated into a sort of semi-free dispensary, he will commence to dispense his own medicines, and the time is fast approaching when the physician will abandon his former custom of sitting at his desk with his pen and prescription pad at hand, ready to deplete his own purse for the benefit of some brother pharmacist, who in return many times would not hesitate to counter prescribe for the same patient, if opportunity presented itself, and thus rob the physician of his vocation and income.

There are many reasons why physicians should dispense their own remedies; the most important are as follows: it allows him to become acquainted with the tools of his profession, and it also allows him to keep within his professional domain; a larger financial income, than he would receive from prescription writing. Hundreds of dollars are thrown into the hands of the pharmacists every year which should have fallen into the purse of the physician, and many physicians little realize what it means to send a prescription to an unscrupulous pharmacist, who not only receives the revenue from continually refilling the prescriptions, but by becoming familiarly acquainted with patients often quizzes him regarding his ailments, and when another patient with similar ailments asks the pharmacist to prescribe for him he will prescribe from this same prescription. We therefore find that the pharmacist prizes his prescription files more than any other thing in his armamentorium.

At the present age, when compressed tablets, pills, tablet triturates, alkaloidal granules, fluid extracts, and specific tine​tures, etc., are so accessible to the physician, the art of dispensing is an easy and accurate procedure compared with former years, and our many reliable pharmaceutical manufacturing and chemical companies can supply their products in nearly every form the physician may desire, which he can dispense in their original form or compound into stock preparations with little or no trouble. The only equipment required would be a glass graduate mortar and pestle, a glass funnel, a percolator, and filtering paper. The following stock preparations are in daily use with many physicians and will be found superior to many similar preparations found in the drug stores.

Mix. Allow to stand 24 hours and filter through talcum. Each fluid dram contains 1½ grains of potassium acetate, and represents about 5½ grains of buchu, and 2 grains of juniper berries.

Mix the alcohol with four fluid ounces of aromatic elixir; to this add the fluid extract of celery in several portions, shaking after each addition, and afterwards the other fluid ​extracts; finally add the remainder of the elixir, allow the mixture to stand 24 hours, and filter.

Mix, dissolve, and filter if necessary.

Each fluidram contains about 1-40 grain of arsenious acid (as so-called "chlorine of arsenie"), 1-64 grain of mercuric chloride, about 3 grain of ferric chloride, and about 5 minims of diluted hydrochloric acid.

Mix and filter.

Each fluidram represents 14 grains of michella, and 7 grains each of helonias, blue cohosh and crampbark.

​Dissolve the hypophosphites and the citric acid in the water; then add the glycerin compound spirit and the aromatic elixir. Filter if necessary.

Each fluidram contains 3 grains of calcium hypophosphite and 1 grain each of sodium and potassium hypophosphite.

Dissolve the iron hypophosphites with the aid of the potassium citrate in the orange flower water, and enough water to make the solution measure 6½ fluid ounces, and in this dissolve the sugar. Triturate the quinine sulphate with 5 fluid ounces of alcohol, add a solution of the calcium hypophosphite in 4 fluidrams of water, and shake the mixture occasionally during 1 hour; filter, and wash the filter with enough alcohol to make 6½ fluid ounces. Add this solution to the spirit of orange, mix this with the iron solution and sugar solution previously prepared, and filter the whole.

Each fluidram contains 1 grain each of the hypophosphites of iron and quinine.

​Add the six iodides to the elixir, dissolve by agitation, add a few grains of sodium hypophosphite, or sufficient to decolorize the liquid, and filter.

Each fluidram contains 1-128 grain each of arsenic and mercury iodides, 1-12 grain of ferrous iodide, 1-10 grain of manganese iodide, and I grain each of sodium and potassium iodides.

Mix the drugs in coarse powder with the two liquids, macerate for 3 days, agitating frequently; express and filter. Sometimes 35 grains of agaric is added to the other drugs, and the menstruum generally employed is diluted alcohol.

Macerate the orange peel, cinnamon, and potassium carbonate with the 16 fluid ounces of sherry wine for 8 days, agitating occasionally; express the liquid portion in the latter, dissolve the extracts, filter, and add enough sherry wine through the filter to make the filtrate measure 16 fluid ounces.—Germ. Pharm.

​The National Formulary recognizes what is identically the same preparation under the title "Compound Wine of Orange." In the latter no extracts are used, but the drugs themselves are mixed with the orange peel, cinnamon and potassium carbonate, the whole being extracted by percolation.

Dissolve the alkaloidal salt in the water and add the elixir. Each fluidram contains 1-100 grain of strychnine sulphate, nearly ¼ grain of quinine sulphate, and nearly 1 grain of pepsin.

Reduce the three drugs to moderately coarse powder, extract them in the usual way by percolation with diluted alcohol until 6 fluid ounces of percolate are obtained. In this percolate dissolve the potassium bicarbonate, add the spirit of peppermint, syrup, and enough elixir to make 16 fluid ounces of product, and filter.

This preparation represents the well-known syrup of rhubarb and potassium in the elixir form.