HANDWRITING OF DOCTORS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21090, 15 February 1934, Page 10

HANDWRITING OF DOCTORS

! ♦ LEGIBILITY DEFENDED READING OF PRESCRIPTIONS The handwriting of doc'ors .is popularly supposed to be bad, if not illegible, and many are inclined to make this legend the excuse for witty or facetious comments on the virtues of medical men. The secretary of the Taranaki Automobile Association recently drew nods of sympathy from the members of his council when, stumbling over the reading of a letter, he cleared himself by explaining that the note was in a doctor's handwriting. Chemists more than others have the opportunity to see samples of many and various forms of ine hanclwiting of doctors and, when the importance of accurate imcrpretation of prescriptions is taken into account, it must be admitted that they are in the best position to iud''o of its legibility or other; wise. °And yet chemists rarely, u ever make mistakes in reading prescriptions which vary with every case and with every doctor. Legible Prescriptions Yesterday a chemist who handles a <n-eat number of prescriptions every week showed a reporter of "The Press" a comprehensive selection of prescriptions and challenged him to "discover in the bundle a samul'j of really bad handwriting. A brirf inspection was unavailing —or rather, it failed to unearth an illegible prescription. Naturally the handwriting varied from good to bad (in the generally accepted mcami)"' of the terms), but invariably the words and individual letters were decipherable. The promysteries of the prescription formulae were puzzling—as everyone knows who has tneci to understand them—but to the chemist's eyes everything was as clear as crystal. "The legend of the doctors handwriting is as old and as truthful as the story of the chemist and his bottle of water," was the most expressive comment the chemist had to offer. There was sometimes a little difficulty about making out the Kiuc at the head of the prescription, he said, but otherwise the dispenser was on sure and sale ground. One or two doctors had "terrible hands," of course, but so had the members of other professions and the whole class should not be blamed for the delinquencies of a few. Besides doctors had not time to copy out. prescriptions in copper-plate writing while some patient lay in urgent need of Ine i mixture. I "Most of us know the writing u! I all the doctors in town," he con- | United, "and wc could recognise them on blank paper."