A DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION
A doctor always begins his prescription with a kind_of R. In doing this he is following a custom of the Middle Ages. The "R” is the initial letter of the word “recipe”—the Latin for “take”—and is an order to the dispenser to “take” so much of the various drugs mentioned. As a rule, the doctor puts a little flourish at the end of the R. This flourish is a link with the days when medical matters were regarded as being under the care of Jupiter, and it is a brief form of the old symbol for that planet. The queer signs and contractions used in the prescriptions are based on the Latin of mediaeval days.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19361008.2.22
Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 8 October 1936, Page 3
Word Count
118A DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 8 October 1936, Page 3
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