In no other branch of medicine is the skilful writing and compounding of prescriptions of so great importance as in dermatology. A rough or gritty ointment may irritate instead of relieve any inflammatory condition of the skin, and a lotion which is not properly compounded may lose all its therapeutic efficiency.
I have seen so many bad or indifferent results in cases in which the treatment prescribed should have acted favorably that I have been led to try to write all prescriptions so that "a wayfaring man, though a fool, may read." If compounded by a careful and skilful pharmacist, few prescriptions will go wrong. If unable to produce a good preparation, he will telephone and straighten out the difficulty. Poor, careless and indifferent pharmacists will follow directions regardless of what the product is—compatible or incompatible, gritty, slimy, or muddy, it is all the same to them.
Again, physicians are