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Show Wherein the Patient Was Lucky. ''Tho illegible writing of physicians is as proverbial as that of the celebrated cele-brated Philadelphia lawyer,"" observed Hic old druggist, ''but it is not generally gen-erally known that a great many physicians phy-sicians are exceedingly careless in other ways in preparing their prescriptions. Wo druggists frequently find mistakes in prescript ions which would be fatal lo Ihe patient if the medicine were compounded com-pounded as the physician directed. Although Al-though almost every stato has most stringent laws forbidding a druggist to change a physician prescription in any ;ay, as a rule druggifels do make corrections cor-rections and send out the medicine in its proper form. Most physicians, knowing their liability to error, relv on tho dispensing clerk to detect I heir mistakes and are very grateful lo them for doing il. Others, however (the 'exaggerated 'ex-aggerated ego' kind), object seriously to having their prescriptions altered and resent having their attention called lo their mistakes. "So you sof the druggist has to use considerable diplomacy lo avoid of-fending of-fending the physician and at tho Hnme lime to save the life of the patient. " Sometimes, when you take a prescription pre-scription to a drug store, ihe clerk, after reading il, Hays: 'This prescription prescrip-tion will take a long time to fill. You'd better not wait for il ; come back for it. in an hour or so.' That frequently fre-quently means that he has discovered a grave erilir in the prescription and that he intends to consult the physician before be-fore filling it. "Many vi-ari ago. wKon 1 first si ail 1 n jn the bisiiux-s and a.is lo a grcit 1 Mint dependent upon the good will 01 ihe uh 111:1 " for tn in-cen. a ore M'Hption was brought in nno Tiiorniny wliieli. :is HDon as I read il, I knew meant sure death to the patient, it' lie Until the. medicine. I told tho boy who brojtght. it, Lhat he had better ' eome buck in an hour, as il would take thai ()nr to put, up. Jn rhc meantime I intended in-tended to consult, the physician over the telephone, as I was not willin lo take. e.lianee.s on killing the patient or offending offend-ing Dr. Roper. "1 found that the physician had one rfeeral miles out of town and was not xpeeied lo return before afternoon. That was to.uh, as T knew from tho nil un of the prescription that Ihe pa I tent was m a seno'iu condition 'ind needed the inodieine at oneej So I. took the risk, altered tho prescription and hent it out. ''Toward nihl. tho physician camo in. Taking him aside, J showed him the prescription ami asked,: " " 'Js that, all ribtf " Not by a in-? lull.' he gasped. ' You didn't k(mh1 it. out. did youY' "'Yes. sir, about JI o'clock this morning, ' I answered. ' The physician nave me u horrified look, and hurried nut to his buyy: as lie s about to dine off lie hesitated, uol out, hitched his horse aaiu and came slol back into the store. 4 Thi re' r no i' " i u iroinir nou.' ho said, 'for if ,lackson took that medicine medi-cine he. s been dead since 4 o'clock.' "I "ave htm a drink to brace him up, and then told him T had corrected his error, lte tivt' a Jon; sieji of relief re-lief as he said: " 'You're all rihl. Tom. I'll do you a eood turn some clay. Jt's a lucky l hiiijrTor me you caught that niislake--if vou hadn't I'd have lost the ease,' anil, lu added, as he look another drink. I'm flunking it was a damned lucky thing for the patient, loo.' " |