Another reliable method of calculating doses for children is the following: The proportionate dose for any age under adult life is represented by the number of the following birthday divided by 24: In prescribing individual remedies for diseases of children, the practitioner must not, however, be governed blindly by such a table as is here offered. In some instances it will be necessary for him to diminish the amounts, in others to increase them, although in very young children extreme caution will be required if the agent is very potent, as in the case of the opiates, anti-. mony, etc. Some of the comparatively harmless remedies mentioned, such as syrupus rhei aromaticus, oleum ricini, mistura cretæ, etc., may be given in rather larger doses than are here assigned to them, or than the ratio above given would seem to warrant. Children tolerate larger proportional doses, also, of the bromides, of quinia, belladonna, cod liver oil, chlorate of potash, and other remedies. The doses of opium, antimony, veratrum viride, etc., it will be seen, are decidedly smaller than the ratio there given. Very young children are not as susceptible to the action of mercurials as adults. As a general rule, Dr. R O. Cowling, Amer. Practitioner, July, 1872. the quantities here mentioned are such as will bear repetition. After all, the good sense and discretion of the prescriber must in the case of children, even more guard. edly than in that of adults, direct him as to the appropri ateness of a remedy, and the frequency of its employ ment. Several years since the Pharmacopoeia of Guy's Hos pital contained a schedule of a posological table, which forms a useful guide to attain the same end. The maximum or full adult dose is taken as the point of departure for the doses to be given at all ages. The ratios do not correspond exactly with those just given for children, but approximate them sufficiently for all useful purposes : Maximum dose. : By way of illustration of the rules here laid down, the following examples, embracing the chief medicines prescribed for young children, may be cited. The average dose for the adult is first mentioned as a guide, deductions being made from it to exhibit in a regular series the influence of age on the dose. As the remedies mentioned are such as are almost daily employed, the list will doubtless be consulted frequently by the practitioner. It will save him the trouble of estimating for himself the quantity to be administered to infants and children, the calculations being carefully made in each instance. It will be observed that the ages mentioned range from infancy to four years. After the latter period, the practitioner can readily fix the dose from the data here given, and from comparison with the tables to be hereafter presented (see p. 80). As a rule, the remedies prescribed for young children are soluble in water or syrup, or readily miscible for administration in a palatable form. Should the practitioner desire to convert this table into the phraseology of the metric system, he must bear in mind that 1 gramme = 15.434 grains, that 1 fluidrachm and 1 minim = grammes, .06 grammes, or 6 centi = 3.7 grammes.1 As already explained (p. 31), this varies with the tenuity, etc., the fluid. of |