Apothecaries measures

Use in the book

The alleged preparation of people for staged cures at Padua uses drams for medicinal preparations, paired with ointments. Burton attributes the accusation to polemical authorities and expresses doubt about whether the supposed patients are genuinely afflicted. Neither his suspicion nor the word establishes an exact amount. In a different narrative, a young man’s recovery from love resembles taking a dram of oblivion: the dose is figurative and the comparison explicitly says as if.

Weights become crucial when a reader confuses a dram with a scruple. The story forms part of Burton’s warning against practising on oneself from a book without a competent physician. The error is a substitution of a larger unit for a smaller one, not merely an alternative spelling of the same quantity.

The formulas give compact written quantities. Their signs, fractional marks and terminal j numerals must be read together: an abbreviation meaning of each distributes an amount among ingredients, whereas a half mark modifies the stated unit. The latter recipe crosses a printed page boundary; it remains one prescription. Explaining its notation does not establish the efficacy or safety of its contents. The historical units are retained here without conversion into modern doses.

Weight language also serves ordinary rhetoric. A dram of pleasure is set against a pound of pain, as a pint of honey is set against a gallon of gall. The deliberately unequal measures describe the excess of suffering over enjoyment, rather than measurable physical ingredients.

Related entries

Receipt

Patient

Experimental

Confection

Places to read

1. Subsection 5. Melancholy as a Passing State, Loosely So Called; the Different… · paragraphs 8–10A small weight figuratively set against a much larger quantity of pain.
2. Member 3. Whether It Is Lawful to Seek the Saints' Help in This Disease · paragraphs 34–37Unquantified draughts in a polemical accusation about staged cures.
3. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraphs 38–42Dangerous confusion of dram and scruple during self-treatment.
4. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraphs 4–7Scruple notation and terminal j numerals in a historical formula.
5. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against… · paragraphs 10–12An uncertain quantity sign; the supplied half-ounce interpretation is tentative.
6. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraphs 44–47The distributive abbreviation, drachm and ounce signs, fraction and numerals across the page break.
7. Resist the Beginnings, Avoid Occasions, Change One’s Location; Fair and Foul… · paragraphs 9–11A figurative dose of forgetfulness in the love narrative.

In this edition

“drams” becomes “potions”, and “a dram of oblivion” is represented within “a dose of forgetfulness”. These renderings distinguish an unspecified or imagined dose from the actual weight contrast “one dram for one scruple,” rendered “one dram instead of one scruple”.

“an. ʒ j.” becomes “one drachm of each”; “ʒ ß.” becomes “half a drachm”; and “℥ iij.” becomes “three ounces.” “℈ jj.” becomes “two scruples.” The expanded words clarify the prescription notation but leave the historical weights unconverted. These conventional values do not settle every printed quantity: the notation is uncertain, and its modern half-ounce interpretation remains tentative. The initial “℞.” becomes “Take”, retaining the source’s imperative as historical text.

Apothecaries notation: half

Printed “ʒ ß.” (Prescription notation; phrase).

Half a drachm: ʒ names the unit, and ß signifies one half.

Here: The combination attaches a fractional quantity to the unit.

Context: This explains the printed notation, without converting the historical prescription into present treatment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ʒ ß.

Modern rendering: half a drachm

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Apothecaries notation: of each

Printed “an. ʒ j.” (Latin prescription notation; phrase).

One drachm of each listed ingredient: an. means of each, ʒ drachm, and j one.

Here: The abbreviated quantity applies distributively to the preceding ingredients.

Context: A historical prescription is being transcribed and interpreted; no modern dosing instruction is supplied.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an. ʒ j.

Modern rendering: one drachm of each

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Apothecaries notation: ounce

Printed “℥ iij.” (Prescription notation; phrase).

Three ounces: ℥ names the unit, and iij signifies three.

Here: The symbol and numeral form one specified weight.

Context: The historical ounce is left unconverted; no modern dose equivalence is claimed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ℥ iij.

Modern rendering: three ounces

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Apothecaries notation: scruple

Printed “℈ jj.” (Prescription notation; phrase).

Two scruples: ℈ names the unit, and jj signifies two.

Here: The sign distinguishes scruples from the dram elsewhere in this recipe.

Context: The source’s amounts are retained even where adjoining prose gives a different amount for a preparation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ℈ jj.

Modern rendering: two scruples

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Dram · drams

Printed “drams” (English; lemma).

Medicinal draughts or doses; no precise weight is specified here.

Here: The preparations are allegedly administered before apparent cures.

Context: Burton voices a polemical suspicion, citing Heldeheim and Mattioli; these are not demonstrated case histories.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: certain oyntments and drams

Modern rendering: certain ointments and potions

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “dram” (English; lemma).

Here: A figurative medicinal dose figures the young man’s relief from love.

Context: The as-if comparison belongs to Burton’s recasting of a Lucian story; it does not describe an administered substance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: as if he had taken a dram of oblivion

Modern rendering: as though he had taken a dose of forgetfulness

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Dram · dram · local use 1

Printed “dram” (English; lemma).

A historical unit of apothecaries’ weight, larger than a scruple.

Here: A mistaken substitution produces a dangerously excessive amount.

Context: Burton reports Codronchus’s rescue of a man experimenting on himself; the units are described without modern dose conversion.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: one dram for one scruple

Modern rendering: one dram instead of one scruple

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Dram · dram · local use 2

Printed “dram” (English; lemma).

A small quantity, figured as a small weight.

Here: The disproportion between dram and pound magnifies pain’s excess over pleasure.

Context: Burton’s rhetorical comparison is not a calculation of feelings or a pharmaceutical prescription.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: for a dram of pleasure a pound of pain

Modern rendering: for a dram of pleasure, a pound of pain

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Recipe sign

Printed “℞.” (Latin prescription notation; phrase).

The prescription sign for the imperative take.

Here: It introduces the formula rather than naming a weight.

Context: The command belongs to the historical quoted prescription, not to this lexicon’s advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ℞.

Modern rendering: Take

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Scruple

Printed “scruple” (English; lemma).

A historical apothecaries’ unit of weight, smaller than a dram.

Here: This is the intended weight that the self-experimenter confuses with a dram.

Context: The distinction belongs to a warning about dangerous dosing mistakes, not a recommended amount.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: one dram for one scruple

Modern rendering: one dram instead of one scruple

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.