in Medicine, signifies much the same with what in common language is called a receipt, being a form of direction for the preparation and administration of some compound medicine. These medical receipts are commonly called formulae by physicians; and the term prescription is applied to what is written by a physician on seeing his patient, instructing the apothecary what medicines are to be prepared, how they are to be composed, and how administered to the patient. In this sense, a prescription may contain two or more formulae. These prescriptions are almost always written in Latin, and are expressed in a peculiar style, which, though well known to physicians and apothecaries, may require the illustration of an example. The following is a specimen of a modern prescription as it would be written by a physician, according to the nomenclature of the pharmacopoeia:

For Mr Middleton.

B. Pulv. Rad. Rhei palmati gr. xxv. Tartratis Rotasani 3ij. Tinctura Sennae composita, Syrupus Rosae centiflorae 2j. Aquae Menthae piperitae 3ij. M.f. Potio summo mane sumenda.

Jan. 31, 1859.

From the above example, it will be seen that a prescription, properly so called, contains several circumstances beside the formulae or receipts, as the name of the patient for whom the prescription is written; the signature of the physician, as J. B. for John Balfour; and the date of prescribing; none of which should be omitted, as the prescriptions are carefully preserved by the apothecary for future reference.

It may be proper to explain some circumstances respecting the formula given in the above prescription. The B. with which it commences signifies recipe or take; and is prefixed to all medical receipts. Then follow the several ingredients of which the medicine is to be composed, with the quantities of each. These quantities are usually marked by peculiar characters or symbols, and the numbers employed are usually the Roman numerals. After the ingredients have been enumerated, and their quantities specified, there follows the title of the medicine, as Potio in the present instance, signifying potion or purging draught, with M.f. prefixed to it, which stand for miscere fiat, or miscere ut fiat, mix to make; and lastly, the direction how the medicine is to be taken or administered, summo mane sumenda, to be taken early in the morning. The ingredients of which a formula is composed have been, by writers on medical prescriptions, arranged under four heads: 1. The basis of the formula, which in the present instance is the rhubarb, constituting the principal ingredient, on whose action, modified where necessary, the chief success of the medicine, in fulfilling the required indication, is to depend. 2. The adjuvant or auxiliary, added to the basis, for the purpose of increasing its power, expediting its action, or rendering it more easily soluble in the juices of the stomach; in the above formula the tartrate of potash is the principal adjuvant. 3. The corrector, added to the basis when we wish to moderate or delay its action, to correct some unpleasant or injurious property of it, such as its odour, taste, acrimony, &c., or to prevent it from acting on the body in a different manner from that which the indication requires: thus, in the present formula, the warm tincture of senna is added, rather to correct the griping quality of the rhubarb, than to increase its action, and the syrup of roses to correct the unpleasant taste of the medicine; and the essential oil in the peppermint-water contributes to both these purposes: these, therefore, are to be considered as the correctors. 4. The constituent, or that ingredient which serves to reduce the rest into the form which is considered as most convenient for the exhibition of the medicine; in the present case the peppermint-water is the constituent, serving to reduce the medicine to the form of a potion or draught. Medical formulae are either officinal or extemporaneous; the former being such as are directed by authority of some public medical college to be kept in the shops of apothecaries, and the preparation of which is described in their pharmacopoeias or dispensaries; the latter such as are prescribed by the physician or surgeon, as occasion may require.

English law, "is when a man claimeth any thing for that he, his ancestors or predecessors, or they whose estate he hath, have had or used anything all the time whereof no memory is to the contrary." (T. de la Ley.) This definition appears to be sufficiently definite and comprehensive. There have been various attempts at defining prescription, and few of them have ended in entire success. According to a passage in Littleton, prescription is made essential to custom. He says, "No custome is to bee allowed, but such custome as hath been used by title of prescription; that is to say, from time out of mind. But divers opinions have been of time out of mind, &c., and of title of prescription, which is all one in the law." There is another claim, however, to which the term prescription is very frequently applied, and which resembles custom, in being endowed with the inseparable incidents of time and of usage, which is another essential to custom. Yet this claim differs from custom in the mode of pleading adopted in it, which serves to distinguish the difference of the right. The word prescription is given to this claim, because the plaintiff or defendant making it "prescribeth that," &c., going on to state the nature of his claim. The following example of such a prescription is taken from Coke upon Littleton:—"I. S. seised of the manor of D. in fee prescribeth thus: That I. S. his ancestors, and all whose estate he hath in the sayd manor, had and used to have common of pasture time out of mind in such a place, &c., being the land of some other, &c., as pertaining to the same manor." It accordingly follows that the claim by prescription is properly a claim of a determinate person; that by custom, as opposed to prescription, belongs and applies to a particular place, belongs and applies to many; nay, to an indefinite number of persons, such as to the inhabitants of an entire parish. From the first definition, it appears that prescription may belong to a man as the heir of his ancestors, or to a corporation as the representatives of their predecessors, or it may be the claim of one who holds a situation in which there is perpetual succession, or by a person in virtue of an estate which he holds.

It seems to form an essential element in prescription, that the use of the thing claimed should have been time out of mind continuous and peaceable. As to the signification of the expression "time out of mind," it means that there must be no evidence of the non-usage of the claim subsequent to the first year of legal memory; that is, after the beginning of the reign of the first Richard. In order to substantiate the prescription, there must also be evidence of repeated usage; but where the evidence fails to show the beginning of the enjoyment, twenty years has been considered sufficient proof. Prescription is said to be founded on the assumption of an original grant that has been long lost. Thus Blackstone, in speaking of the erection of corporations, has the following passage:—"Another method of implication, whereby the queen's consent is presumed, is, as to all corporations, by prescription; such as the city of London, and many others, which have existed as corporations time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and therefore are looked upon in law to be well created. For though the members thereof can show no legal charter of incorporation, yet, in cases of such high antiquity, the law presumes that there once was one; and that, by the variety of accidents which a length of time may produce, the charter is lost or destroyed."

Some alterations as to prescription have been made by recent acts, limiting the time within which actions can be brought, or suits instituted, relating to real property. Such are the 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 27; also 2 and 3 Will. IV., c. 100. The 2 and 3 Will. IV., c. 71, is entitled "An Act for Shortening the time of Prescription in certain Cases," and applies (§ 1) to "claims which may be lawfully made at the common law by custom, prescription, or grant, to any right of common, or other profit or benefit, to be taken from or upon any land, &c., except such matters and things as are therein specially provided for, and except tithes, rents, and services." Section 2 applies "to any way or other easement, or to any watercourse, or the use of any water;" and sect. 3 to the use of light. It is further enacted, that no claim to the things comprised within this statute, "shall, when such right, profit, or benefit (as is mentioned in sect. 1), shall have been actually taken and enjoyed by any person claiming right thereto, without interruption, for the full period of thirty years, be defeated or destroyed, by showing only that such right, profit, or benefit was first taken or enjoyed at any time prior to such period of thirty years; but nevertheless such claim may be defeated in any other way by which the same is now liable to be defeated; and where such right, profit, or benefit shall have been so taken and enjoyed, as aforesaid, for the full period of sixty years, the right thereto shall be deemed absolute and indefeasible, unless it shall appear that the same was taken and enjoyed by some consent or agreement, expressly made or given for that purpose by deed or writing." The terms of twenty and forty years are fixed respectively, instead of thirty and sixty, as mentioned in the first section. The eighth section enacts, "that when any land or water upon, over, or from which any such way, or other convenient watercourse, or use of water, shall have been enjoyed or derived, hath been or shall be held under any term of life, or any term of years exceeding three years from the granting thereof, the time of the enjoyment of any such way, or other matter as therein last mentioned, during the continuance of such term, shall be excluded in the computation of the said period of forty years, in case the claim shall, within three years next after the end, or sooner determination of such term, be resisted by any person entitled to any reversion expectant on the determination thereof."

Scotch law, has a much wider operation than in either the civil law or the law of England, supplying the place, as it does, of the statute of limitations in the latter system. In Scots law, and according to the long prescription, titles may be had to heritable property through a series of consecutive titles, extending over a period of forty years. But this positive prescription must be accompanied by negative prescription, to afford it free operation. By negative prescription is meant the absence of any effort on the part of one who may have a competing title to put his claim in force. This negative prescription will of itself destroy a claim by one party in cases where it cannot be directly said there is relative possession on the part of the other, independently of the existence of any positive prescription. The act creating this prescription says generally regarding obligations, "the party to whom the obligation is made that has interest therein, shall follow the said obligation within the space of forty years, and take document thereupon. And if he does not, it shall be prescribed, and be of no avail, the said forty years being run, and unpursued by the party." Prescription is counted from the day when fulfillment of the obligation became exigible, and it is effectual in all cases of debt, bonds, provisions in marriage-contracts, &c. Prescription can only be interrupted by the act of the person against whose claim it is running. Suspension of prescription takes place during minority; and so if the person having a claim have been twenty years a minor, he cannot lose his claim by negative prescription in less than sixty years. A similar suspension takes place in all cases where the creditor is physically disabled from acting.

The short prescription, or, more properly speaking, limitation, is an exclusion on the ordinary means of proving the obligation. The triennial prescription, or the limitation of the existence of an obligation to three years, runs on most debts contracted in ordinary business without a written obligation. A prescription of five years takes place in all bargains concerning moveables or sums of money which may be proved by witnesses, such as contracts of sale, letting and hiring, &c. Holograph writings, or those of which the whole is written by the grantor, if not attested by witnesses, prescribe in twenty years. Actions on the ground of the transactions between tutor and curator, on either side, prescribe in ten years after the expiration of the guardianship; and the operation of certain cautionary obligations is limited to seven years; while bills of exchange and promissory-notes prescribe as items of debt in six years. (Hill Burton's Manual of Scots Law.)