AT THE CHEMIST’S
When you need some drugs you have to go to the chemist’s. There are usually two departments at the chemist’s shop: a chemist’s department and a prescription one. At the chemist’s department you can buy medicines right away. At the prescription department all the drugs have to be ordered.
At the chemist’s all drugs are kept in drug cabinets. Every small bottle or box has a label with the name of the medicine. There are labels of three colours. White labels are stuck to indicate drugs for internal use, yellow labels are stuck to indicate drugs for external use, and blue ones are used to indicate drugs for injections. The name of the drug, its dose and directions for the administration are usually indicated on a signature or a label. It is quite necessary to avoid confusing the drugs, because some of them are poisonous and their overdosage may cause untowared reactions and sometimes even death.
In the drug cabinets you can see drugs of different kinds: small parcels of powders; tablets; ampules of glucose and camphor used for intravenous injections; tubes of healing ointments, which are rubbed in to relieve pain or skin irritation; different pills for internal use; sedatives and tonics, such as bromide, vitamins, cod liver oil and sleeping-draughts; laxatives administered orally in case something is wrong with the patient’s stomach because of the indigestion, bottles of iodine and so on.
Besides different kinds of medicine at the chemist’s department you can buy all the necessary things for medical care, such as hot-water bottles and medicine droppers.
Some drugs you cannot buy at the chemist’s department such as mixtures and tinctures have to be ordered at the prescription one. At the prescription department all poisonous drugs are kept in the drug cabinets having the letter A, and all strong effective drugs are kept in the drug cabinets with the letter B. The chemist takes the prescription written out by the doctor and says when the medicine will be ready. He usually advises to keep the medicine in a cool place, to follow directions and shake the drug before using.