The prescription, therapeutically, pharmaceutically, grammatically and historically considered . k word ypdn/na. {gramma, ce, f.), at present thenme or gram of the metric system, but which is really the Greekequivalent for the Latin scrupulum. The similarity of the written character of the Greek letter gamma, V, when compared with the .Bign for the scruple, especially as it is sometimes written, TJr, is * quite apparent. ^/ Another somewhat similar explanation refers to the close resem-blance of t]ie written scruple sign, as above, and a slurred written the initial letter of the Latin word scr
The prescription, therapeutically, pharmaceutically, grammatically and historically considered . k word ypdn/na. {gramma, ce, f.), at present thenme or gram of the metric system, but which is really the Greekequivalent for the Latin scrupulum. The similarity of the written character of the Greek letter gamma, V, when compared with the .Bign for the scruple, especially as it is sometimes written, TJr, is * quite apparent. ^/ Another somewhat similar explanation refers to the close resem-blance of t]ie written scruple sign, as above, and a slurred written the initial letter of the Latin word scrupulum: f+%*fi>/J^ While it is possible, in fact probable, that one of these is thecorrect explanation of the origin of the scruple sign as used in medi- WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 47 cine, yet it is a fact that the sign, as now printed, is of much greaterantiquity than even Greek civilization. It was used, for instance, as a letter in an unknown alphabet, a fewletters of which were found engraved on a bronze celt found amongthe relics of ancient Rome, as will be seen by reference to a drawing. of this rude bronze implement. It also formed a character of analphabet which was used in the inscriptions on the curious and valu-able relics of the prehistoric American mound-builders, known as theDavenport tablets, although in this case there were two central strokes instead of one, as is shown in this illustration: ^%. In Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, the author bases an argu-ment in favor of his theory of a continent and civilization submergedin the Atlantic Ocean on the similarity of some of the words and char-acters used in writing among the Indians, Aztecs, and mound-buildersof America, and among the prehistoric nations of the old world, andthis sign, now used by us to designate the scruple, was one of thesecharacters. The fact that the scruple sign, as now used, is a prehistoric charac-ter, and occurs in various modifications in several alphabets, suggeststhe possibility that
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