=DOG-BALLS= (A. H. Bôldt, Genf). Hard pills, weighing 15 grammes, of
irregular shape and unequal size, composed of aloes with 1/3 of gentian,
and covered with a brown powder containing liquorice root. (Hager.)
=DOORS.= Much annoyance is sometimes experienced from the creaking of
doors. This may be prevented by rubbing a little soap or a mixture of
tallow and black-lead on the hinges; or by applying to them with a feather
a little sweet oil once or twice a year. The trifling trouble and expense
(a penny or two a twelvemonth) will be amply repaid by their noiselessness
and greater durability. To prevent the noise of doors slamming, a small
piece of vulcanised india rubber, cork, or leather may be placed so as to
receive the shock.
=DOSE.= In medicine the quantity taken or prescribed at one time. The
doses of medicaments vary with the sex, age, temperament, constitutional
strength, habituation, and idiosyncrasies of individuals. Different
circumstances, especially of climate, exercise an important influence on
the activity of medicines. Thus, the inhabitants of England and the
northern countries of Europe bear much larger doses in their own climates
than when they remove to warmer latitudes. Warmth, indeed, appears to
promote the action of most medicaments, whilst cold acts in a contrary
way. Nor does the same rule apply to all medicines. Calomel, for instance,
is generally borne better by children than by adults; while opium affects
them more powerfully, and requires the dose to be diminished considerably
below that indicated by mere calculation or analogy with other medicines.
Prescribers ought not to forget that the action of medicines is not simply
proportioned to the amount, but that each remedy has a dose below which it
either produces no effect or one contrary to that which we desire it to
produce. Dr Paris remarks, "that powerful doses are disposed to produce
local rather than general effects;" and Dr Barlow gives it as his opinion
that "practitioners often err, especially in the treatment of chronic
maladies, from requiring an obvious effect from each dose administered."
Adult women are said to require only three fourths the full dose for men.
The following rules and tables have been framed chiefly with reference to
age; but, as Dr R. E. Griffith correctly observes, "no scheme can be
devised, founded on age alone, to which there are not many exceptions."