With these, you may obtain any small weights you require; thus, if you require nine grains, you use a 5 grain weight and four single grain weights. If you want a drachm weight (60 grains), you use a quarter rupee (45 grains) and a 15 grain weight, which makes exactly the 60 grains or one drachm. To get a scruple (20 grains) weight, you use one of the 15 grain and one of the 5 grain weights = 20 grains or one scruple.
Two rupees and a half rupee together weigh 450 grains or slightly over one ounce, which weight they may be taken to represent, in the absence of regular weights in making up any of the prescriptions given in the following pages.
Measures of Capacity.—For these, the English Graduated Measures, glasses included, in Appendix C, should be employed. The marks on them signify as follows:
| ♏︎ | = 1 minim | |
| fƷj | one fluid-drachm | = 60 minims. |
| f℥j | one fluid-ounce | = 8 fluid-drachms. |
| O | one pint | = 20 fluid-ounces. |
In default of a graduated measure glass, it may be useful to know that a small cup of silver or other metal, exactly the circumference of a quarter rupee and 3¾ inches deep, will hold exactly one ounce, and twenty of these full of liquid make one pint. Each ounce contains eight fluid-drachms, so with the aid of this ounce measure you can calculate the quantity required pretty accurately. The measure should be made of silver, as some medicines, especially the acids, act on the other metals.
Any native jeweller would manufacture one of these measures in a short time, and at a very small cost.
In the following pages other domestic measures, as they may be termed, are mentioned; they represent approximately the following quantities:
| A wine-glassful (ordinary size) | = one fluid-oz. and a half. |
| Two table-spoonfuls | = one oz. |
| One table-spoonful | = half oz. |
| One dessert-spoonful | = two drachms. |
| One tea-spoonful | = one drachm. |