The author takes a look at the secret codes that were once used extensively in community pharmacy to price private prescriptions
Four years ago I wrote to The Pharmaceutical Journal on the subject of secret codes for pricing private prescriptions (PJ, August 19, 1995, p226). My letter quoted a well-known cipher BISHOPGATE, where each letter represented a numeral from 0 to 9. If, for example, a non-scheduled medicine was made up and charged to the patient at half a crown, the prescription would be stamped and returned marked S/G (2s 6d). Each independently owned pharmacy chose its own code.
I mentioned other examples of well-known codes, the Boots convention, adopted throughout its branches, was O PUSH TRADE. Timothy Whites & Taylors marked up its privately dispensed prescriptions using the legend VINUM ALOES. My letter invited readers to submit other references.
It came as a surprise when the correspondence ran for several months, initiating 15 or more replies. I still have the cuttings and I see one edition of the PJ carried no fewer than five letters on the subject. For me, the interest lies chiefly in musing over the perceptions of the original codemakers. Dominant preoccupations veered largely from the mundane to matters on a high spiritual plane. Our predecessors, I fear, were rarely flippant or even light-hearted. Surely, finding imaginative words of 10 different letters could not have been that difficult.
A few code words derive from simple pharmaceutical sources. Others carry a definite proprietorial flourish. Many reveal their selectors to be resolutely commercial. Thankfully, there were some showing philosophical tendencies, indeed having a strong religious awareness. Among the rest are words of almost surreal incongruity.
Correspondence also prompted other forms of coded messages. As we know, abbreviated Latin could be used to conceal information, but such sophistication was not always required. In ‘The practice of pharmacy', the 19th century American textbook by Professor Remington, the designation "p" meant the patient was in poor circumstances, while "pp" indicated very poor.
In a letter I received from Mr A. MacFarlane, of Fort William, I learned that a local doctor sometimes added the letters MHP after his signature, meaning "Make him pay".
Why were these codes considered to be necessary? Mr A. T. Kendall, of Stockton on Tees, who provided a number of interesting examples, did not think they were a subterfuge to deceive the patient, but more of an attempt at price fixing, although they did give an opportunity for price cutting, too. The wording of my original letter to the PJ raised some contention. In fact, Mr Selfe, of Benfleet, argued that coding prices was an acceptable feature of pharmacy practice in the days before the mania of "nomen proprium" swept away a lot of the abbreviated Latin and such vague terms as "The Mixture". He seems to have taken exception to my use of the words "mumbo jumbo" to describe former preferences for secrecy (and perhaps mystery). However, he failed to notice my criticism of what has now replaced it - modern gobbledegook.
I have, I hope, acknowledged nearly all the correspondents who provided information, but I must mention the collection of material provided by Mr R. Prosser, of Runcorn, particularly on his knowledge of Professor Remington's writings on American practices. The last letter on the subject of prescription price codes came from Mr P. G. Homan, of Epsom, nearly eight months after my original inquiry. His letter provided over a dozen examples, nearly all previously unknown to me.
Mr Roberts is an occasional locum pharmacist from Altrincham, Cheshire