Prescription - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Prescription :  adj : available only with a doctor's written prescription; "a prescription drug" [syn: prescription(a)] [ant: nonprescription(a)] (noun)
1: directions prescribed beforehand; the action of prescribing authoritative rules or directions; "I tried to follow her prescription for success"
2: a drug that is available only with written instructions from a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist; "he told the doctor that he had been taking his prescription regularly" [syn: prescription drug, prescription medicine, ethical drug] [ant: over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter drug]
3: written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a given person
4: written instructions from a physician or dentist to a druggist concerning the form and dosage of a drug to be issued to a given patient

Based on WordNet 2.0

Prescription : \Pre*scrip"tion\, n. [F. prescription, L. praescriptio, an inscription, preface, precept, demurrer, prescription (in sense 3), fr. praescribere. See Prescribe.] 1. The act of prescribing, directing, or dictating; direction; precept; also, that which is prescribed.

2. (Med.) A direction of a remedy or of remedies for a disease, and the manner of using them; a medical recipe; also, a prescribed remedy.

3. (Law) A prescribing for title; the claim of title to a thing by virtue immemorial use and enjoyment; the right or title acquired by possession had during the time and in the manner fixed by law. --Bacon.

That profound reverence for law and prescription which has long been characteristic of Englishmen. --Macaulay.

Note: Prescription differs from custom, which is a local usage, while prescription is personal, annexed to the person only. Prescription only extends to incorporeal rights, such as aright of way, or of common. What the law gives of common rights is not the subject of prescription. Blackstone. Cruise. Kent. In Scotch law, prescription is employed in the sense in which limitation is used in England and America, namely, to express that operation of the lapse of time by which obligations are extinguished or title protected. Sir T. Craig. Erskine.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Usucaption \U`su*cap"tion\ (?; 277), n. [L. usucapere, usucaptum, to acquire by long use; usu (ablative of usus use) _ capere to take: cf. usucapio usucaption.] (Roman Law) The acquisition of the title or right to property by the uninterrupted possession of it for a certain term prescribed by law; -- the same as prescription in common law.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

PRESCRIPTION. The manner of acquiring property by a long, honest, and uninterrupted possession or use during the time required by law. The possession must have been possessio longa, continua, et pacifica, nec sit ligitima interruptio, long, continued, peaceable, and without lawful interruption. Domat, Loix Civ. liv. 3, t. 29, s. 1; Bract. 52, 222, 226; Co. Litt. 113, b; Pour pouvoir prescire, says the Code Civil, 1. 3, t. 20, art. 22, 29, il faut une possession continue et non interrompue, paisible, publique, et a titre de proprietaire. See Knapp's R. 79. 2. The law presumes a grant before the time of legal memory when the party claiming by prescription, or those from whom he holds, have had adverse or uninterrupted possession of the property or rights claimed by prescription. This presumption may be a mere fiction, the commencement of the user being tortious; noPrescription : can, however, be sustained, which is not consistent with such a presumption. 3. Twenty years uninterrupted user of a way is prima facie evidence of a prescriptive right. 1 Saund. 323, a; 10 East, 476; 2 Br. & Bing. 403; Cowp. 215; 2 Wils. 53. The subject of prescription are the several kinds of incorporeal rights. Vide, generally, 2 Chit. Bl. 35, n. 24; Amer. Jurist, No. 37, p. 96; 17 Vin. Ab. 256; 7 com. Dig. 93; Rutherf. Inst. 63; Co. Litt. 113; 2 Conn. R. 584; 9 conn. R. 162; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. 4. The Civil Code Louisiana, art. 3420, defines a prescription to be a manner of acquiring property, or of discharging debts, by the effect of time, and under the conditions regulated by law. For the law relating to prescription in that state, see Code, art. 8420 to 3521. For the difference between the meaning of the term prescription as understood by the common law, and the same term in the civil law, see 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 246. 5. The prescription which has the effect to liberate a creditor, is a mere bar which the debtor may oppose to the creditor, who has neglected to exercise his rights, or procured them to be acknowledged during the time prescribed by law. The debtor acquires this right without any act on his part, it results entirely from the negligence of the creditor. The prescription does not extinguish the debt, it merely places a bar in the hands of the debtor, which he may use or not at his choice against the creditor. The debtor may therefore abandon this defence, which has been acquired by mere lapse of time, either by paying the debt, or acknowledging it. If he pay it, he cannot recover back the money so paid, and if he acknowledge it, he may be constrained to pay it. Poth. Intr. au titre xiv. des Prescriptions, Bect. 2. Vide Bouv. Inst. Theo. pars prima, c. 1, art. 1, Sec. 4, s. 3; Limitations.

Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:

Prescription :  Prescription: A physician's order for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a patient. A prescription has several parts. They include the superscription or heading with the symbol "R" or "Rx", which stands for the word recipe (meaning, in Latin, to take); the inscription, which contains the names and quantities of the ingredients; the subscription or directions for compounding the drug; and the signature which is often preceded by the sign "s" standing for signa (Latin for mark), giving the directions to be marked on the container.



Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:
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