The science and technique of preparing and dispensing drugs has been around for thousands of years. The world's first recorded prescriptions were etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around 2100 BC, and the first drugstores were established in the ancient city of Baghdad in the eighth century AD
Commonly seen on doctor's prescription pads and pharmacy signs, "℞" is the symbol for a medical prescription. According to sources, ℞ originated in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation of the Late Latin verb recipe, the imperative form of recipere, "to take" or "take thus." Among several alternative theories, however, is the belief that the ℞ symbol evolved from the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers