A family physician friend of mine told me of an incident that happened to him back in the early days of his practice. He said a new mother brought her baby to see him and complained that the baby cries all the time. He examined the baby and quickly determined that the baby had an earache. He wrote a prescription for ear drops. In the directions he wrote, "Put two drops in the right ear every four hours", and he abbreviated "right" with an R with a circle around it. Several days later the woman returned with the baby, complaining that the baby still had the earache and his little behind was getting really greasy with all those drops of oil. The doctor looked at the bottle of ear drops and the pharmacist had typed the following directions on the label: "Put two drops in R ear every four hours."