posology

noun

Etymology: From Ancient Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much?”) + -ology (suffix indicating a branch of learning).

1. The study of the dosages of drugs, especially the determination of appropriate dosages.

   “The difficulty here alluded to occurs in the doses of medicine exhibited by the ancient physicians. These have long been observed to be very large; and it was on remarking the impossibility, according to our ideas, of exhibiting them with safety to human life, or even of escaping destruction under their influence, that my observation was first drawn to the subject of ancient posology.”

   “Dr. Wise […] mentions two systems of Hindu surgery and nine systems of medicine, three of materia medica, one of posology, one of pharmacy, and three of metallic preparations alone. From these one can gather the strength and dimensions of the scientific knowledge of ancient India regarding therapeutic agents of both organic and inorganic origin.”

2. In the works of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): the study of quantity; mathematics.

   “[page 253] [T]he branch of art and science therein denominated Posology, but commonly called Mathematics. […] [page 254] Of the two minor aggregates, into which, by this means, the major aggregate, Posology or Mathematics, was divided,—form-regarding, or figure-regarding Posology or Mathematics, in Greek-sprung language, Morphoscopic Posology, was the name given to the positive minor aggregate: […]”