The literature referring to the data processing of the collections of pharmacy prescriptions is quite modest, even though all the pharmacies and pharmacists had such collections. Prescriptions and formulas were mostly kept hidden from the competitors and uninitiated eyes; they were carefully collected and used in each pharmacy. These formulas help us to learn about frequently used prescriptions in a certain period or area. The author had access to Urszinyi Zoltán’s prescription collection in order to study it. Urszinyi was a pharmacist and lived between 1921 and 2011. The manual originally belonged to Szabó-Aczél István, who used to work with Urszinyi at the Sabina pharmacy from Oradea, (part of Hungary at that time). He donated the manual to his younger colleague. The writing of the collection was started - according to the inscription on the cover- in June 1946, but there is no data about when it changed owner, or when the new owner started to write his own recipes in it. The collection contains more than 500 prescriptions. This collection gives us an idea about the occurrence of certain formulas in the middle period of the twentieth century. The Urszinyi-manual shows the diversity of products, little-known pharmaceuticals and the complex activity which is conducted by pharmacists in order to serve the public, due to the underdevelopment of chemical and cosmetic industry.
Keywords: collection of prescription, pharmaceutical preparations