The British teaspoon is dead – medicinally. At Tuesday night’s meeting, Watford chemist Mr E.T. Neal pointed out the condsiderable dangers if people continued to use it for measuring medicine.

“In the medical world we have had to undergo metrication of medicines,” he said.

“Medicines being issued are being labelled in metric dosage. Patients are instructed to take one or more 5ml spoonsful.

“Patients must be made to understand what a 5ml spoonful is,” he added.
Mr Neal said he knew of two occasions when a young mother had given her child FIVE SPOONSFUL as the result of misunderstanding the instruction, and this despite a considerable amount of publicity to advise the public on the subject.

[From the Watford Observer of March 28, 1969]