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This is a continuation of:
Where I made a request for deciphering phrases on my Great Great Grandmothers case notes.
Seems weaker. Brandy resumed last evening. Slept only 1 hour last night ??? Paraldehyde.
Still restless and noisy. Pleading for her life to be spared. Requires Paraldehyde nightly. Slept 10 hours last night after Paraldehyde ???.
Seems weaker. Brandy resumed last evening. Slept only 1 hour last night despite Paraldehyde.
Still restless and noisy. Pleading for her life to be spared. Requires Paraldehyde nightly. Slept 10 hours last night after Paraldehyde ℨi (?).
The final 'word' looks to be the abbreviation for a pharmacological dram (ℨ), (1⁄8 of an apothecary's ounce), followed by an 'i' indicating the quantity 1 (i.e. "1 dram"), followed by another abbreviation.
It is possible that the last letter is a 'v', making the final word ℨiv, or "4 drams". However, this seems unlikely since the symbol doesn't match the form of the letter 'v' as it appears elsewhere in the extract. It is possible it may be a symbol to indicate the method of administration.
As the Wikipedia article notes, Paraldehyde
"... was regularly given at bedtime in psychiatric hospitals and geriatric wards up to the 1970s."
Although Paraldehyde could be (and still is) given per rectum as an enema, a dose of 1 dram seems much less than suggested doses I have found while searching (see, for example the 1938 Analytical Cyclopedia Practical Medicine). It seems more likely in this case that the medicine was administered orally, where a dose in the range ½ - 2 drams before bed seems to have been quite common.
If the last symbol does represent the method of administration, I suppose it is possible - with the eye of faith - to read
as either as stylised version of "Po" to mean Per or (oral administration) or similarly as a stylised version of"Pr" Per rectum to mean a rectal enema. (Personally, I don't find either reading particularly convincing, but it's worth mentioning.)
In any event, I haven't been able to find that symbol listed in any (more-or-less) contemporary medical texts.
As a next step, I would check to see if the same symbol / letter appears elsewhere in the document, in which case the context might give you a clue as to its meaning.
