This study aims to analyse 19^th-century handbooks of prescriptions in terms of ophthalmic drug technology. The following publications were selected: Jan Bogumir Freyer’s Formulare czyli nauka o sztuczném przepisywaniu lékarstw (Formulare, or on the Art of Writing Prescriptions) – published in Warsaw in 1816, Fryderyk Kazimierz Skobel’s Wykład farmakomorfiki i katagrafologii (Lecture on Pharmacomorphics and Catagraphology) – published in Krakow in 1851, and Antoni Kryszka’s Receptura czyli nauka pisania recept i przyrządzania podług nich lekarstw (Compounding, or on the Art of Writing Presciptions and Preparation of Medicines on their Basis) – published in Warsaw in 1865. In the nineteenth century, ophthalmic medications could be found in three kinds of forms: a dry collyrium (xerocollyrium), an ointment-like collyrium (myrocollyrium), and a liquid collyrium (hygrocollyrium). Ophthalmic medications in solid (powders) and semi-solid (ointments) forms were to contain very finely powdered medicinal substances. The ointments were also required to be non-irritant. Drugs in liquid form (e.g. decoctions, solutions, drops, mixtures) were recommended to be made in accordance with the principles of preparing a given form of the drug. They could be used for instillation, washing or so-called eyebathing, and as eye compresses.