Pharmaceutical Historian Vol. 27. 1997

Vol.27 No.I March 1997 £1.50. Journal of the BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF PHARMACY. Established 1967. Contributions to the Editor: Dr. J. Bumby B.Pharm., PhD., FRPharmS., FSA. 36 York Place, Edinburgh. EHl 3HU CONTENTS. A Yorkshire pharmacy formulary, 1885-1927 Page 2 The medical practice of John Hall Page 10 A new Society has been formed, the Historical Medical Equipment Society, which represents the interests of all DIARY DATES those interested in medical instruments and equipment. Membership includes collectors and curators in all fields, Wednesday, 5 March 1997 Foundation Lecture. including pharmacy, medicine and dentistry. The Society Please note change of date from 19 March to 5 March. aims to provide resources to collectors and museums, and to 18 April 1997 to 20 April 1997. promote the study of the history of medical artifacts to the Spring Conference. Bournemouth. present day. The Chairman is Mr John Kirkup, FRCS, and Friday.After Dinner. "Some Dorset apothecaries and the first meeting is planned for early 1997. Contact the pharmacists" by John Hunt. Secretary, Dr David Warren, PO Box 85, Portsmouth, P06 Saturday. 9.30 a.m. "History of Pharmacy Education" 2BB for further information. by Dr M. Earles. 10.15 a.m. "The 1851 Great Exhibition" Members' Activities. by A. Morson. 11.30 a.m. "The Shop" Bill Jackson has been awarded the degree of MSc by by Mrs E. Lucas Smith research for a thesis entitled "The Invention of the Stomach Afternoon - At leisure. Pump and its Development in the Nineteenth century". After Sunday. 9.30 a.m. Annual General Meeting. summarising early methods of dealing with poisoning, it 10.15 a.m. "The Continental parallel" reviews the changes which took place in the medical by Dr A. Bierman. professions towards the end of the eighteenth century which 11.15 a.m. "Justus von Liebig, gatekeeper resulted in the development of new technology including the of chemistry" by Prof. W.H.Brock. invention of the stomach pump. It then traces the development 12.00 Closing remarks. of the powerful syringes used for this purpose, and then their Wednesday, 7 May 1997. replacement by simple siphons, as heroic medicine gave way "The Rauwolfia Story" by Dr. W.E.Court. to gentler therapy, as well as the economic and social factors which controlled their popularity, availability and distribution OBITUARY. in the nineteenth century. Mary Agnes BURR. OBE, MA(Hon.), F.R.Pharm.S. Dr M. Earles presented a paper on "John Hall and the Art As befitted a Charter Gold medallist (1973), and second of Prescribing" at a conference on the life and work of Dr woman President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Mary John Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law, held at Hall's Croft, had a keen interest in the history of our profession and did Stratford-on-Avon on 25 September 1996. much to further it, even to the extent that when her Victorian More recently he has been busy with a paper for a conference pharmacy in Nottingham was to be demolished owing to the to mark the 150th. anniversary of the introduction of expansion of a nearby factory, she had it transferred to the anaesthesia. Cookworthy Museum at Kingsbridge, Devon where it is to be seen today. A person of great energy for all her 90 years, we Readers of the Pharmaceutical Historian will be pleased will not meet her like again - which is our loss. to learn that an Index is in the process of being prepared. https://doi.org/10.24355/dbbs.084-201803061030 The Formulary of a West Yorkshire bond of fiiendly trust between the pharmacist and the customer. The always available pharmacist would rarely be out of stock Pharmacy 1885 - 1927 of nostrums and was therefore not so dependent on his wholesale supplier who delivered hampers of drugs, etc. by William E. Court horse and cart via the nearest canal dock or railway station perhaps once a week or even less frequently. The motor vehicle, Pharmacy in the l 890's was predominantly retail practice, developed by Karl Benz in 1886 and mass produced by Ford the chemist and druggist serving his surrounding population in 1908, would really only change the pattern of life after the with a wide range of facilities. In the late 1800's there was no First World War (1914 - 1918). health service as we know it, money was in short supply for Another advantage of the nostrum was that the chemist knew most ordinary people in industrial and agricultural areas and a precisely the composition of the medicine, whereas commercial visit to a medical practitioner was generally an expensive last medicines were often secret remedies accompanied by resort. Some mutual benefit societies and insurance schemes unsubstantiated claims of efficacy and protected under the offered limited cover but membership was essential and regular Medicines Stamp Duty legislation (from 1812 until 1941). financial contributions had to be maintained. Similar schemes Details of some proprietary medicines could, in the late l 800's, applied to some hospitals. But what could you do if you were be found in publications such as the Chemist and Druggist. In not a member of an appropriate insurance scheme and you the late 19th century, when price-cutting of patent medicines in really could not afford to visit the doctor? the larger stores was rampant, the greater profit margin on the There were at least four possible solutions:- successful counterprescribed medicines ensured their popularity !. Consult the local wise woman who knew about these amongst pharmacists and such medicines would be frequently things; she had no formal training or authority but had learnt in considerable local demand for common conditions such as her medical skills at her mother's knee and in the hard school coughs and colds, digestive disorders, aches and pains, debility of empirical observation and functioned unofficially, much states, nervous disorders, chilblains, toothache, etc. and could like a district nurse, giving advice, attending confinements therefore be safely prepared in bulk as stock remedies. and childbirth (until excluded by an Act of 1902) and But how did the chemist and druggist obtain his knowledge suggesting simple treatments often of a herbal nature. of medical conditions and appropriate formulations? 2. Consult a medical handbook; many were available designed In 1890 the normal route of qualification as a pharmacist for the literate layman, books such as Enquire Within was a long apprenticeship, probably a period ofjourneymanship (75th. ed., 1880), The Reformed Practice of Medicine by and finally compulsory external examination as required under Dr. S. Rosen (1887), The Working Man's Model Family the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1868. Attendance at college Botanic Guide or Every man his Own Doctor by William courses was an optional extra. Apprenticeship could take up to Fox (1871 ), etc. 7 years and the amount and quality of training given varied 3. Purchase a proprietary medicine. The nostrum, the secret considerably depending as it did on the academic ability, remedy, had developed as a local speciality but, as inter professional integrity and experience of the apprentice-master. communication 1mproved, such remedies became known further Joumeymanship or the "improver" stage was a variable period afield and gradually became nationally established and of increasing experience often in another establishment and advertised. Nehemiah Grew's patent on Epsom Salts (1698), another town. A preliminary examination, referred to as "the followed by Byfield's Sal Oleosum Volatile (1711) and Richard Classical Examination", was a test of the candidate's Stoughton's Cordial Elixir (1712) commenced the succession competence in Latin and mathematics, ensuring that the student of well advertised patent medicines which were to have great had "a sufficient acquaintance with the Latin language to enable impact on pharmacy as the literacy of the population improved him to translate the Pharmacopoeia and physicians' and many such medicines were to become household names prescriptions, and that he was conversant with the simple rules known until the present time e.g. Beecham's products. of arithmetic". Further examinations were normally held in London or Edinburgh. Although there were some classes in 4. Visit the nearest Chemist and Druggist and seek his or, pharmaceutical subjects in the larger towns and cities e.g. rarely, her knowledge of medical matters, a knowledge based London, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, the apprentice in a on experience and information culled frequently from other provincial town often undertook private study in order to prepare people's encounters with disease states. Invariably the chemist for the prescribed oral examinations held in a strange place would counterprescribe a remedy, giving advice on its use and amongst strange people, a truly traumatic experience for the hoping to satisfy the patient's trust. The counterprescribed small-town lad! The "Minor" examinations comprised materia medicine had, in the 19th century, many advantages over the medica and botany (simple pharmacognosy embracing the visual ever-increasing number of proprietary medicines. recognition and oral description of commonly used crude drugs Literacy was essential if the customer was to read the of natural origin laid out before the candidate, discussion of optimistic advertisements praising the merits of the proprietary their sources, nature, properties, etc.) chemist1y (the chemicals medicine but a visit to the chemist was personal and sealed a listed in the current British Pharmacopoeia, their characteristics, https://doi.org/10.24355/dbbs.084-201803061030 methods of preparation, important reactions, stability, etc.) dated personal prescriptions e.g. 4th. March 1886; 10th. June and Latin, including the ability to decipher prescriptions 1887; 14th. February 1898; 2nd. January 1902; 11th. September usually written in abbreviated form and to write such 1917; 17th.

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