66 East Smithfield
London E1 W 1AW
Thursday February 1 2018
Google maps had advised a brisk 17
minute walk from Shadwell Station but having forgotten my phone, which included
all the details of today’s planned visit, I turned the wrong way down Cable
Street walking its entire length – this was quite peaceful as little traffic
and much of the road given over to a bike lane but also markedly lacking in
shops and cafes which are vital if you want to ask your way. Even the maps on
the bus stops did not help much. When I got to the end I turned back and found
myself on the hideous red route of the Highway where I was the only pedestrian,
but at least one of the riverside blocks had a map and by now with building
sites all round I found my destination – late again but fortunately Jo had
somewhere really pleasant to wait…
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum, part of the professional association from the start, was established in 1841, moved here from
Lambeth some 2½ years ago into a purpose-designed and ‘high spec’ building. The
generous reception area morphs into the Museum collection. We liked very much
that they had displayed their best apothecary bottles and pestles and mortars
in the windows alongside the sloped access along the side of the building,
which was so well insulated we did not notice either the sound of the dreadful
road outside or the very cold weather.
The mainly blue and white jars are Delft' type; the Assyrians were the first to make tin-glazed ware and this
spread through the Middle East and then via the Moors to Spain and on to
Holland. Many of the containers made expressly for the Apothecary trade came
from Norwich where some Dutch (religious) refugees had set up a pottery.
But back to the pharmacists – if
Hippocrates is seen as the founding father of medicine then Avicenna and Galen are
also owed much by the pharmacists. Knowledge passed through the Middle Ages and
the Middle East and many early practitioners were based in monasteries where
there was access to herbal supplies; it has to be said that my knowledge of
this comes purely from historical detective fictions where our medieval
(Cadfael/Name of the Rose) or Tudor (Shardlake) detectives use the knowledge of
friendly and learned monks to solve their crimes and pursue their villains.
In 1841 a group of
dispensers/druggists/apothecaries got together and decided the profession
needed some regulation, recognition and research so founded the Society,
reminding us how good the Victorians were at trying to improve and standardise
in an age where rapid industrialisation was taking place. We were pleased to
see that, unlike many professional associations, the walls were NOT hung with
the portraits of the great and the good
(as I am sure the previous premises had been) but reproductions are to
hand in one of the many laminate folders provided. The only portraits still on show
are those of an early female president and Jacob Bell, one of the pioneer founders of the
Society. Interestingly, when I was growing up their pharmacy in Marylebone was
known to be the only one open on a 24 hour basis and you had to head there if
something was needed out of hours…
But far more of the many vitrines are devoted
to historical aspects of the pharmaceutical business over the years; the
display cabinets are full of fascinating items with the cribs available on
different sheets and with the constant juggling I find my notes to be very
scarce so the descriptions will be sketchy.
There was much paraphernalia displayed
which was needed for the hand manufacture of tinctures, pills and potions which
needed to be weighed (hence the scales), distilled with water (samovars used as
filters), mixed with other compounds and then moulded into pills – think of
making cupcakes but on a tiny scale. The ‘raw ingredients’ were always kept
VERY WELL LABELLED and poisons were prominent by their green ribbed bottles.
There was an informative key to as to what effects each poison might have
(arsenic, strychnine, ricin, nicotine, alcohol, laudanum, belladonna) what they
might have been used for and how they are still sometimes used today. All use
was carefully controlled and logged (The Poisons Book) and did nothing so much
as recall all those old-fashioned thrillers where the protagonists buy poison
‘for the rats’.
As advances are made in medical research
so then the corresponding treatments evolve. The cabinets display early
examples of penicillin and how it has evolved into multiple anti-biotics, early
syringes for diabetes, and the bones, spices and herbs the original monks
ground up. Nicholas Culpepper was very radical for his times treating patients
for free and venting his anger about the government in control.
At one point Jo said the displays
reminded her of nothing so much as our
visit to Robert Opie’s Museum of Brands and Packaging. In many ways I can see the parallels –
advertising and branding is all about persuasion and a component of medication
is the placebo effect: if the packaging of the pills is suitably persuasive we
will almost certainly feel better. Obviously modern medicine is more
sophisticated than the Victorian ‘quacks’ peddling bears’ grease as a cure for
baldness. I doubt very much the grease was much more than that of the local
farmyard animals but isn’t the packaging wonderful?
Also who would have thought that Hiram
Maxim (he of the machine gun) had also patented an inhaler?
The most gruesome display (some dispute
as to whether we should show this photo so perhaps this blog should come with a
health warning?) was the head of a man used to demonstrate some 15 or so skin
ailments ranging from acne to herpes, syphilis, impetigo, conjunctivitis and
early and advanced skin cancer…
We did find this display fascinating and
informative. In any case we have great respect for pharmacists who continue to
do sterling work in our local chemists and hospitals, having always to remain
vigilant, precise and careful in what they dispense. It is rare nowadays that
they have to manufacture their own potions but they need to know dosages and
what can and cannot be taken together, and it is fitting that their
professional society has a wonderful modern headquarters but still retains many
examples of past practice. .
Small samovars used to distill water
Maxim's Inhaler
1944 Penecillin
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