Forum

British Society for the history of pharmacy

Early days of the chemist and druggist

The British Society for the History of Pharmacy held its annual conference in Norwich from April 6 to 8. Dr John Hunt, FRPharmS, a past president of the association, reports

Introduction
Twentieth century pharmacy and 18th century pharmacopoeias
From Fleet Market to Bloomsbury
The Iceni Pharmacy at the Bridewell Museum

Introduction

Conference sessions, under the chairmanship of Dr Peter Worling, began with a paper by Dr Juanita Burnby on the origins and early days of the chemist and druggist. Recalling that the Apothecaries' Act of 1815 included a clause that its provisions were not intended to interfere with the trade of chemists and druggists, Dr Burnby suggested that this indicated that the place of the chemist and druggist was already well established at that time.

The term “druggist” was common in the early 18th century and the title “chemist and druggist” was increasingly popular later in the century, although apprenticeship records had not revealed the latter title before 1771. Early titles had been inexact. A new type of apothecary skilled in chemistry had emerged in the 17th century . The Society of Apothecaries in London had become involved in the production of precipitated sulphur in 1633 and some apothecaries had taken apprentices who later called themselves chemists and druggists. The descent of the modern pharmacist in Britain was both from apothecaries and from chemists and druggists, said Dr Burnby.

Twentieth century pharmacy and 18th century pharmacopoeias

John Savage, a retired pharmacist from York, spoke on the subject: “Was the second half of the 20th century a good time to be a pharmacist?” He recalled his apprenticeship and many incidents from his own career, from National Service experiences (when his work as a dental nurse had required him to mix mercury amalgam in his bare hands), to his more recent observations on changing disease patterns and problems with proprietary names.

Clive Murray then presented observations and comparisons of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia of 1744 and the Vienna Pharmacopoeia of 1770. Relating these to the end of the dark ages of medicine, the speaker reviewed a surprisingly wide range of treatments based on the dung of various domestic animals and fowl, followed by linctuses based on more acceptable vegetable ingredients — apart from dried fox-lungs. A comparison of the formulae for Mithridatum in the two published works had shown surprisingly similar ingredients, with 47 components in the Vienna preparation and 48 in the Edinburgh equivalent. No eye ointments had appeared in either pharmacopoeia and neither had mentioned digitalis, belladonna or any drugs from the New World, such as cinchona.

From Fleet Market to Bloomsbury

Anthony Morson reviewed the life and times of his distinguished ancestor and founder member of the Pharmaceutical Society, Thomas Morson, who was President of the Society in 1848–49 and again in 1859–61, when he succeeded Jacob Bell who died in office. Morson had studied and worked in Paris, where quinine had recently been isolated, from where he returned to London in 1820. He was the first to manufacture quinine in Britain, supplying this in competition with Pelletier of Paris. Profits from this and other production had enabled him to move, in 1850, to Queen's Square in Bloomsbury, taking him to a higher standard of living and new friends in society. By the 1860s he had moved from quinine to production of potassium iodide, bismuth salts, creosote and pepsin. Although active in pharmaceutical politics, topping the poll in several elections to the Society's Council, Morson's main interests were scientific, and he had moved with members of the leading scientific institutions of the time.

Pharmacy in England, its “chemist and druggist” roots being deep, had developed differently from that in France and Germany, noted the speaker. There had been little recognition of chemists in Britain. For example, no memorial existed to the great English chemist William Henry Perkin. The speaker concluded that, in general, there was little information available on the private lives of early pharmacists, who did not wish to intrude on each other's personal affairs.

The Iceni Pharmacy at the Bridewell Museum

A highlight of the conference was a visit to the Iceni Pharmacy at the Bridewell Museum, Norwich. For pharmacists, this is probably Britain's most interesting preserved pharmacy. Unlike many such exhibits, which are largely collections of decorative artefacts, such as shop rounds, drug runs and the larger glass and ceramic containers, this is a complete historic pharmacy fully stocked right down to its dispensing equipment, pharmacopoeias, local formularies, labels and sealing wax. Drawers still contain a selection of crude drugs and the visitor immediately recognises the characteristic smell of the pharmacy of his apprenticeship days. Presented to the museum by Mr and Mrs John Newstead, the collection was built up over the years by visits to old pharmacies in East Anglia. In due course it became so large that a pharmacy museum was built in the owners' garden, complete with a shop front and a small street scene with granite setts and a street lamp. The oldest pharmacy fittings date back to 1790. In 1985 the collection was moved and reconstructed as a preserved pharmacy at the Bridewell Museum, which is devoted to local trades and crafts.

The pharmacy is shown in the picture, which is reproduced courtesy of the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.