The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p69
12 July 2003

Society summary

Museum's latest information sheet looks at dispensary bottles

Dispensary bottles are the subject of the latest information sheet published by the museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in its series illustrating the history of the preparation of medicines.

The new publication looks at the history of dispensary bottles and their labels and gives details of the wide range of shop rounds designed to suit the properties of their differing contents. They included wide-mouthed bottles for powders and granules, lipped bottles for liquid preparations and more specialised designs for oils, syrups, volatile liquids and poisons.

Briony Hudson, the Society's keeper of the museum collections, said that the new information sheet would provide useful material for anyone interested in the history of storage in the pharmacy and to collectors wanting to identify bottles in their own collections.

She added that the new sheet was the 12th to be published as part of a continuing effort to make pharmacy history available to a world-wide audience. The earlier sheets had proved extremely popular, with most receiving over 100 hits on the website each month.

Like the 11 earlier sheets, "Dispensary bottles" can be downloaded as a PDF file from the museum section of the Society's website. Copies of the double-sided, A4-sized sheets are also available by post. Requests should be telephoned to 020 7572 2210 or e-mailed to museum@rpsgb.org.uk.

The information sheets have been written for the museum by Peter Homan, FRPharmS. The previous sheets cover "Drug preparation and extraction", "Secundum artem: the skill of the apothecary and pharmacist", "Liquid medicines and medicine bottles", "Lozenges and pastilles", "Suppositories, pessaries and bougies", "Ointments, creams and plasters", "Pills and pill-making", "Powders and cachets", "Capsules and tablets", "Patent and brand name medicines" and "Balances, weights and measures". The illustrations are based on images available as postcards from the museum.