New museum information sheet on interpretation of old prescriptions
An illustration from the museum's new leaflet, showing a handwritten prescription from the 1920s |
The museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced an information sheet, “Prescription reading”, to help researchers interpret historical prescriptions and to offer an insight into the history of prescriptions.
The sheet provides a step-by-step explanation of the contents and format
of historical handwritten prescriptions and explains many of the conventions
and Latin abbreviations that are still used in pharmacy today. It also
briefly covers the use of prescription books for record keeping and outlines
the use of secret price codes for private prescriptions.
Briony Hudson, keeper of the museum collections, said: “This easy-to-use
information sheet offers an insight into the fascinating history of prescriptions.
Historical prescriptions were cloaked in mystery. What the doctor prescribed
was a secret between him and the pharmacist. With the ingredients, dosage,
and even the price of the medicine in Latin or code, the patient really
had no choice but to rely on the knowledge and expertise of the doctor
and pharmacist.
“This new sheet aims to help unravel this mystery. It should prove interesting
for current pharmacists and will be a valuable tool for the many researchers
who contact the museum asking for prescriptions to be translated.”
The sheet is the 19th in a series on objects in the history of pharmacy. The
earlier 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; balances, weights and measures; dispensary bottles; pharmaceutical
symbols; English delftware storage jars; display glassware; domestic medicine
chests; homoeopathy; and mortars.
The museum has also published six information sheets in a series on the Society
and the profession. The topics are the Society’s arms, its motto, its headquarters
building, the history of the museum, women in pharmacy and the history of the
Society.
All the information sheets are illustrated, mainly with images drawn from the
Society’s museum. Many of these images are also available from the museum
as postcards.
The museum information sheets are all available to download as PDF files from
the museum section of the Society’s
website.
Copies can also be requested from the museum office (tel 020 7572 2210; e-mail
museum@rpsgb.org).
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal