New information sheet from museum looks at dosing aids for liquids
A Gibson spoon from the Society’s museum collection |
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's museum has launched a new information
sheet, “Taking the medicine”, that looks at the history of
aids to the administration of liquid medicines.
It explains how the challenge of taking an accurate dose of a liquid
medicine has been met over time. In addition to providing an explanation
of pre-metric medicinal dosages, It also gives information about two
specialised measuring devices, the Gibson spoon and the Seidlitz measure.
Briony Hudson, keeper of the museum collections, said: “The latest
addition to our popular series of information sheets provides the historical
background to the practical issues surrounding taking medicines. An instruction
to take ‘as much powder as would cover a farthing’ seems
a million miles away from today’s accurate dosages!”
“Taking the medicine” is the 20th information sheet in the
series, “Objects
in the history of pharmacy”. In addition the museum has produced
six information sheets on aspects of the history of the pharmacy profession.
All the information sheets are illustrated, mainly with images drawn
from the Society’s museum. Many of these images are also available
to purchase from the museum as postcards.
The information sheets are all available
to download as PDF files from the information
resources section of the
Society’s website. Copies can also be requested
from the museum office (tel 020 7572 2210; e-mail museum@rpsgb.org).
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal