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 Society
treasures: a little bit of history
Briony Hudson, keeper of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society museum collections, describes a collection of badges from
past British Pharmaceutical Conferences
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2007;279: (BPC Supplement) B22 (6 October
2007)
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  The mystery of Mrs Smith's medicine chest
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's museum collections include over 30 medicine chests, each interesting in its own right. They primarily represent the heyday of medicine chests in Britain — the 19th century. However, one of the most complete examples has remained something of a mystery because no records survive about its age or provenance. The only fact known about it was that it was donated to the museum by a Mr Francis in 1960. Finding out more has involved a significant amount of historical detective work
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2007;279:57 (14 July 2007)
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 An early 18th century storage jar for tobacco
At 6am on 1 July 2007, a ban on the smoking of tobacco in enclosed public spaces and workplaces will be introduced in England, following the example already set in the rest of the UK. With the harmful effects of tobacco now so well recognised, it may come as a surprise to learn that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's museum collections include a tin-glazed earthenware storage jar for tobacco, currently on display in the museum's “Healing science” exhibition
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2007;278:782 (30 June 2007)
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 Memorial to Edward Frank Harrison designed by Phyllis Blundell, 1921
Visitors to the Society's library, or those taking the stairs rather
than the lift to higher floors, pass a handsome (but often overlooked)
memorial plaque on the library landing. It is tangible evidence
of the achievements of Edward Frank Harrison
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2007;278:508 (28 April 2007)
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 ‘Pharmacographia’ (1874), by Daniel Hanbury and Friedrich Fluckiger
Anyone who has to visit a pharmacy while travelling abroad this
summer may wonder whether the drugs they receive are equivalent
to those available in the UK. But in the 19th century one did
not need to go abroad to be thoroughly confused by the available
medicines. The origin of most medicines in British pharmacies
was uncertain and disputed
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2006;277:60 (8 July 2006)
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 Poison antidote case by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co
The Chemist & Druggist Diary
of 1900 carried an advertisement for “drug outfits” by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co, Manufacturing Chemists of Snow Hill Buildings, London. The “drug outfits” in
question featured medicine chests for medical men, travellers,
missionaries and others going to all parts of the world
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2006;276:641 (27 May 2006)
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 The mystery of the Sun King's mortar
Among the many historical exhibits on
show at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s London headquarters sits an item that connects
the Society to Louis XIV of France (the “Sun King”),
the persecution of the Protestant Huguenots in 17th-century France
and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
(PDF
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2005;275:393 (24 September 2005)
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 The earliest known dated delftware drug jar
One of the most important objects in
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s museum collections is
the earliest known delftware drug jar bearing a date
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2005;274:344 (19 March 2005)
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 'Icones
plantarum medicinalium' by Josephus Andreas Jacobus Plenck
Published in Vienna between 1788 and
1812, this eight-volume work, the full title of which is ‘Icones plantarum medicinalium
secundum systema Lynnaei cum enumeratione virium et usus medici
chirurgici et diaetetici’, reports on the therapeutic uses
of 758 plants
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2005;274:95 (22 January 2005)
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 The Society’s mace
The usual image people have of a mace is as a medieval weapon of
war, often formed of a club and a spiked head. Its transition
to a symbolic staff, used by officials such as lord mayors and
the Speaker of the House of Commons, can probably be traced through
the chivalric tradition of sovereigns and nobles being accompanied
by armed champions, ready to defend them and their rights
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2004;273:764 (20 November 2004)
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 Pharmacopoeia Londinensis 1618 (the London pharmacopoeia)
The project to produce a pharmacopoeia
for all London apothecaries was first raised by the Royal College
of Physicians in 1585. Although there are further occasional references
to it in the archives of the Royal College it is not until 1614
that progress appeared to have been made and, by 1617 the pharmacopoeia
was "on the point of completion"
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Pharmaceutical Journal 2004;273:299 (28 August 2004)
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