{"id":447,"date":"2017-01-25T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/?p=447"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:36:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:36:22","slug":"spotlight-on-the-retreat-archives-a-window-on-the-19th-century-pharmacist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/2017\/01\/25\/spotlight-on-the-retreat-archives-a-window-on-the-19th-century-pharmacist\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on the Retreat Archive: A Window on the 19th Century Pharmacist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Jane Rowling, Retreat Digitisation Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first in a series of blog posts celebrating the Retreat digitisation project as it nears completion. Over the last two and half years, staff at the Borthwick have been working through the Retreat archive, updating the catalogue, preparing the documents for digitisation, carrying out conservation treatments where appropriate and photographing each item page by page. This has been a huge task. Over 600,000 images have been created so far and the focus has been on handling each item with care and capturing a high quality image in the most time efficient and effective way we could. Of course there have been many items that have caught our eye along the way. In this series of blog posts project staff pick out some of the interesting items that they have encountered. This first post introduces the Papers Relating to Alfred Jones from 1880<\/a> (RET 6\/19\/1\/85A).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a Victorian, where could you turn to find information on curing a nosebleed, making medicines for dogs, entertaining your children, restoring your hair, polishing soldiers\u2019 buttons, concocting salad dressings, soothing a black eye, extracting teeth, and building a cheap aquarium? Your first port of call would probably have been your local pharmacist. One volume in the Archives of The Retreat offers a fascinating insight into the world of the Victorian pharmacist, and his customers. This volume, Medical and Domestic Formulae by a Pharmaceutical Chemist, is a notebook handwritten by a Retreat patient, Alfred Jones, and dedicated to the Medical Superintendent Dr Baker.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Photograph<\/a>
RET\/6\/19\/1\/85A<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mr Jones clearly felt an affinity with Dr Baker, inscribing the first page of of his book with the words \u201cExperientia Docet\u201d – meaning \u2018experience teaches\u2019 – and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Poets are born – not made And so are true Physicians.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These lines express a sense of a shared calling and a certain kind of equality between patient and doctor. The book also serves to show the pride a Pharmaceutical Chemist might take in his work and status in the late nineteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Photograph\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
The title page of Alfred Jones’ volume<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Until 1842, chemists and druggists did not have to have a formal qualification. Anyone with sufficient funds could set up a shop and sell potentially lethal concoctions of drugs. Accidents with mis-sold or wrongly made-up medicines gave the profession a bad name, leading to the formation of a group of pharmacists who wanted to protect their trade. Jacob Bell, the son of a Quaker pharmacist, quickly emerged as the spokesman for this group. Their greatest successes were the granting of the Royal Charter of Incorporation to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1843, and the 1868 Pharmacy Act, which meant that anyone making up medicines had to have taken the Society\u2019s examination, and had to be registered with the Society. For pharmacists like Alfred Jones, registration with the Society was a mark of status as a trusted individual within a local community, and as a privileged member of a wider medical community which would also include the Medical Superintendent of a Mental Hospital like The Retreat. Thus he writes that his book contains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Tried and Reliable Remedies & Family Recipes Etc. in Chemistry Pharmacy & Domestic Medicine & Veterinary Practise by a Registered Chemist by Examinations (classical & technical) of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfred Jones\u2019 notebook gives us an overview of the kinds of products people required from a pharmacist in the later nineteenth century, and how dangerous some of them might have been! A \u2018Carmmative for Infants\u2019 included a large dose of laudanum, while a \u2018Mixture for Excited Brain\u2019 (recommended for children as well as adults) contained bromide and chloral hydrate, a sedative. Just as unappealing is an \u2018Indigestion Mixture\u2019 containing dilute nitro hydrochloric acid – a substance which can be highly corrosive if not sufficiently diluted.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
A mixture for ‘Excited Brain’ and another for indigestion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Another page recommends \u201cChloroform just short of anasthesia [sic] is best treatment of Hydrophobia\u201d in cases of diseases such as rabies. This would be another risky procedure, but probably safer than the alternative, which was to perform a tracheotomy. The Victorian pharmacist walked a fine line indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the less harmful recipes in the book give us an insight into the realities of life beyond the pharmacist\u2019s shop, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Herb called Solomon\u2019s Seal is a reputed cure for Black Eye Geber saith: \u201cIt removeth any black or blew spots which occurreth to any woman on falling on her hastie husband\u2019s fists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Treatments for bruises and a black eye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the nineteenth century, the local pharmacist would also provide cures and tonics for animals, reflecting a world in which working animals were a much greater part of the general public\u2019s everyday lives than they are today. Alfred Jones offers recipes for a \u2018Cleansing Drink for Newly Calved Cow,\u2019 consisting of juniper berries, sulphur, aniseed, ginger, cumin seeds, Glaubers salt (sodium sulphate – used as a laxative in crystal form), and Epsom salts. He notes that, \u2018some add 1\/2 pt Linseed Oil. A different page gives \u2018Alterative and Restorative Powder for Horses\u2019 and \u2018Cough Balls for Horses,\u2019 reminding us of the ubiquity of the horse for transport at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Recipes for cows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Veterinary medicines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The recipes also show a lighter side of life, however. For example, this idea for a children\u2019s entertainment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Magic Designs on a White Sheet Stretch a sheet & draw a design such as the Prince Wales\u2019s Feathers &c with a piece of Chalk & dust thereon lightly a penny packet of Aniline dye Red, Blue, or Any Colour. This is invisible at a distance but on spraying Methylated Spirit onto the sheet with a spray apparatus – it is instantly developed to the amusement of the youngsters.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Recipe to stop excessive bleeding alongside a lacquer for brass and ‘Magic Designs on a White Sheet’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The pharmacist also held a wealth of knowledge about food and drink, for which ingredients could be supplied. Alfred Jones offered recipes for \u2018Sea Side Sauce\u2019, \u2018American Cock Tail Bitters\u2019, Doncaster Butter Scotch, Ginger Wine, \u2018Currie Powder\u2019 and Salad Dressing, as well as various jams and marmalades. In this book, some of these recipes sit rather incongruously beside much less appetising concoctions, for example \u2018Currie Powder\u2019 (nutmeg, turmeric, \u201ccummin seed,\u201d cayenne, coriander, black pepper, ginger and mustard) is followed by \u2018Cement for Glass, China &c\u2019 and \u2018Insoluble Liquid Glue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Recipe sfor ‘Currie Powder; a cement for glass and china; and insoluble liquid glue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"Handwritten\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Recipe for ‘Sea Side Sauce’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This volume, handwritten by a Retreat patient, is just one of the thousands of documents in the hospital\u2019s archive which can tell us about life outside the walls of the Retreat, as well as within. While there are some unusual additions (a poem entitled \u2018Lines addressed to a Kitten\u2019 tucked into a page describing furniture polish and cold cream, for example), this book is a fascinating insight into the world of the Victorian pharmacist, and just one of the documents in the Retreat\u2019s archives which brings a lost world to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information about the Wellcome Library funded project to digitise the Retreat archive can be found on the <\/strong>project pages of our website<\/strong><\/a>. Digital surrogates from the Retreat archive project are available via the <\/strong>Wellcome Library<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Jane Rowling, Retreat Digitisation Assistant This is the first in a series of blog posts celebrating the Retreat digitisation project as it nears completion. Over the last two and half years, staff at the Borthwick have been working through the Retreat archive, updating the catalogue, preparing the documents for digitisation, carrying out conservation … Continue reading Spotlight on the Retreat Archive: A Window on the 19th Century Pharmacist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,97,28,7],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-19th-century","tag-author-jane-rowling","tag-health-archives","tag-retreat-hospital"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"custom_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1779786917:281"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}