Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey.
- Arnold, Ken, 1960-
- Date:
- 1994
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
26/64 page 24
![1.14 Pestle and mortar; North European, 1607. Pestle; Dutch, 1564 The pestle and mortar is inscribed with the name Heinrick. The Dutch mortar bears the name of its maker, Wilhelm Wegewart. As one of the main pieces of equipment used by apothecaries and druggists, the pestle and mortar was commonly taken as a symbol of their trade. Some were elaborately decorated, and obviously served more than just a utilitarian function. Along with crushing, the other basic processes employed were drying, extraction and distillation. Kindly loaned by the Science Museum 1.15 Tin-glazed ceramic jar; Dutch, 1751-1800. Glass bottle of 'Noyeau'; possibly French, 1750-1850 The pharmacy jar has three bells (the maker's mark) painted on its base. Though this example has been left blank, the decoration on the jar's front often indicated the compound contained. The image on the bottle suggests that 'Noyeau' was a wine- based nostrum. One means by which pharmacists could make their wares more attractive was by adding decorative flourishes to the vessels in which drugs were kept. Kindly loaned by the Science Museum 1.16 Advertising tokens: Sir Samuel Hannay, eighteenth century[?]; I Ching, nineteenth century; Thomas Holloway, 1857 & 1858; Basil Burchell, nineteenth century; Dr Eady, 1815-25. All English All sorts of media were exploited by advertisers; tokens were used by many medical practitioners from the seventeenth century on. They had the obvious advantage of being durable and, by association with coinage, valuable. Those shown here were for Hannay's prophylactic products, Ching's worm lozenges, Holloway's pills and oint- ments, Dr Eady's medical services and Burchell's sugar plums for worms and anodyne necklace for cutting teeth. Kindly loaned by the Science Museum 1.17 Boxwood Pill-silverer; English, 1825-1875 The ancient technique of covering pills either with silver or gold leaf was chiefly employed to improve their appearance. It also helped reduce the bitter taste of some medicines. The hardened pills were coated with a sticky edible gum and then rolled in the box lined with the gold or silver leaf. Silver leaf can be seen in this example. The technique was still practised by some pharmacists well into the twentieth century. Kindly loaned by the Science Museum](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20456517_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
