Browse Artefacts (75 total)

A cylindrical bottle with a wooden stopper containing Spongia, prepared by a homeopathic chemist Joseph James, Promenade Place, Cheltenham, who had worked for Arthur Guinness M.D. and undertook the company and changed the name to Joseph James M.P.S…

Spirit of Terebinth, labelled by Sir Stuart Threipland in his medicine chest as ‘Spt Terebinth’.

Terebinth (pistacia terebinthus; turpentine tree) refers to both the terebinth tree and the resin it produces, now known as turpentine. Spirit of…

Spirit of Sal Volatile, prepared by Duncan, Flockhart & Co. Sal Volatile (volatile salts, smelling salts) is a mixture of ammonium carbonate and ammonia water. Spirit of Sal Volatile was a liquid ammonia solution, prescribed as an antispasmodic,…

Spirit of Nitre, sold by Andrew Robertson, Chemist & Druggist, Markinch; supplied by Duncan, Flockhart & Co., Edinburgh. Spirit of Nitre, or Sweet Spirit of Nitre, is the popular term for the chemical compound ethyl nitrite. Ingested orally, spirit…

This bottle is empty.

So called because it was originally made from deer antlers, spirit [of] hartshorn was another name for liquid ammonia. It was created through the process of distillation, which many people did not have the ability to…

A cylindrical bottle with a wooden stopper containing Rhus Toxicodendron, prepared by a homeopathic chemist Joseph James, Promenade Place, Cheltenham, who had worked for Arthur Guinness M.D. and undertook the company and changed the name to Joseph…

This bottle is empty.

Originating in China and India, it is said that the first European account of this vegetable was in the notes of Marco Polo. Although propagated in the British Isles by the 19th century, the types of rhubarb were often…

This bottle is mostly empty but contains some brown staining.

Rectified Spirit of Wine is simply alcohol. It was used as an ingredient in medical recipes as a means of infusion and dilution.

This bottle comes from Neil Reid, druggist.

A small cylindrical medicine vial with screw top lid, containing brown-black matter. It has a handwritten label titled ‘Quinine [gtt.?]'.

Described by John William Compton in 1880 as a valuable ‘anti-miasmic, anti-septic, anti-phlogistic,…

Quinine, sold by Andrew Robertson, Chemist and Druggist, Markinch; supplied by Duncan, Flockhart & Co., Edinburgh. Quinine is a powdered form of cinchona bark which can be administered orally or intravenously. Its use as a treatment for and vaccine…