Browse Artefacts (75 total)

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So called because it was originally made from deer antlers, spirit [of] hartshorn was another name for liquid ammonia.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…

This bottle contains a dark brown liquid.

Probably one of the most well-known medicinal substances of the 18th and 19th centuries, laudanum was largely composed of opium and alcohol. It was commonly used as a sedative but was also prescribed as an…

This bottle is empty and unlabelled.

This bottle is empty.

Puluerem Ipecacuanha (see Puluerem Ipepacuanha cum Opium)

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As well as its use in food recipes, ginger was used extensively in medicines for millennia and became well-known in England as early as the 11th century. The famous herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper advised to use the root for…

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Probably Puluerem Ipepacuanha cum Opium Ipecac, or ipecacuanha, is the dried root of a plant originating in the Americas. In this medicinal chest, it is listed as ‘pu’, shorthand for puluerem, meaning powdered. It was…

This bottle probably contained a substance called ‘Gregory’s Powder’ as evidenced by the pinkish hue of the surviving powder. The powder was named after its inventor Dr James Gregory, a physician in Edinburgh and was used as a laxative. It…

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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 contains white powder.

The most prominent use for camphorated chalk was as a tooth powder. Chalk was often used in early dentifrices and camphor would have been added for its antiseptic properties. Tooth powders could be made by…

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…