Browse Artefacts (75 total)

Powdered Jalap, labelled by Sir Stuart Threipland in his medicine chest as ‘S. Pul R: Ialap’ (Pulv subtiliss rad jalap).

Jalap is the name of the drug and the plant it comes from, traditionally grown in Mexico, India and Jamaica. Powdered…

This bottle is empty.

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 is empty.

Puluerem Ipecacuanha (see Puluerem Ipepacuanha cum Opium)

Pulsatilla, or Puls, prepared by Joseph James, Cheltenham. A common nineteenth-century herbal medicine, pulsatilla was prescribed by practitioners of homeopathy and physicians throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Pulsatilla, part of…

Pure Ponderous Calcined Magnesia, prepared by Duncan, Flockhart & Co., Chemists & Druggists to her Majesty. Calcined magnesia, or reactive magnesia, was prescribed as an antacid and laxative.

Directions for use: One teaspoon to be taken in a…

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…

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,…

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.

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…

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…