Object number
53/56
Description
This dark wooden chest contains bottle and packets of veterinary medicines. There are instructions as to the use of the medicines pasted inside the lid of the box. The contents are: 1 large corked bottle, 4 smaller bottles with stoppers, 4 tin containers for medicines (one contains a lotion for mange), 8 built in wooden boxes of various sizes with lids and handles, 3 earthenware containers with paper lids, 6 paper packets of medicines, 12 small paper packets of medicine, and 1 packet of 'rabies cure'. The lid label reads: 'HORSE MEDICINES prepared and sold by WILLIAM RADLEY, Druggist and Chemyst, No 27 near Gray's Inn Gate, Holborn, London.'
Physical description
1 medicine chest containing various medicines in bottles and packetsContents of box: 1 large bottle with cork; 4 smaller bottles with stoppers; 4 tin containers for medicines [one contains lotion for mange]; 8 built in wooden boxes of various sizes with lids and handles; 3 earthenware containers with paper lids; 6 small paper packets of medicine; 3 x 4 smaller paper packets of medicine; 1 packet of a rabies cure!.
Label Text
<DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>1. <B>Medicine chest, late-eighteenth century</B><P> So used are stockbreeders and pet owners in this day and age to having a fully-qualified veterinary surgeon just a phone call away, it would be easy to forget the archaic, sometimes barbaric, animal medicaments of yesteryear. Before veterinary surgery became a recognised profession in 1844, farmers either had to call upon their local farrier for aid or tend to their animals' ailments themselves. A farmers' medicine chest, such as this one used in Yorkshire, typically contained a range of potions and powders prepared by the local druggist that promised, but rarely delivered, miracle cures for all manner of animal diseases. <P>53/56</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV><DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>1. <B>Medicine chest, late-eighteenth century</B><P> So used are stockbreeders and pet owners in this day and age to having a fully-qualified veterinary surgeon just a phone call away, it would be easy to forget the archaic, sometimes barbaric, animal medicaments of yesteryear. Before veterinary surgery became a recognised profession in 1844, farmers either had to call upon their local farrier for aid or tend to their animals' ailments themselves. A farmers' medicine chest, such as this one used in Yorkshire, typically contained a range of potions and powders prepared by the local druggist that promised miracle cures for all manner of animal diseases. <P> Contained within are such items as fever powder for horses, lotion for mange, purging balls, digestive ointment and medicine for the bite of a mad dog. Of course, the ideal products for farmers were those able to treat a variety of ailments, and few were more general in their use than Cupiss's Constitution Balls which, in 1851, were claimed to "cure and...prevent most of the common diseases which horses and cattle are likely to contract". Such vagueness stretched also to what went into medicines, for even as recently as the 1920s, according to the memoirs of one pharmacist, veterinarians were using prescriptions that were "mostly complex, very secret and included a large number of ingredients in the hope that if one drug did not cure, one of the others would". Such 'hit and miss' tactics demonstrate the general ignorance towards animal health even into the twentieth century. Yet, whatever the inefficacy of this medicine chest's contents it at least gave the farmer some peace of mind that he was doing something to help his animals.<P> 53/56</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV>
Archival history
MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Standard museum name: // Accession number: // Classification: // Negative number: // Acquisition method: // Acquired from: // Date: // Store: // Condition: // Recorder: // Date: // Description: // Dimensions: // Associated information:... 'Named medicines in the box: Lotion for mange Lint // Diuretic Balls prepared by W. POPPLEWELL, Pontefract // Medicine for bite of mad dog prepared by Ms Hill + Berry, London // Fever-powder for horses // Pectorae powders Strong purges Mild purges // Purging ball for dogs Worm powder Aeteration [?] powders // Digestive ointment Emollient ointment // Cordial safe balls Blistering ointmnt // Cordial saffron balls Diuretic balls Thiopo Mineral. // References:'
Production place
Holborn
Object name
Material
Associated subject
Associated person/institution
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_157.tif - High resolution image
