Pharmacy History
Pharmacy’s sporting heroes: Part 2
A look at even more pharmacists who have excelled in sports, as well as the dispensary AJP recently published a feature looking at nine pharmacists who have gone on to achieve …
Pharmacy’s sporting heroes
We take a look at some pharmacists who have made a name for themselves on the sporting field Jane Crafter Golf champion Jane Crafter was a pharmacist for three years …
Four of the most lethal infectious diseases of our time and how we’re overcoming them
Four of the most lethal infectious diseases of our time and how we’re overcoming them Spanish flu killed more people than the Great War that preceded it. And tuberculosis even …
Artefact: Wawn’s Wonder Wool
For around sixty years “Wawn’s Wonder Wool” was a familiar over-the-counter item in pharmacies throughout Australia, says Ralph Tapping Victor A. Wawn was one of the younger generation of …
Artefacts: Putting a lid on it
Ralph Tapping looks back at the long and detailed history of ceramic pots in pharmacy These days creams, ointments, gels and many foodstuffs are presented in glass screw-capped jars with …
Artefacts: plasters & poultices
One hundred years ago preparations to soothe and medicate the skin were regularly prescribed and compounded, including ointments, creams, plasters and poultices Preparing a plaster involved spreading a pliable base …
Only in the USA!
A very strange product ad emerges from the past. It could only come from the home of the brave, writes Ralph Tapping With all the political turmoil going on in …
Losing our bottle
Whatever happened to those fancy dispensary stock bottles that were so familiar sixty years ago, asks Ralph Tapping? The Whittal Tatum & Co jars and bottles, with their glass labels, …
Of pomades & bear’s grease
Modern manscaped metrosexuals were not the first to males to use complex cosmetics. Ralph Tapping explores historic examples of male hair-care products Bear’s grease was popular in England from the …
What happened to chemist-only?
A trip down memory lane to look at how government, business and pharmacy itself helped sink the front-of-shop ‘chemist only’ product, by Ralph Tapping Younger pharmacists will have some difficulty …
A significant discovery
A pharmacy closure brings to light a treasure of historic artefacts and facts, writes Ralph Tapping In 1956 when I started out on my career in pharmacy at a pharmacy …
Artefact: Cork and tile
Pharmacy was a more labor-intensive job than it is now, and to indicate membership of the Royal Society of Apothecaries a lavishly but symbolic tile was hung outside the pharmacy …