The pharmacist's costume

Habit d'apoticaire, in
“Recueil les costumes grotesques et les métiers de Nicolas de Larmessin”.

Reproduction of a 17^th-century engraving depicting the typical costume of a pharmacist, imagined as consisting of the tools of the trade – an alembic is worn as a hat and iconographically the most significant element, but there are also typical jars, tools, containers, a syringe and various medicinal plants. All visual elements are identified by inscriptions in French. From the work “Recueilles costumes grotesques et les métiers de Nicolas de Larmessin”.

The alembic is a distillation still, borrowed from alchemy, consisting of three parts. The cucurbit, a heated pot that contains the liquid to be distilled,   the ambic, covering the cucurbit like a cap, collecting the vapors and leading them down a descending tube, and   the receiver, holding the condensed distilled liquid. The term comes from Arabic (al-anbīḳ), in itself a borrowing from Greek (ambix), meaning cup or beaker.

Alchemy and iatrochemistry in Early Modern pharmacy

In the end of the Middle Ages and during the Early Modern period (16th-18th centuries) a series of practitioners experimented with the properties of matter. Alchemists, iatrochemists (future chemists) and pharmacists used the same procedures and the same laboratory equipment, but to different ends: to turn common metals into gold and to create the Philosophers’ Stone, to synthesize chemical substances and to prepare medicine. In the second half of the 17th century and first half of the 18th century, pharmacy increasingly adopted chemical ingredients against organic ones, largely borrowing the language, tools and symbols of iatrochemistry.

The caduceus, a staff with one or two snakes coiled on it, was the symbol of both pharmacy and alchemy. The staff of god Asklepios/Aesculap, associated with medicine and healing, had a single coiled snake, while the staff of Hermes/Mercury, the messenger of the gods, associated to commerce and negotiations, often had wings and two coiled snakes. In alchemy the caduceus was a symbol of primary matter, of chaos, balanced by the two snakes coiled in opposite directions, while Hermes became the patron of alchemy as well.

Alchemical caduceus depicted during the 18th century as symbol of pharmacy inside the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj

Alchemical-like names were also employed as product branding strategy, in order to increase sales. Thus, a series of popular apothecary products reminded one of the name of the famous Elixir of Life. Thus, the Elixir of Health for example, a brandy drink containing aniseed, raisin, saffron, and other ingredients, was sold as tonic and cure-all.

Read also about the Visceral Elixir HERE. 

Learn more by visiting the Pharmacy and Alchemy exhibition that opens on July 3rd 2017 at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca!

Ox gull - FEL TAURI

Ox gull or Bilis bovina - FEL TAURI in apothecary terms- was used ever since Antiquity in the treatment of eye, stomach and intestine problems, of hemorrhoids, but was also part of numerous mixed medicines.

Three apothecary jars for bull’s bile are exhibited part of the "Animals that heal" temporary exhibition at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca, part of the National History Museum of Transylvania:

§    white ceramic jar with the signature EXTR. FELL. TAURI in Latin and Hungarian, dated 1815 and used in the Matei Corvin Pharmacy in Cluj. The signature is placed in an oval cartouche with golden border

§ white ceramic jar inscribed EXTR. FEL TAURI from the beginning of the 19^th century, Timiş, manufactured in Batiz. The signature is placed in a shield-shaped cartouche with green border, surmounted by a painted decoration consisting of two branches and a central bow

§       glass jar with paper label with the depiction of bulls, beginning of the 20^th c., Unicorn Pharmacy in Cluj, partially effaced print and French writing

Apothecary jars for ox-gall

Apothecary uses of deer antlers

Deer antlers were a source of calcium, just like other shells and animal bones. The ingredient was used as shavings (rasura), powder (pulveris), volatile salt (sal) or alcoholic solution (spiritus), sometimes meant to be smelled or fumigated as a cure for feminine problems (such as collapsed uterus). 

Vintage engraving of a deer

The blue glass with the signature PULV. CORNU CERVI. (deer antler powder) is from the beginning of the 20th c., from the old St. George Pharmacy hosting the Pharmacy Collection in the center of Cluj, in the Hintz House. The glass with the signature SPIRIT CORNU CERVII (deer antler alcoholic solution) dates from the 18th c. and was used in a pharmacy from Baia Mare, while the small jar for deer antler salt - SALL CORNU CERVI - is from the 19th c., from Bratislava.

Apothecary containers for deer antler products

Apothecary jars for deer antler medicine, actual 18th-century shavings and an entire antler are exhibited part of the "Animals that heal" temporary exhibition at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca, on display until June 30th 2017. See the official blog of the museum for how to plan your visit at http://farmacluj.blogspot.ro/

Deer antler display case at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj

 

Castoreum

Castoreum is a yellowish, oily, vanilla-scented excretion from the castor sacs in both male and female beavers, employed by the animals to mark their territory. The substance is still used in the perfume industry, but was famous since Antiquity as a cure. It seems its action is due to the salicin content from the beavers’ diet, being thus similar to aspirin.

18th-century drybeaver sacks

Castoreum is mentioned in all apothecary inventories, taxes and pharmacopoeias from early modern Transylvania. It was recommended against epilepsy, cholera, but also hysteria due to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.

In 17^th-19^th century Transylvania the apothecaries used Castoreum from England (Anglicum), Russia (Moscoviticum) and Canada (Canadense) as tincture, essence, and powder.

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj includes 10 jars, of all types, for Castoreum-based products. Castoreum Moscoviticum, from Moscow, was the most popular among them. Eighteenth-century dried beaver glands are also preserved from the pharmacy in Baia Mare. A small bottle from a portable pharmacy is also dated to the same century and was used for Castoreum Essence. From the nineteenth century we display wooden and milky glass jars from pharmacies in Carei, Braşov and Recaşul de Timiş, while the blues glass jar is from the twentieth century and was used in the old Hintz pharmacy that hosts the museum today.

20th-century blues glass bottle for Castoreum Tincture

18th-century small bottle for Castoreum Essence from the portable apothecary chest of Theresa Kemeny

See all photos and the story of the ingredient in Romanian HERE and follow the official blog of the History of Pharmacy Museum in Cluj-Napoca, heart of Transylvania.

eighteenth century engraving depicting a beaver - castor

Gilded pills - an apothecary tradition

Covering pills in gold and silver was practiced in Europe between the 17th and 20th century, erroneously attributed to Avicenna. The procedure was meant to make pills easier to swallow, coating their bad taste/smell and preventing them from disintegrating. Though Avicenna did talk about the properties of precious metals, in cauterizing, heart and lungs afflictions and bad breath, the first mention of pill gilding dates from 1626.

The procedure included the following steps: producing hard pills, coating them in syrup of Gum Arabic, placing them together with gold leaf inside a scatula deauratoria (two hemispheres made of wood or horn) and shaking well.

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca includes several jars for Gum Arabic, a natural gum made of the hardened sap of various species of the acacia tree. One such jar, made of wood during the eighteenth century and used in an apothecary shop from Târgu Mureş is exhibited in the "Gold and gems" temporary exhibition that can be visited until the end of this year.

 

18th c apothecary jar with painted cartouche and the signature PULV G: ARAB

Gum Arabic pieces and powder, by Simon A. Eugster - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.orgb/w/index.php?curid=48712562

Modern pills, gilded pills and gold leaf in the "Gold and gems" temporary exhibition in Cluj-Napoca