LINK: Pharmacists, Chemists, Druggists, Apothecaries

[CelticAnnie]

Hello, Redroger!  Yes; that's an interesting thought!  And maybe many poor folk in Victorian times preferred dulling their bodily aches and pain with drink to subjecting themselves to the leeches or blistering?!!  (No question which one I'd have opted for, anyway!) 

Perhaps some members of middle class Victorian society, anxious to maintain their veneer of respectability, would not have wanted to cross the threshold of a pub or tavern, and so what more "respectable" outlet to purchase your liquor from for home consumption but the pharmacist?! (This is though, of course, pure speculation on my part).

 

[Treetotal]

Brandy has been used for medicinal purposes for years...I was given Indian Brandy for all sorts of ailments when I was a kid
Carol

[Redroger]

There is another factor that springs to mind, that is the strong Temperance Movement which was evident in the Victorian period; this, coupled with the Victorian talent for hypocrisy does suggest that we may have hit on something here. A middle or upper class member of a temperance society would not want to get caught buying alcohol, think of the social stigma, so a respectable outlet as you say.
The inquest on my grandmother (1901) mentioned she used Mother Siegal's Syrup, a pharmacist friend found the ingredients for me, it had sulphuric acid as a base! Many of the stronger medicines in use in that period would now be clasified as Class A drugs, including many opiates used as pain killers in confinements, I believe today Queen Victoria would be described as addicted to opium.For another insight the Sherlock Holmes books give a view of drug taking in Victorian London.

[Treetotal]

Well Roger...On the subject of Opium....you only have to look at what some of the work that French Artists of that ara produced...Say no more
If they weren't drug induced...some of the work they produced certainly was halucinogenic
Carol

[Redroger]

What was Piccasso on then? And Dali? Both latert I know!

[Treetotal]

Picasso I believed had distorted vision probaly brought on by migraine...I put this theory forward to my art teacher...he liked it
Or over use of opiates.....there is one story that he was painting  in a mental hospital and slipped and tore the painting..in desperation...he tried to glue it together but realised the pieces were put together wrong..but a rich spanish king saw it and liked it and offered to buy it for a ridiculously high price...Mmmm...gap in the market moment for Picasso...and the rest..is history
Carol

[Redroger]

That's Piccasso, but what about Dahli?

[beautifulred]

Hello,
Can anyone please help with some information i have been told that my great aunt and uncle Alexander and Agnes Macrae might have had a chemist shop in or around Glasgow not sure if this is correct.  They had a son Alistair Macrae who died in world war 2, Alexander and Alistair are buried in Balonock cemetary.
On the headstone after Alexander's name is NAS not sure has this is not very clear, they lived on Broomfield Road and could have lived on the Ilse of Bute at some time.

[Jean_Cooling]

Hi Jane,

Not sure if this is still active but I wonder if you might be able to help me find out more about my Great Grandfather, Thomas Cooling (b. 1877/8). He was a chemist, I think he trained in Edinburgh and practiced on the continent in Rome and Florence around the turn of the century. He had a Chemists in Wandsworth around 1914/15 and then later owned another shop in Edenbridge, Kent.

Thanks,
Jean