More: go.wvu.edu/pharmacy_museum
L-R: Vapo Cresolene elebric vaporizer, quinine sulphate, pickled leech, red devil skull poison bottle indicator, bleeding instruments, show globe, medicated cigarettes.
DOUGLAS SLAIN
Associate Professor
HIS PICKS:Red Devil Skull Poison Bottle Indicator
Old Quinine Bottles
As a specialist in infectious diseases, I'm drawn to old quinine bottles. The medication, a chemical isolated from cinchona tree bark, is one of the most important in history because of its ability to treat malaria, once endemic in the U.S. Getting quality quinine in the U.S. was difficult at times, and it was even smuggled past Union lines into the Confederate states in hollowed-out girl's dolls.
CHARLES PONTE
Professor
HIS PICKS:
Medicated Cigarettes
Electric Vapo Cresolene
Electric vaporizers replaced a similar device that used a kerosene lamp to heat a smelly black liquid, cresolene, which came from coal tar. The vapors were inhaled to treat respiratory ailments such as the common cold and bronchitis. Cresolene is a poison and was also used as an antiseptic. Modern-day warm/cool mist vaporizers have taken its place and certainly smell better!
MARY EULER
Professor and Associate Dean of Student Services
HER PICK:
Show Globes
Show globes have been a symbol of pharmacy since the 17th century. To attract attention and to symbolize the mystery and art of their profession, chemists, and later apothecaries, displayed show globes with solutions of colored chemicals.
CLARKE RIDGWAY
Professor Emeritus
HIS PICKS:
Bleeding Instruments
Pickled Leech
Bleeding, or ‘opening a vein,’ by various methods was long recognized as a means of removing disease from the body. A variety of instruments were created to make the process as precise and efficient as possible. These devices made shallow cuts in the skin or longitudinal slits in a vein to allow for removal of the offending agent believed to be traveling in the blood. Treatment ended when the wound clotted or the patient fainted, whichever came first.