Victorian Pharmacy: Rediscovering Home Remedies and Recipes

Pavilion, 2010 8vo (23 cm), 224 pp. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket. "Here is the story of consumer medicine -- how drugstore health care emerged in just 50 years and how consumers still rely on hundreds of formulations and products that can trace their origins back to the 19th century. Sun cream; treatments for insomnia, dandruff, or warts; perfumes; and soaps are all as important today as they were 100 years ago and are stocked by the local pharmacist. This book takes a look at which products were on offer, whether they were effective, and how they are used today, showing that while the names of products on the pharmacy shelf have changed over time, consumers' hopes and aspirations remain much the same as their Victorian predecessors. This is also the story of the growth of the drugstore, and how families have come to rely upon them as dispensaries of health care." (from the publisher's description)