From:Florence Nightingale Museum

Name/TitlePharmacopoeia of St. Thomas's Hospital. War Emergency Edition.

About this objectPharmacopoeia of St Thomas's Hospital, war emergency edition, dated 1941.

This object is not on display.

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A pharmacopeia is used to provide a list of medical drugs with their effects and directions for their use. Experts in the professions of medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy at the request of the agency undertaking the complication carry out the task of compiling most pharmacopoeias [Ref1]. Prescriptions in regular use form the bulk of the formulae in the pharmacopeia: they list the medicinal substances, drugs and formulae needed to prepare various treatments for common ailments [Ref2]. The oldest known pharmacopeia to be written is a collection of medical formulas used by physicians of Egypt around 1500 BC [Ref3]. Descriptive catalogues of drugs claimed to be to be useful in the practice of medicine have been complied throughout time and a biography of them published in Germany in 1784 includes names such as Celsus, Pliny, Galen, Dioscorides, Avicenna and Paracelsus [Ref4]. However, the title ‘pharmacopeia’ s said to have been applied for the first time in book published in Basel in 1561. In England the importance of ensuring the purity of drugs was first recognized in 1518 [Ref4]. The first ‘London Pharmacopeia’ was first published in 1618 and included no fewer than 1028 drugs and 932 compounds [Ref3]. In 1858, the ‘British Pharmacopeia’ was created and compiled from 3 existing pharmacopeias from London, Edinburgh and Dublin.

This object is a hospital pharmacopeia book that was compiled by C. Wilson Peck in 1941. Hospital pharmacopeia’s were regularly updated, small enough to fit into a pocket, and the information was condensed, often there was even space for the owner to add their own notes. One of the reasons St. Thomas’s and other hospitals would have their own pharmacopeia was because it saved time and money [Ref2]. The reason for this new ‘War Edition’ pharmacopeia would have been World War 2 and the introduction of the ‘National War Formulary’ introduced in 1941. In the Formulary there are sections on wartime prescribing and proprietary preparations (or, brand name drugs rather than their generic scientific names) for adults and children [Ref2].

Ref1 - https://www.britannica.com/science/pharmacopoeia
Ref2 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/26651650
Ref3 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/25385713
Ref4 - https://www.biopharminternational.com/view/brief-history-pharmacopoeias-global-perspective-2

Object research undertaken by Shona Bartlett, Digital Research Volunteer 2022.

MakerC. Wilson Peck

Maker RoleAuthor

Date Made1941

Period20th Century

Medium and MaterialsPaper

Measurements8.2 x 13cm

Object TypeBook

Object number1310

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved