The School of Pharmacy, University of London. Medicines, Science and Society, 1842–2012

217 Pages·2013·73.022 MB·English

by  Briony Hudson and Maureen Boylan (Auth.)

THE SCHOOL OF PHARMACY
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MEDICINES, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 1842–2012
BRIONY HUDSON
IN COLLABORATION WITH MAUREEN BOYLAN
In collaboration with the University of London, Elsevier is very pleased to publish the School of Pharmacy,
University of London: Medicines, Science and Society, 1842–2012. This book commemorates the history
of the prestigious School of Pharmacy within the context of developments and advances in the pharmacy
profession, medicines and global public health. Complimentary access to the e-book is available on
ScienceDirect to all patrons and is sponsored by the University of London. On behalf of the university and
Elsevier, we hope that you enjoy the contents of this work.
For Elsevier
Commissioning Editor: Kristine Jones
Development Editor: Andy Albrecht
Project Manager: Julia Haynes
Designer: Mark Rogers
THE SCHOOL OF PHARMACY
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MEDICINES, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, 1842–2012
BRIONY HUDSON
IN COLLABORATION WITH MAUREEN BOYLAN
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Like so many “big ideas”, this one was hatched over a good meal (the last of the Charter dinners), in
convivial company and at just the right time … and then it took on a life of its own. I first envisaged this
book as a memento for the School’s alumni to mark an ending, and in a way to say farewell to the old
School of Pharmacy. It very quickly grew beyond that and turned into a plan to create something which,
while telling the School’s own history, would put it firmly in its social and historical context – 170 years
of transformational changes in public health, the creation of a modern primary care medical profession,
within an educational sector changed beyond recognition. It also became clear that this wasn’t just a
retrospective, but “the story so far” as the School enters its new life within UCL.
At each stage, there were key people who saw the potential and provided practical support and excellent
ideas: Paul Ayris (Director of UCL Libraries), who introduced me to Suzanne BeDell, Managing Director of
Science and Technology Books at Elsevier (and who also lent me a book on the history of UCL that I really
will return one day!); Elsevier staff in the US and UK, most especially Kristine Jones and Andy Albrecht;
the many colleagues who told me that Briony Hudson was the only possible choice of author because she
knew everything and everybody, and would “totally get it”; and most of all, Briony Hudson, who totally got
it, and who expertly turned a dinner table conversation into a real history.
Maureen Boylan
“Picture some student, up at the Square in 2013, fingering a copy of the ‘Square Chronicle’,
yellow with age, and learning how Mr Jinks won the Pereira Medal in 1913, or how a year
later the ‘Square’ regained the ‘Cup’. One must think of posterity.”
Square Chronicle, November 1913
Although Jacob Bell and Theophilus Redwood provided the history of the School and its foundation in
their Historical Sketch of the Progress of Pharmacy in Great Britain, published in 1880, there was nothing
dedicated to its history until more than 120 years after its establishment. In The Pharmaceutical Journal
of September 1896, there was a call for a history of the School to be written, with past students urged to
send their experiences to the Journal’s editor to be compiled. According to a tribute to Professor Greenish
in The Pharmaceutical Journal in August 1933, the professor had intended to write a history of the School
alongside pharmaceutical education and training in his retirement, but had not had the time. It was T.E.
Wallis who took up the challenge with his History of the School of Pharmacy, published in 1964. As both
student and long-serving staff member, Wallis was perfectly placed to provide a detailed account of the
institution and its buildings, illustrated with his own photographs. It has not left my side during the process
of writing this book. Three decades later, S.W.F. Holloway’s publications, particularly Royal Pharmaceutical
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A C K NO W L E D G E M E N T S
Society of Great Britain 1841–1991: A Political and Social History, but also his articles on the School and the
Pharmaceutical Society, have been invaluable in providing detail and context.
Many people have been involved in the production of this publication from initial ideas to practical assistance.
Maureen Boylan has been a fantastically supportive and enthusiastic collaborator, and the originator of the
concept to commemorate the School’s latest milestone by putting it into its historical context. Ainley Wade, as
a past student, current Fellow and publications maestro, has been the epitome of a reviewer. Anthony Smith
has also shared his thoughts and experiences to ensure the accuracy of the narrative.
Michelle Wake and her staff at the School’s library, particularly Cherry Trott, who looks after the historical
collections, have been extremely good hosts. John Betts and Peter Homan at the RPS Museum, and Martha
Krumbach at the RPS Library have made my visits easy and enjoyable. The staff at the Wellcome Library
have also been a great help. Morgan Williams, David Phillipson, Tony Moffatt and Eric Robbins have all
provided useful contributions. Charles Harmer, Diane and Martin Hudson, and Amy Matthews have all
given practical and emotional help that has meant that the project was possible. My final thanks go to Lucy
for retaining her afternoon nap.
Our aim in producing this publication has been to commemorate the School’s history within its
pharmaceutical context. In doing so, we hope not to have missed major milestones, but would be pleased
to have our attention drawn to any errors or inaccuracies. Our wish is that the book will prompt past and
current students, and pharmacy and educational historians, to explore further the history of the School.
Briony Hudson
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A C K NO W L E D G E M E N T S
Unsurprisingly, the majority of images in the book come from the collections at the UCL School of Pharmacy
and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum. However, many other people and institutions have provided
help and illustrations. Our thanks go to:
• Picture Library staff at the National Portrait Gallery, Wellcome Images and the Museum of London
• Olivia Timbs and Stuart Thomas at The Pharmaceutical Journal
• Jennifer Richardson at Chemist + Druggist
• Emm Johnstone, Gail Nevin, Jayne Grant and Laura MacCulloch at Royal Holloway, University of London
• Alison Hawkins at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
• Victor Patterson
• Jo Hopkins at The Royal Society
• Professor K.D.Rainsford and Dr. Hans Detlef Klüber, Inflammopharmacology
• Sarah Hunt at the University of Sunderland
• Professor Gary Baxter at the Welsh School of Pharmacy
• David Hale at mapco.net
• Mandy Wise at UCL Special Collections
• Professor Peter Houghton and Richard Harper, Pharmacy Department, King’s College London
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FOREWORD
xi
C H A P T E R 1
“FURNISHING THE MEANS OF PROPER INSTRUCTION”:
1841–1861
Edward Dayes (1763–1804) created this atmospheric view of Bloomsbury Square,
published as an engraving in 1787. Bedford House is shown dominating the north
side of the square, while number 17 is clearly shown on the left side with its new
neo-classical facade.
Reproduced with permission from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum
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MILESTONES T H E S C HO OL OF P H A R M A C Y, U N I V E R S I T Y OF L ON D ON :
M E D I C I N E S , S C I E N C E A N D S O C I E T Y, 1 8 4 2 – 2 0 1 2
Popular Culture
1843 first Christmas cards sent in Britain
1848 The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, published
1849 safety pin patented On Wednesday 16th February 1842, Dr Anthony
1856 first synthetic aniline dye, named mauve,
discovered Todd Thomson gave a lecture on materia medica,
1859 Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published
the raw materials of medicines, at 17 Bloomsbury
London Life Square, an eighteenth century house in a fashionable
1841 Kew Gardens given to the nation part of London. His audience was a group of
1842 The Illustrated London News, the first ever illustrated
chemists, druggists and apprentices brought together
newspaper, launched
1843 Thames Tunnel, designed by Brunel, opened
by a newly formed professional organisation, the
1843 Nelson’s statue publicly displayed before placement
on its column in Trafalgar Square Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. For most of
1847 London Zoo first opened to paying visitors
1848 electric lighting publicly demonstrated on the steps them, it was a very different experience from anything
of the National Gallery
1851 Great Exhibition that they had encountered before.
1851 150 horse bus routes operated in London
1853 first free-standing letter box London
1854 very cold winter allowed skating on the Serpentine
There was no such thing as an average pharmacist
lake in Hyde Park
1858 Great Stink in the mid-nineteenth century and, in fact, the term
1859 Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens closed
pharmacist was not one that the majority would
National News
have recognised. However, there were some common
1842 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert took their first features to the work of someone who made and
train journey from Windsor (Slough) to Paddington
1842 Mines and Collieries Act prohibited women, sold medicines. A pharmacy premises would have
girls, and boys under 10 years old from working
contained some kind of laboratory where pills could
underground in mines
1848 Chartist demonstrations in London, Manchester,
be rolled, powders mixed and suppositories made.
and Bingley in Yorkshire
1854 John Snow traced cholera to a pump in Broad Street, Pharmacy was a craft with manual skills passed
London
1858 Great Ormond Street Hospital, the first children’s from master to apprentice and father to son. The
hospital in Britain, opened
1858 Medical Act introduced regulated medical practice shop itself would probably have had shelves filled
and education in Britain Published in the 1830s, this cartoon gives an idea of what the inside of
with jars, bottles and packets, some bought in from
1860 Florence Nightingale opened a School of Nursing at a pharmacy might have looked like in this decade, as well as making the
St Thomas’ Hospital, London the manufacturer such as Beecham’s Pills, Dalby’s viewer laugh at the apprentice’s ignorance and outspokenness.
The Wider World Carminative and Daffy’s Elixir, and others made on Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum
the premises. Most customers would come in to buy a preparation for an everyday ailment such as a cough or a
1844 first use of the telegraph, by Samuel Morse
1845–1851 Irish Potato Famine boil, or to ask for a family recipe to be made up for them, or in exceptional circumstances, to have a prescription
1846 US/Canadian border defined
1848 California gold rush dispensed from a private physician. In some instances, the customer might be an artist wanting to buy some
1852 submarine patented
pigments, a farmer wanting a medicine for a horse, or a scientist sourcing a particular chemical. In a world with
1854–1856 Crimean War
1856–1860 Second Opium War in China
limited transport, a pharmacy shop would build up a group of local regulars, and the local regulars would come
1857–1858 Indian Mutiny
1858 first telegraph cable laid under the Atlantic to trust the pharmacist to advise them on their health.
Drug Developments/Pharmacy Milestones
1842 American William E. Clarke extracted a tooth using LONDON LIFE
ether as an anaesthetic
1844 William Brockeden patented his “compressed pill”
Arguably, the need for medical advice and the production of medicines had never been greater. London in
(tablet)
1846 Robert Liston, a London surgeon, amputated a the mid-nineteenth century was crowded, dirty and very unhealthy. In 1801, 20% of people in Britain lived
patient’s thigh using ether
1847 James Young Simpson in Edinburgh first used in cities, by 1850 it was approximately 50% and by 1901 it had grown to around 80%. One of the major
chloroform anaesthesia
1851 Arsenic Act results of the increasing number of people all living together was a growth in infectious diseases. London’s
1852 Pharmacy Act
streets were filled with horse manure, night soil men took away as much human detritus as they could, and
1853 Queen Victoria given chloroform for labour pain
1859 Chemist and Druggist journal founded there was no sewerage system until after the Great Stink of 1858, when the smell of open sewers and cesspits
through a very hot summer finally focused the minds of members of parliament (MPs) on the urgent need
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