Antique Books

[donnie]

Interesting, no, I've never seen anything like that.

[Kitty]

A prescription from the same book, front and back.

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[donnie]

Fascinating! I'd like to know what that was used for. That reminds me that in that day, pharmacists did a lot of mixing and compounding of medicines instead of just dispensing the already-made products of pharmaceutical companies as they do today.

[Kitty]

These are the last of the items inside my Thomas Moore book. There are also two different pieces of cloth that they used as bookmarks, I guess. Here it is, a little doodle, front and back.

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[donnie]

How about that? Wasn't that an interesting find?

Last night I looked up (or tried to look up) some of the ingredients of the prescription to see if I could find out what it might have been used for, but didn't have much luck. There is some misspelling and handwriting vagueness on some of the items that doesn't help. I may try again.

[Kitty]

I've always wanted to research the ingredients, but didn't want to handle the book too long. Now that I have photos, I may try my luck as well.

I tried to research the pharmacy, but didn't have much luck, either. Results for the hotel came up, though.

[Kitty]

This is what I can come up with regarding that prescription.

Carbonate Potassium 1/2 oz
Glycerine 1/2 oz
Lavender Corn 1 1/2 oz
Nitrate Potassium 1/2 oz
Naphtha Vitrioli 1/2 oz
Aqua Ammonia 1 oz
Cocoa Oil squiggly sofo 1/2 oz
Aqua Pera 1 oz

I can't figure out what the part after oil is. Notice how it looks like he got bored writing out the prescription, as he was very neat at first, with the handwriting getting worse as the note went on. I'm not sure what aqua pera is. Or Lavender Corn for that matter!

[donnie]

You did a better job than I did deciphering some of the items. I did go on a search for aqua pera earlier, as it sounds like an interesting ingredient, but didn’t get anywhere either. I don’t think there is such a thing; he must have misspelled it or misunderstood it, as I suspect he did some other things. Ah well, the mysteries of life...

[donnie]

I've been looking at some online pdf's of old books by Daniel Carter Beard, one of my favorite authors. He was an outdoorsman, the founder of the Boy Scouts in the U.S., and also an illustrator. He wrote several books primarily for young people in the late 1800's to early 1900's.

This is an illustration from one of his books in a chapter on insect collecting.

[Kitty]

That's pretty cool! I'll keep an eye out for his name when I go book hunting.