Medical College of Virginia - X Ray Yearbook (Richmond, VA)

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PHARMACY TIIK Ki-nenl(ijj of the miidern ilruKK ' st goes back to tin- N ' orinan coMi|ucst , u lien the Mercerv, whose scene of operation in London was known as the Mercery, controlled the trade in drugs and spices. This Inisiness then passed into the hands of pep- perers, spicers. and later was absorbed by the gro- cers. The apothecaries in 1617 succeeded over the pro- test of the grocers in securing a charter of their own. King James asserted with finality that (irncers arc but merchants. The business of an apothecary is a my- tcr . The rising importance of the apothecary in England accounted for the fact that the London Company sent two apothecaries to the ' irginia Colony before 1624. After that we hear nothing of th;m in Virginia until the iSth century. During the i8th century the drug business in ' irginia was in the hands of physicians who manufactured arid imported drugs from England. riie physician usually compounded his own prescrip- tions, charging fcr his medicine as well as for his islls. The majority of apothecaries, like physicians, learned their trade in this country in an apprenticeship of from three to six ears, serving under a physician or expe- rienced pharmacist. Their masters sent them into th ■ woods in search of popular Indian medicine, such a- Indian hemp, papoose root, Indian tobacco, blood root and mandrake. Later, in the shops, they dried and ex- tracted their drugs in huge kettles, or busied themselves rolling pills on slabs, spreading plasters, and clanging the iron mortar and pestle. In 17S+ at the Pennsylvania Hospital were written the first prcnriptions to be fillid h an apothccnr In the Tnited States. Abraham C ' hauvet, who came to Philadelphia in 1770, was the first practicing physician in this country to write his own prescriptions. In ' ir- ginia, 1771, was probably the first time prescriptions were being filled by apothecaries. Much of the atmosphere of older class adhere to an old pharmac in .Mexandria. The I.eadbetter Orug Store was established in 1792 and is still to be seen oti the corner of King and Fairfax Streets. Here th.- Washingions and Lees and other Northern Neck ' ir- ginians dealt. .Most of the pharmacists of the 19th century received their training in apprenticeships of from three to four ears. . few were graduates of northern schools. The first college to teach pharmacy in this country was in Philadelphia in 1821. Instruction in pharmacy was early a part of the medical curriculum at the Univer- sity of ' irginia. Pharmacy was taught as a part of the Medical course in the Medical College of Virginia friMTi its ery begiiuiing in 1838. In the college cat- alogues of 18S0 notice was gi ' en of courses in materia nudica, therapeutics, chemistry and pharmacy. To- gether they were designated as the School of Phar- macy and led to a special diploma. In 1882 students h;) had had two years in some approved drug store were declared graduates in pharmacy if they had successfully taken examinations in chemistry and ma- teria medica. In 1S93 the rnlvcrsity College of Meilicine was or- ganized in Richmond with a separate department of pharmacy. T. Ashley Miller was the first dean of the pharmacy faculty. In 1897 the old Medical College of irginia followed suit, and divided itself into three departments: medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. The school of pharmacy offered a two-year graded course. Ketween 1877-1S99, twentv-one pharmacists were grad- uated from the Medical College of Virginia. Several of these graduates are living today. It is interesting to note that on March 3, 18S6, An ait to incorporate the ' irginia Pharmaceutical .Associa- tion, and to regulate the practice of pharmacy, and to guard the sale of poisons in the state of ' irginia, was passed. It permitted only registered pharmacists and practicing physicians to retail, compound, or dis- pense medicines or poisons, or to conduct a pharmacy. Merchants vere permitted to sell such common drugs as (|uinine, epsom salts, and castor oil, calomel, and opium. In order to be registered, a pharmacist had to be a graduate of a recognized college of pharmacy, or to have served three ears as an apprentice in some drug store, or be a licentiate of pharmacy of the Vir- ginia Board of Pharmacy, which was created by the same act. By 1S94 every drug store was re(|uired to have a registered pharmacist in charge. fh

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NURSING II u:is in .S5(, tliMI llu-o(l(in- FriiiliuT (ipciuil at Kais runrth, tht- tir-t hHoc)! lor ilcacoiu ' s c-s ; rS ' .o. lu-lnri- Flort ' iR-c N ' i)iluin ;:ili- sut nliout tc-achinj; tlu- first EiiKlish trained nurses at St. Thomas ' ; 1873, b?- fore a trained nnrsc was produced in America; and 1S86, before X ' iryinia ioined the movement. The 17th centurv ua- tlu- dark aj r of nursi[i,i; and the care of the sick sank a low as the hospital in which it va5 practiced. Conditions were little chaiiKcd two hundred years later; when Dickens im- mortalized Saircy (lamp, she with her perkv umbrella and talk of the pudK , slatternly, dowdy-looking fe- male of drunken and didiious habits who was the nurse of that ila . In ' ir inia we encoutitcr nurses as earlv as itii2 iyi the Hospital at Menricopolis, which was supplied with keepers to attend the sick and wounded. These were probably male nurses. While listers ol charity minis- tered to the siek on ihr Ciuitinent, all the I ' .nslish mil- itary hospitaK used soldiers fiu nurses until the middle of the rc;th century. Nursing; in the 17th century was indeed a task tor men eiitailint; plusical labor that would horrify the inodern nurse. I ' he duties of th.- 17th century nurse were not to take the temperature, record the pulse, give daily baths or follow elaborate orders Irom phxsicians, but to prepare food, ijive the droughts reuid;n-| , wash the linen, watch bv the bedside, and hen death came to shroud the body, and to furnish entertaiiuncnt for those vho came to the funeral. Ourint; the iSth cuiiurx niirsini; still maintained th ■ same level as that of the preiediu) cenlur . We can be sure tli.il ini the women of ' iri;inia homes rested th • rhief respon ibilit lor tlu care of the sick, a duty that even the ailvent of specialized nursing has not entirely lifted; however, a new figure did appear during this period, the negro mirse. . ' s maminy, inidwife, wet nurse or nurse maid, she becaiiu ' a figure of increasing importance In C(dnnial N ' irginia. ' irginia owes a lebt of gratitude to ilu various or- ders of Si-ler- which were established during the mi.l- dle part ol the ndh eenlurx. iviting ami nur ng the siek were once .a prominent pan .d tlu .luties of these sisters, luit in recent years, the sisters have given less arul less attention to the professional care of the sick. Such conditions prevailed until 1S60 vhen Florence Nightingale began to turn out the new style nurses. It vas 1873, however, before training schools were established in this country — first at Bellevue Hospital in New York, and later in New Haven at the Massa- chusetts Cleneral Hospital, and then at Johns Hopkins IIo v this movement swept the country aiul fired the imagination of women ever vhere, until toda , when 125,000 trained nurses serve the .Vmerican public, is one of the proud chapters of American medicine. I was one of the most important movements of the 19th century aiul Miss Nightingale, who must be included in any list of great Victorians, was the sole genius be- hinil it. Her conception of a nurse — chaste, sober, hon- est, trulhfid, trustworthy, cpiiet, cheerful, thinking of her patient alone, became the ideal of the oung pro- fession. The first training schoid for nurses in X ' irginia was established at St. Luke ' s Hospital in Richmond in 1886 In 1893 • ' 1 ' training schools opened in Richmond — one at the Retreat for the Sick Hospital, and one at the University College of Medicine Hospital, The Vir- ginia Hospital aiul Training School for Nurses. In 1895 a similar school, comprising a two-year course, was organized by the Medical College of Virginia at the Old Dominion Hospital in Richmond. An effort was made to put this school at once upon a plane of unusual cHiciencx and statiding. The authorities turned to Johns Hopkins Hospital, from which the drew their superintendent. Miss Sadie Heath Cabaniss. a then re- cent graduate mider Miss Hampton. Miss Cabaniss, a native of Petersburg, was a graduate of St. Timothy ' s School before beginning the study of nursing in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She had hardly taken charge of the nursing school in Richmond before her strong personality was felt. Her education, training, ideals, aiul force ol character contributed to the formation of a schoid ol nii.sing w hos,- Idgh standards ar still pointed 01 with pride and gratiliule.