Wilkinson Gallery
Here you’ll find an amazing array of 600 earthenware drug jars collected by the Manchester physician Dr John F. Wilkinson. The jars date back as far as the 1500s and once lined the shelves of apothecaries’ shops. They contained both the ingredients for medicines and the medicines themselves.
Apothecaries were the first chemists, making and prescribing their own medicines. These were made according to standard recipes from a range of ingredients – animal, vegetable and mineral. As medicines were prepared in front of customers, the ingredients had to be stored within reach so jars were the perfect solution. They were decorated with ornate and intricate designs to make them look attractive.
The jars contained all sorts of remedies, from the ordinary to the bizarre. “Tincture of Myrrh” was used to treat many ailments including asthma, bad breath and even plague! A patient with painful joints, bruises or sprains might have bought some “Oil of Earthworms”, made by boiling worms in olive oil. Rubbing your joints with the oil would have helped, but the earthworms added nothing to the cure! Live leeches for bleeding patients would have been stored in special jars, lined with damp moss and with air holes so the leeches could breathe.
Apothecaries competed for the public’s business against a great many other practitioners including surgeons, midwives, physicians, bone-setters and herbalists. Perhaps a set of imposing jars with mysterious Latin labels helped to impress both customers and rivals! Would you have gone to the apothecary to buy your medicine?
Today medicines are commercially manufactured in large quantities by international companies, rather than by individual chemists and pharmacists. The ingredients have also come a long way from earthworms and leeches!
