Small rectangular book with paper covers and a sewn binding; entitled "Wellcome's Excerpta Therapeutica", printed in 1905; 293 pages; book contains paper tucked behind front cover (b) which contains a handwritten recipe for a starch enema; the main body of the book contains an alphabetical list of …
Small rectangular book with paper covers and a sewn binding; entitled "Wellcome's Excerpta Therapeutica", printed in 1905; 293 pages; book contains paper tucked behind front cover (b) which contains a handwritten recipe for a starch enema; the main body of the book contains an alphabetical list of therapeutics (drugs), their uses, and their preparations; also an index of diseases and their remedies, a posological table, a list of poisons and their treatments and antidotes, British legal information, Irish legal information, a table of infectious diseases, their incubation periods, period of quarantine, period of infection, and what days the illness appears and begins to fade; the book also contains information on disinfection in phthisis, London ambulance service, diet tables, the feeding of children and infants, information on food and cooking, average weights and measurements of adult human organs, average weights and heights, the metric system of weights and measures, urine testing, water analysis, examination of sewage and sewage effluents, microscopic stains, indicators for chemical tests, notes on radiography, postal information for the United Kingdom, utero-gestation, and Wellcome brand products and price list; the pages bear the remnants of being coloured red at the edges.
Number Of Parts
2
Part Names
a - book: Length 16.5 cm X Width 10.0 cm X Height 1.2 cm
b - paper: Length 12.7 cm X Width 9.15 cm
Provenance
Originally owned by the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital.
Handwritten on paper (b): "Starch Enema - // Starch 1 [illegible], // Mix with sufficient cold // water to make a thick // paste, then pour on boiling // water untill it becomes // the consistence of mu[illegible]lage // ten to thirty gtts of Laudenum // is often added to this Enema."; printed on title page of book (a): "WELLCOME'S // Excerpta Therapeutica // 1905 // BURROUGHS WELLCOME AND Co. // LONDON, SYDNEY AND CAPE TOWN // COPYRIGHT] // ALL RIGHTS RESERVED".
Permanent Location
Storage Room 2005
2005-
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Condition Remarks
Paper very brittle and delicate, pages coming out of binding, binding falling apart, covers torn along edges
Wellcome, "History of Wellcome": https://wellcome.ac.uk/about-us/history-wellcome
Research Facts
Sir Henry Wellcome was born in the U.S.A. in 1853, and moved to the UK in 1880 to found a pharmaceutical company with his friend Silas Burroughs. Wellcome established laboratories and funded scientists developing antitoxins, etc. He was a lover of medical history and had a collection of many objects relating to it. When Wellcome died in 1936, a charity intended to advance medical research and history was created according to his will. This grew over the 20th century into the Wellcome Trust of today, worth $33.5 billion CAN. The Wellcome Collection, a free medical museum and library, was founded in 2007.
Wellcome Excerpta Therapeutica was published in different editions from approximately 1883 to 1976.
Formerly known as the Eastern Hospital for the Insane, the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital opened in 1894; in 1903 the School of Nursing opened with one student who was given a two year course in nursing the mentally ill, this was one of Ontario's first nursing programs to specialize in psychiatric care; early in the 20th Century, the population expanded to 800 patients with as many as 100 patients at work on the grounds daily, the facility had a bakery, farm, garden, and a variety of shops including a butcher, tailor and carpenter (none of which are operational today); systems of treatment used throughout the years consisted of hydrotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy and vocational therapy; in 2000 the hospital was officially transferred from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group.