We know that medicine chests filled with bottles of herbal remedies and medicines were purchased by affluent families for domestic use from apothecaries in Britain in the C18th-C19th. These chests usually came equipped with a manual on how to use the medicines, what illnesses they could be used for and the correct dosage for each. They were particularly useful when the families were travelling. Medicines that often featured in those chests included 1] laudanum, an opioid that was widely available and usually used as pain relief and 2] medicines needed for immediate first aid eg emetics, purgatives, stimulants and anticonvulsants.
In larger chests, dressings and plasters were included for minor wounds, as were burns treatments. They also included a variety of instruments like a mortar and pestle, scales, measures, spatula and lancet. Florence Nightingale had such a chest, as we will see.
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Florence Nightingale's medicine chest, c1855
Bottles of medicine in the main compartment
Small instruments in the bottom drawer
From her late teens, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) became captivated by the idea of becoming a nurse; a passion that distressed her parents as nursing was viewed as an unfit profession for respectable women. Florence studied nursing secretly, defying her parents and the expectations of society, which, she believed, rendered middle class women unable to make full use of their energy and intelligence.
Nightingale had been working at a Harley St nursing home when she learned of the horrific conditions facing British army soldiers in their Crimean War hospital base. The British Secretary of State for War asked her to lead a team of 38 nurses to make urgent improvements in Scutari. She was told that with no understanding of the necessity for good hygiene in preventing disease, almost as many British soldiers were dying from illness and exposure as from wounds.
She became the best known name of the Crimean War (1853-56) when she and the nurses went out to Scutari hospital in Istanbul Turkey in Nov 1854, to run the soldiers' hospital. Faced with these appalling conditions and the hostility of army doctors, all the nurses worked tirelessly, walking the hospital corridors to attend to thousands of casualties, bringing organisation, new supplies and cleanliness, dedicated to reducing the spread of infection. Florence did indeed find that the young men were dying at an alarming rate, from diseases like dysentery caught in the hospital.
Back in UK, the rest of Nightingale’s life were dedicated to transforming healthcare, stressing the vital importance of hand washing and cleanliness. Nightingale was passionate about using stats and research to physically change the design and structure of hospitals in ways relevant still - ward design, nurse training, hygiene, infection control and the compassionate treatment of patients. Meantime Florence was herself suffering from fever, insomnia and exhaustion.
The Florence Nightingale Museum in Lambeth Palace Rd London opened in 1989. It is located in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, close to the Houses of Parliament. The Nightingale in 200 Objects, People & Places Exhibition marked the 200th anniversary of her birth.
See a speech to the staff and trainees of The Nightingale Training School for Nurses showed her as a pioneer of evidence-based health care: gathering data to prove the importance of cleanliness and sanitation, her passion for data led to her being the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society.
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Florence Nightingale's medicine chest
In larger chests, dressings and plasters were included for minor wounds, as were burns treatments. They also included a variety of instruments like a mortar and pestle, scales, measures, spatula and lancet. Florence Nightingale had such a chest, as we will see.
Bottles of medicine in the main compartment
Small instruments in the bottom drawer
From her late teens, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) became captivated by the idea of becoming a nurse; a passion that distressed her parents as nursing was viewed as an unfit profession for respectable women. Florence studied nursing secretly, defying her parents and the expectations of society, which, she believed, rendered middle class women unable to make full use of their energy and intelligence.
Nightingale had been working at a Harley St nursing home when she learned of the horrific conditions facing British army soldiers in their Crimean War hospital base. The British Secretary of State for War asked her to lead a team of 38 nurses to make urgent improvements in Scutari. She was told that with no understanding of the necessity for good hygiene in preventing disease, almost as many British soldiers were dying from illness and exposure as from wounds.
She became the best known name of the Crimean War (1853-56) when she and the nurses went out to Scutari hospital in Istanbul Turkey in Nov 1854, to run the soldiers' hospital. Faced with these appalling conditions and the hostility of army doctors, all the nurses worked tirelessly, walking the hospital corridors to attend to thousands of casualties, bringing organisation, new supplies and cleanliness, dedicated to reducing the spread of infection. Florence did indeed find that the young men were dying at an alarming rate, from diseases like dysentery caught in the hospital.
Back in UK, the rest of Nightingale’s life were dedicated to transforming healthcare, stressing the vital importance of hand washing and cleanliness. Nightingale was passionate about using stats and research to physically change the design and structure of hospitals in ways relevant still - ward design, nurse training, hygiene, infection control and the compassionate treatment of patients. Meantime Florence was herself suffering from fever, insomnia and exhaustion.
The Florence Nightingale Museum in Lambeth Palace Rd London opened in 1989. It is located in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, close to the Houses of Parliament. The Nightingale in 200 Objects, People & Places Exhibition marked the 200th anniversary of her birth.
See a speech to the staff and trainees of The Nightingale Training School for Nurses showed her as a pioneer of evidence-based health care: gathering data to prove the importance of cleanliness and sanitation, her passion for data led to her being the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society.
Bottles of medicine removed from the main compartment to read the labels clearly
The nurses and soldier’s wives cleaned shirts and sheets; bed pans & toilets were emptied; scrubbing brushes, buckets, blankets & operating tables were purchased from donations. Nightingale’s related writings, packed with advice, were put on display: You ought to use fresh water as freely for the skin ..as fresh air for the lungs (Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes, 1868).
Exhibition Display #28 was the medicine chest (c1855) that Florence took to the Crimean War. It contained medicines like quinine to treat malaria and carbonate of potassium for fever. It also contained a tiny set of scales, and a glass beaker for carefully measuring liquids. The chest was beautifully designed and crafted, making it transportable over distant and rugged travel.
Nightingale led her nurses to Scutari, to bring order, cleanliness and new supplies to the wards where the wounded were being treated. She took this medicine chest for her and her nurses to use, most of the medicines being for upset stomachs or diarrhoea. But was it the only chest for all those sick men?? Could the medicine bottles be refilled in Turkey? The only comfort came from knowing that even when the men died in the nurses’ care, they died under loving conditions.
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Mary Seacole's medicines
The nurses and soldier’s wives cleaned shirts and sheets; bed pans & toilets were emptied; scrubbing brushes, buckets, blankets & operating tables were purchased from donations. Nightingale’s related writings, packed with advice, were put on display: You ought to use fresh water as freely for the skin ..as fresh air for the lungs (Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes, 1868).
Exhibition Display #28 was the medicine chest (c1855) that Florence took to the Crimean War. It contained medicines like quinine to treat malaria and carbonate of potassium for fever. It also contained a tiny set of scales, and a glass beaker for carefully measuring liquids. The chest was beautifully designed and crafted, making it transportable over distant and rugged travel.
Nightingale led her nurses to Scutari, to bring order, cleanliness and new supplies to the wards where the wounded were being treated. She took this medicine chest for her and her nurses to use, most of the medicines being for upset stomachs or diarrhoea. But was it the only chest for all those sick men?? Could the medicine bottles be refilled in Turkey? The only comfort came from knowing that even when the men died in the nurses’ care, they died under loving conditions.
Photo credit: Helen Rappaport
Note that Nightingale’s contemporary, nurse Mary Seacole, also arrived at the Crimean War equipped with a medicine chest filled with her herbal remedies. Pomegranate bark was ground to a paste, for example, to be used for the expulsion of tapeworms and as a purgative. Seacole demonstrated that her home-grown Jamaican practice of hygiene, healthy food, natural remedies and kindness had as much to offer as traditional medicine. Thus she made her nursing practice a more holistic one.
Florence Nightingale Museum reopened after the coronavirus lockdown from the 1st August 2020 onwards, with timed tickets Thurs-Sunday. Do visit.