Humor and trivia about pharmacy and health care!
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Feline prescription
advice
A person from New Jersey was suprised to read the "patient
counseling" instructions a local pharmacist typed onto a recent prescription
for her cat. "Do not mix with alcohol," it warned. "Use
caution when driving or operating machinery." The cat owner noted,
"We had no idea what the cat was up to when he felt good!"
What did you
say?
A West Bloomfield, Mich., pharmacist reported that an elderly gentleman
(who spoke with a foreign accent) asked for his assistance in locating
a product. The gentleman scribbled on a piece of paper that he was looking
for "Mademoiselle for the bowalls." At first, the pharmacist
was stumped. After repeating the request out loud several times, the pharmacist
realized the man was asking for the mild laxative Metamucil (which the
gentleman gratefully purchased).
World's First Aeronaut
Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier, a pharmacist from Metz, France, became
acquainted with Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier - experimenters with hot
air balloons. Rozier convinced King Louis XVI to allow him to be the first
human to venture into the earth's atmosphere. On Oct. 15, 1783, Rozier
became the first human to experience aerial flight. On June 15, 1785,
he died in a hydrogen balloon accident.
Sweet cure
In colonial Ste. Genevieve (Missouri) maple syrup was commonly
used as a cure for colds and tuberculosis.
Quick chemistry
When lights hits your eye, a protein called rhodopsin therein
starts a chemical chain reaction that lets you see. It's the fastest chemical
reaction known.
Thanks to Jim Middleton, pharmacist, for the following trivia!
Ancient history
The symbol "Rx" is actually a corruption of the ancient
symbol for the Roman god Jupiter, whose blessing was invoked upon every
prescription to ensure its purity.
More than half of ancient Egypt's home remedies contained honey...one even was a contraceptive poultice with a bit of camel dung and beeswax thrown in for good measure.
Unjust opinion
Chief Justice Warren Burger, appointed to the Supreme court by
Richard Nixon, said of a pharmacist, "he no more renders a true professional
service than does a clerk who sells law books."
Mail order
pharmacy's "White Secret Cure"
Sears Roebuck and Company operated the first mail order prescription
house at the turn of the century. They treated alcoholism with the "White
Secret Cure," a mixture that contained opium. They cured the "opium
habit" with a cordial that was 40 proof! That new fangled FDA just
had no sense of humor about such things, unfortunately, so the mail order
drug department at Sears was phased out by 1907.
Refreshments
from pharmacy
In 1888, pharmacist John S. Pemberton developed "Esteemed
Brain Toxic and Intellectual Beverage," which contained: caffeine,
"secret" ingredients, and cocaine. Modified for today's taste
(and laws), the product is a staple, billion-dollar seller. What was Pemberton's
concoction? None other than Coca-Cola.
The popular beverage 7-Up was originally a version of a "lithiated" patent medicine, containing small amounts of lithium. An irony here is that it was introduced to the U.S. markets during the 1930s--the time of the GREAT DEPRESSION!
Charles Alderton, a Texan pharmacist, created a soft drink and named it after his prospective father-in-law, Dr. Charles Kenneth Pepper. The doctor was unimpressed, so Alderton dropped the period after the abbreviation for doctor and made his fortune with "Dr Pepper."
James Vernor, a pharmacist from Detroit, returned from duty in the Civil War to discover his medicinal ginger tonic had aged quite nicely in his oak barrels. Such was the birth of Vernor's ginger ale.
Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist from New Bern, NC, created a carbonated beverage, named Brad's Drink, to sell to fountain customers in his pharmacy. He deemed his drink "Exhilarating, invigorating and aids digestion." In 1898 Brad's Drink was renamed Pepsi-Cola.
Famous pharmacist
Benedict Arnold began his pre-military career as a pharmacist in New Haven,
Connecticut. From 1761 to 1775 he sold such products as "pectoral
Balsam-Honey" and "Frances' Female Elixir."
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