Pharmacy equipment: Powders

Taking medicine in the form of a powder, usually stirred into a glass of water, was more normal in the past than today, especially on the continent. Now you might take Andrews’ salts or a hangover cure such as Resolve.

Powders are made by grinding and mixing the ingredients in a mortar, then weighing or measuring them into doses.

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Paper folder
Each dose of powder is wrapped in a piece of paper and the doses are delivered to the customer in a box. To make sure that the papers fit in the box, the pharmacist, or more likely an assistant, has an adjustable guide so they are folded at the same places.

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Cachet apparatus
Cachets were a way of taking powders. The dose was enclosed in a two-part shell of rice paper that were sealed with a simple press. They were more popular on the continent than here, so the cachets, moulds and sealing presses in the Museum were made in France.

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