The Victorian Pharmacy

[Feltwell]

Well, after the mixed reaction that the Victorian Farm BBC series got on here......

There is a new series being filmed now called the Victorian Pharmacy, all about (as the title implies) Victorian medication - should be on BBC2 later this year, don't know exactly when yet. Is it any good or not? I can't tell you as I haven't seen a complete episode, but I can tell you they certainly have expert involvement from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society - Professor Nick Barber is one of the presenters - so hopefully the accuracy will be there.

I can also tell you that one episode features a very handsome baby boy, no idea where he inherited his good looks from....... :wink: Ohh, that will be his mother, who also appears!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh Wow! Are you making him earn his living already? Good plan - someone has to pay for these period properties!

 

[Feltwell]

Not much payment - cheese sandwiches for me & the (older) kids! It's an experience though, and we now have some beautiful pictures of him in lacy Victorian baby outfits, which can stay safely in storage until he's in his teens and bringing girlfriends home :twisted:

 

[Schoolmarm]

Brilliant!

 

[Penners]

Victorian medication

Things like opium, laudenam and cannabis?

I should restrict the young Feltwell star to the occasional drop of Calpol.

 

[Feltwell]

Things like opium, laudenam and cannabis?

Yep. Bandages infused with arsenic anyone?

Apparently in large and very poor families, the mother faced the choice by the time she was on child number 4 or 5 of either not having enough money to feed the older children, or working, so the baby didn't get fed. Hence it was not uncommon for mothers to basically dope the babies up on products containing opium or similar whilst they were out working.

However, these also work as a an appetite suppressant (heroin addicts are often very thin, for example) - so when the mother did return the baby didn't feed. Babies dieing of starvation becuase of this was not uncommon.

Suddenly the "good old days" don't sound quite so good.

 

[Carol]

Godfrey's cordial was a popular baby mixture. Don't let any small Feltwell near that!

 

[Feltwell]

Godfrey's cordial was a popular baby mixture. Don't let any small Feltwell near that!

Quite so. I knew a Godfrey once. He was a grumpy old sod, not cordial in the slightest.

 

[Feltwell]

Thought this may interest some of you.....

 

[Flyfisher]

Suddenly the "good old days" don't sound quite so good.

Did they ever? Perhaps for a much, much smaller percentage of the population.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

How bizarre! Whilst browsing around an Antiques Centre today I spotted a wooden medical case complete with its phials of medicines, most of them still containing pills and potions. yrggg. Cabinet was firmly under lock and key!