In the mid-nineteenth century, if a scientist were in a pharmacy lab and accidentally ingested a poison, they might have reached for a can of emetine.
William Procter Jr., one of the founders of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (PCOP), had such a can. A small black metal canister filled with a powdered emetic agent is located on a display shelf at the Marvin Sampson Museum for the History of Pharmacy on the University City campus. A curator’s handwritten note, wrapped around the canister and attached by a paper string, reads “1864.”
The purpose of substances like powdered emetine, or ipecac root, is to cause nausea and vomiting to treat poisons that have been swallowed. Today, emetic agents are discouraged due to side effects, including severe heartburn or even death.
Stephen Hall, former director of the Coit Museum of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at the University of Arizona and now a computer science and engineering librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, said there was not a lot of distinction between the fields of pharmacy and medicine before World War II. Pharmacists and physicians overlapped frequently because anyone who wanted to practice pharmacy could. With any credentials, people could dispense medicine.
“The truth is, pharmacists used lots of poisons,” Hall said. “They weren’t typically for internal use, but mercury bichloride, for instance, was used as an antiseptic. Arsenic was used to make rat poison, and still others might have been used in lotions, creams, etcetera.”
Emma Gunuey-Marrs, assistant curator of the Marvin Samson Museum, said Procter brought the canister back to the U.S. from Europe in 1867.
“Likely he went through the trouble of transporting this medicine back on the long journey from Europe with him in order to share it as a knowledge resource with the pharmacy and/or college community,” Gunuey-Marrs said.
Procter, an 1837 alumnus of PCOP, opened a drug store at Ninth and Lombard streets in 1844, a few years after his graduation. He operated the store until his death in 1874 at the age of 56.
A professor at PCOP from 1846 to 1866, Procter was the first to hold many significant positions in pharmaceutical organizations. In 1852, he became one of the founders of the American Pharmaceutical Association (APA), eventually becoming president. Procter, known for his detailed writing, also served as the editor for the American Journal of Pharmacy for 20 years and edited the first pharmacy textbook published in the U.S. called “Practical Pharmacy.”
After resigning from the PCOP in 1866, Procter toured Europe. During the trip, Procter kept a journal filled with positive observations and personal thoughts about the countries visited. He took note of the culture of universities, which he brought back to American medical universities and pharmacists. Procter also attended the meeting of the International Pharmaceutical Congress in Paris.
That journal, as well as the can of emetine, are one of Procter’s many legacies, including his eyeglasses, now housed in the museum.
