1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,560 Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire revives the sights, sounds and smells 2 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:09,240 of the 19th century. 3 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,480 At its heart stands the pharmacy, a treasure house of potions 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,840 and remedies from a century and a half ago. 5 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,520 Now, in a unique experiment, historian Ruth Goodman, 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,320 Professor of Pharmacy Nick Barber 7 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:27,480 and PhD student Tom Quick have opened the doors to the Victorian pharmacy, 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,480 recreating a high street institution we take for granted, 9 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:35,760 but which was once a novel idea. 10 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,760 They're bringing the pharmacy to life, sourcing ingredients, 11 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:45,640 mixing potions and dispensing cures. But in an age when skin creams contained arsenic 12 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:51,280 and cold medicines were based on opium, the team need to be highly selective. 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:57,200 They're only trying out safe versions of traditional remedies on carefully selected customers. 14 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:02,480 The start was like the Wild West. People didn't know what was good and bad. 15 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:04,720 Try and get a bit of speed up. There we go, yeah.. 16 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:09,680 The pharmacy was something that affected everybody's lives in one way or another. 17 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:15,640 They're discovering an age of social change, that brought healthcare within the reach of ordinary people 18 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:21,600 for the very first time, heralding a consumer revolution that reached far beyond medicine 19 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:25,840 to create the model for the modern high street chemist as we know it today. 20 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:39,080 The team are about to face up to their biggest challenge yet - 21 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,920 adapting to new laws which regulated their trade for the very first time. 22 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,520 Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven... 23 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:52,160 But it's also an age when pharmacists put themselves at the cutting edge of innovation. 24 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,000 In the first half of Queen Victoria's reign, 25 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,800 no professional qualifications were required to run a pharmacy. 26 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:05,080 Actually, it was the most dangerous shop in a town or village, absolutely by far, 27 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,680 because of the range of materials which were in there. 28 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:14,600 Realising the dangers, a few select pharmacists set up the Pharmaceutical Society 29 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:19,600 as a pressure group calling for regulation of the trade. 30 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,440 Look at - this rat poison, in a chemists! 31 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,000 "Contains the most powerful arsenic poison!" 32 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,320 I hate to think what's on this fly paper. 33 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:30,360 Oh, probably arsenic. 34 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:36,120 The most immediate impact the Society had was in raising awareness amongst pharmacists themselves. 35 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:42,680 They needed to be more responsible and safety conscious about the hazards on their shelves. 36 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:44,400 We have poison in the window. 37 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,480 We'd better take that out. 38 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:49,760 Oh, look at this - double cyanide gauze. 39 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:51,840 There's so many things that are dodgy. 40 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,640 And all these powders in all the drawers as well. 41 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:58,080 There's so many different things that might explode at any moment. 42 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:03,120 What I find most disturbing though is all these things aimed at babies and children, you know? 43 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:06,240 All these poisons and opiates - particularly the opiates. 44 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:10,400 Awful. By the end of the period we're looking at we've got heroin coming along. 45 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,240 That was supposed to be an improvement on morphine because 46 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,680 it's just a chemical manipulation of morphine to make heroin. That's sort of our stock in trade. 47 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:22,400 You come to a pharmacist because they've got the weird, wonderful, strange, odd, the hard to get... 48 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,880 Yeah, and they're powerful. Everything. Completely unregulated. 49 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,160 Anyone could sell these things, really. 50 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:33,080 I think some legislation is long overdue in this area. Yeah. 51 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:40,080 But there's something to be gained from free access to such a vast range of chemicals. 52 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:45,440 Without the health and safety restrictions of today, pharmacists had free rein to innovate. 53 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:50,720 It must've been a marvellous thing being a Victorian chemist and druggist in those days. 54 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:52,600 They were just able to play around. 55 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:57,480 The lack of controls and regulations also led to the inventiveness and freedom to experiment 56 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:00,720 and come up with new ways of improving the life of people. 57 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,440 Their experiments enabled pharmacists to invent products 58 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,480 like soap powder, table salt and matches. 59 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:16,680 Tom has drafted in Phil Dunford, a member of the UK Pyrotechnic Society, 60 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,640 to show him how to make his own matches for the pharmacy. 61 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,520 I don't suppose you could recommend a few techniques that we could use? 62 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:28,000 Well, the matches used earlier, maybe from 1800, 63 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,760 were called Promethean matches. 64 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:36,280 The way they work is by mixing potassium chlorate and sugar. 65 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:40,560 The method of lighting the match was to dip it into sulphuric acid. 66 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:45,280 So, if you dip it quickly in, just so that you cover the tip. That's it. 67 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:47,200 And leave it out there, yeah? 68 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,040 That's it. And you should see it will start to fizz. 69 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,480 Oh, yeah. Look! Here we go! 70 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:56,000 Oh, wow! 71 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:04,440 So rather more messy and harder to light than a modern match. 72 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:08,600 Other advances in matchmaking had disastrous side effects. 73 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:13,520 The precursor of today's red phosphorous matches were made of white phosphorous, 74 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:19,440 which poisoned match workers and caused a disease known as phossy jaw. 75 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,680 The phosphorous was a waxy substance, which has to be melted and it gave off a vapour, 76 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,400 which at first gave you headaches and sallow skin, 77 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,040 and then gave you toothache and then you lost your teeth. 78 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:35,720 And then your jaw and your bones started to go spongy and, um, 79 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:41,120 for a long time people worked under these conditions until they finally banded together 80 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,880 and refused to do it any more and went on strike, in the famous match-girls' strike. 81 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:49,640 Oh, I see. So at the same time as these people are agitating 82 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:55,240 for better working conditions in the factories, there's the same thing going on in the pharmacy. 83 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:59,040 You know, you've got this movement to regulate poisons and explosives 84 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,400 and so on and make things safe. 85 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:07,080 Tom's made about 20 matches, enough for a box full. 86 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,360 The downside to carrying these matches around 87 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:15,280 was that in order to light them, you needed sulphuric acid. 88 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:20,680 As Phil demonstrates, an accidental spillage of acid would have had nasty results. 89 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:24,440 That's the mixture that's in these promethean match heads. Right. 90 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:25,880 This is some sulphuric acid, 91 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:30,680 and this is what happens when they get together. Oh, wow! 92 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:36,760 So you really don't want that happening in your pocket, do you? No, not at all. 93 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:42,360 Tom will need to explore safer, more reliable alternatives to these early matches. 94 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:58,040 As the century progressed, pharmacists kept expanding their product range beyond medicines. 95 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:04,600 With Britain's population more than doubling during Victoria's reign, 96 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:09,640 products for babies and toddlers offered great potential to become big sellers. 97 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,280 They appealed to parents' concerns for their children's health. 98 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:20,480 Ruth is setting up a free weighing service for babies, 99 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,360 a common ploy used to entice mothers into the pharmacy. 100 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,280 We're looking to extend our range. 101 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,720 All of life, from cradle to grave. 102 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:36,800 Jenny Flegg, a local mum and prominent member 103 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:41,160 of the National Childbirth Trust, has arrived to test out the scales. 104 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,160 Hello, Billy. And how old is he now? 105 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,040 He's...he'll be 12 weeks tomorrow. 106 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:47,880 You're a nice big lad, aren't you? 107 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:49,600 Looking all bright and cheery. 108 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,000 We'll put you on. Here we go. 109 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,600 One, two, three...whee! 110 00:07:54,600 --> 00:08:00,680 With poorer nutrition, Victorian babies tended to weigh less than a modern healthy baby like Billy. 111 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,640 14 pounds, two ounces. Oh. 112 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:09,160 Once a baby was weighed, the pharmacist had the opportunity to promote their products. 113 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:13,200 So it's a sort of community service, but with a bit of an ulterior motive. 114 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,160 We all know how big you are. You're nice and healthy, aren't you? 115 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,800 Yeah. Nice, big, healthy baby. 116 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:20,440 Is he bottle fed? No. 117 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:22,080 I'm feeding him myself. 118 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,600 Which is really nice. Even for someone who is feeding themselves, 119 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:28,880 a pharmacist would offer a whole range of feeding products. 120 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,360 So, a breast pump. Have you ever...? Yes, yes. 121 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:33,440 I've got the most... 122 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,360 Oh, my word! ..amazing... 123 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:37,600 Isn't it so Victorian?! 124 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,960 I mean, it is basically just a, you know, a cup on a pump, isn't it? 125 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:47,480 Mind you, they weren't all quite as nice as this. There's also a range of nipple shields. Oh, my word! 126 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:49,120 If you're feeding, you know? Yes. 127 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,200 Some of them are all right, you see. 128 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:54,720 Like that one. And there was a little rubber teat that went on it 129 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,920 and you could feed directly. That's fine. But some of them were made of lead. 130 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,240 Right... It's such a soft material, they felt that it was 131 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,600 easier for the baby to get in the mouth and you'd get a better seal. 132 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,440 But You were poisoning the child. People just weren't anywhere near 133 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:12,560 as aware of the dangers of lead poisoning, you know? 134 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:16,000 And you weren't safe if you had bottles, you know? 135 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,840 Despite a pharmacist's best intentions, 136 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:22,680 many of the baby products they sold caused more harm than good. 137 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:24,000 What a brave baby you are. 138 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,840 This stuff, Mrs Wilmslow's Soothing Syrup. Oh, yes. 139 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:28,960 This is utterly horrifying. 140 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,960 "For a child under one-month-old." They've got opium in them! 141 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:35,040 You've got four or five children, you're on the edge of starvation, 142 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:39,400 if you don't work, your children die. The only thing you could do was dope up your babies 143 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:43,440 so that you could carry on working so that you could feed your other children. 144 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,840 Babies who are fed opiates, they lose their appetite. 145 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:49,000 They have no hunger, so they won't suck. 146 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,960 Right. So they waste away. They do. They basically die of starvation. 147 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,520 When Victoria came to the thrown, at the very beginning of her reign, 148 00:09:56,520 --> 00:10:01,040 the infant mortality rate, so that's babies under five... Yes. ..25% 149 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:04,320 Oh. Right. Just horrendous, isn't that? A quarter of babies. 150 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:07,800 That doesn't bear thinking about. It doesn't, does it? Imagine. 151 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,520 I've got three, so I may well have lost one of them. 152 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:14,120 Yeah. Exactly. 153 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,720 Don't fancy buying any of these products, do you? 154 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:18,280 I don't think I'll bother. 155 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:21,880 Bit too young for alcohol. All right. I shall get you home. 156 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,480 Narcotics were freely available across the counter. 157 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:27,120 Thank you very much. 158 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,880 Before the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920, anybody could buy them 159 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,520 from a pharmacy without even needing a prescription. 160 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:41,520 Medical practitioners often advised opium addicts to take cannabis or cocaine to cure their addiction. 161 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:50,000 The dangers of the explosive Promethean matches had been clear for all to see. 162 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,400 One pharmacist, John Walker, used his knowledge of science 163 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:58,080 to create a safer, more marketable alternative - the friction match. 164 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:01,560 OK. Do you want me to have a go? So if you just scrape the tip along. 165 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:03,480 So straight like that, yeah? 166 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,320 Just like a normal match? Yep. 167 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:10,320 Walker was making percussion caps for guns 168 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:13,840 when he discovered that antimony sulphide and potassium chlorate 169 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,200 caught fire when they were rubbed together. 170 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:19,440 We need to add 171 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:21,120 a couple of drops of water. 172 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:23,800 This will make up a blacky brown sort of mixture 173 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,880 which is a bit more the colour we're familiar with matches. 174 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:30,320 It's quite surprising to me that pharmacists were making matches 175 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,680 and, not only that, but coming up with new processes of making them. 176 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:36,720 Well I suppose the pharmacists had the materials on hand 177 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:38,760 and they were educated men. 178 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:41,800 And very many of them, particularly this John Walker, 179 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,040 who invented this friction match, was very much a polymath. 180 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,760 The locals called him Stockton's Encyclopaedia. 181 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:51,880 You can really imagine someone sort of working in their back workshop, 182 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:55,640 trying to come up with the latest or a new technique 183 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:59,800 that's going to really propel their business. 184 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:03,440 These are definitely safer than the first ones we made, aren't they? 185 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,720 Absolutely. But I mean, they're not safety matches? 186 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,680 No. The definition of safety matches is where there are two separate parts, 187 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:14,640 each of which on their own can't do any harm at all. 188 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,920 So in a modern safety match that you strike on a box, 189 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,760 the head, in itself, can't actually catch fire on its own. 190 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:27,000 When you scrap it down, what in fact you're doing is the side of the box is covered with red phosphorus. 191 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,440 So when you scrape, you take a little tiny bit of the red phosphorus 192 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:36,720 off of the match and create a more dangerous mixture on the end of the match, but only a tiny amount. 193 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:41,040 But the match itself can never catch fire unless it's touching the red phosphorus, 194 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:45,320 and that's what makes it truly a safety match as opposed to just a friction match. 195 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:49,160 So, if you're ready, then? 196 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:51,560 Yes, that looks about right. Just... 197 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:55,840 ..dip the tips in. Make sure it's only the very tip, 198 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:58,920 otherwise obviously it can burn further down... 199 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:01,200 which could be dangerous. That looks good. 200 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:05,960 And that looks rather more like you would think a modern match looks, with the dark colour. 201 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:13,440 John Walker, already comfortably well off, passed up the option of making himself a fortune. 202 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:18,640 Instead of patenting his match, he made it freely available for anyone to make. 203 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:22,400 Walker produced the matches for just three years and the credit 204 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,760 for his invention was attributed only after his death in 1859. 205 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:35,000 Experimentation with new synthesised chemicals often provided problems as well as solutions. 206 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:42,080 New toxic products were in high demand thanks to their powerful cleaning properties. 207 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,920 Many of the stain removal products, extremely dangerous things. 208 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,240 Things like oxalic acid, borasic acid, sulphuric acid 209 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,160 were all recommended in household manuals 210 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:54,400 as methods of dealing with dirt. 211 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:59,600 Metals like antimony and lead were used in manufacturing, 212 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:04,920 while mercury was used in the making of felt hats, turning people "mad as a hatter." 213 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:12,720 Arsenic, a cheap by-product from the mining industry, was the most common poison. 214 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:17,840 Crop sprays, candles, skin creams and rat poisons all contained arsenic, 215 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:22,040 and it provided the most effective way to colour a product green. 216 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,000 Green wallpaper - such a fashionable colour for wallpaper - 217 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:30,520 Paris Green, made of arsenic. The dyes in peoples' dresses could be poisonous, 218 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,040 so you could be absorbing arsenic through your skin 219 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:38,120 as you were wearing your best dress, in its lovely fashionable greenness. 220 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:45,720 Deaths from accidental arsenic poisoning were so common that an Arsenic Act was introduced in 1851, 221 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:49,240 allowing only a select few to sell the poison. 222 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,200 Among them were pharmacists, 223 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,760 but there was still no law requiring them to be qualified. 224 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:03,720 Nick is exploring the few measures that were in place in the pharmacy to prevent accidental poisonings. 225 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:09,600 He's joined by Ian Burney, senior lecturer in the history of medicine at Manchester University. 226 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,120 You can see a couple out here. 227 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,600 These are ribbed bottles, aren't they? 228 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,800 Why is the bottle ridged? 229 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,360 As you see, there are so many bottles here. 230 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,920 One of the ways in which a pharmacist, in reaching for a bottle, 231 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:29,560 might be able to know, just by touch, whether it's poison or not is to make them distinctly ribbed. 232 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,680 The place to go for an antidote was the pharmacy. 233 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:36,080 Poisonings must have been an issue in those cases? Absolutely. 234 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:38,200 There are two categories of poisoning. 235 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,320 One is accidental poisoning, of which there were many more. 236 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:45,120 But the things that captured headlines, the newspaper reading public, 237 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,200 were cases of criminal poisoning. 238 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:53,240 Over the course of the 19th century there were roughly 500 poisoning cases that were tried. 239 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:58,480 Arsenic was used in 45% of criminal poisonings in the 19th century. 240 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:03,080 Often purchased from the pharmacy as fly papers or rat poison. 241 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,280 Among the more disturbing cases were those of infanticide 242 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:11,640 by parents reaping the benefits of insurance policies known as "burial clubs". 243 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:15,440 There are a number of cases, especially in the 1840s, 244 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:19,160 in which a working class mother 245 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:23,600 is charged with having signed her infants up, 246 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,960 not to just one burial club, but two, three, four. 247 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:31,360 This is again, like poisons, unregulated, or under regulated. 248 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,040 Then delivering the child 249 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:39,720 on to death, with arsenic in particular, right? 250 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:42,640 So killing them. And then killing them. 251 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:45,160 Then claiming the money, right? 252 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:49,120 And, um, you can make a tidy sum on this. 253 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:56,400 New laws like the Arsenic Act had only a limited effect in reducing the number of poisoning cases. 254 00:16:56,400 --> 00:17:02,080 The Pharmaceutical Society continued to pressure the government for stronger legislation. 255 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:05,640 They achieved success in 1868 with the Pharmacy Act, 256 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:10,880 when the government handed them control of the profession and made qualifications compulsory. 257 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:17,680 The Pharmacy Act was symptomatic of what was happening in late Victorian times. 258 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:22,400 They were obsessed with measurements, standardisation and regulations. 259 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:24,520 So we have lots of other acts as well. 260 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:30,040 We have the Gauge Act in 1845, which set the standard gauge for railways. 261 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:31,920 How far apart the rails are. 262 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:37,120 And then the Football Association was created in 1863 263 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:41,760 to set the rules for the game, because there was chaos on the pitch sometimes. 264 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:46,800 People from one town would play another town and they would be working to different sets of rules. 265 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:51,120 And the pharmacists and others must have felt really beset by this. 266 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:54,000 In many ways their freedoms were being taken away. 267 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,640 And in some ways things don't change that much. I'm one of the officers 268 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:02,320 of the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society who regulates pharmacists today 269 00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:05,000 and we're still constantly in this debate. 270 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,840 What's the best way to regulate? What's the limits you put on it 271 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:14,440 so that you ensure safety, so that you improve quality? 272 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:19,800 But also that you don't stifle freedom and stifle innovation. 273 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:23,160 When the regulations were introduced, 274 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,720 unqualified pharmacists were made to take exams in order to keep trading. 275 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,960 Hello, Briony. Hi. Hiya! Hello. 276 00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:36,680 The team are meeting Briony Hudson, curator of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum, 277 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,560 to find out more about the exams. 278 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,480 So how would they actually have gone about examining people? 279 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:46,480 What would they have done in the exam? 280 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:50,760 A written paper on chemistry, and physics. 281 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:52,840 Practical stuff on dispensing. 282 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,920 OK. You'd have to answer quite academic questions about the make up of plants 283 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:02,960 and the technical terms, but you'd also have to identify substances. 284 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,240 A whole range of techniques that they're using to examine people. 285 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,520 And also, you have to do a Latin paper. 286 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,120 So I wonder whether you'd like to have a bit of a go? 287 00:19:11,120 --> 00:19:13,520 Just to do an element of the exam just to see... 288 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,480 I hope you don't expect too much of us. 289 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,080 I don't think we're going to... I think we should. 290 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:24,880 What I'd like to do is use the Materia Medica chest, which the pharmacy students 291 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:30,240 would've learnt from, and get you to try and identify some of these unlabelled specimens. 292 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:35,440 And just to test your practical skills, I'd like you to go away and make some suppositories... 293 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:41,680 ..cos then we can judge how good your practical skills are. Uh-oh! 294 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,400 Administered through the rectum, suppositories were popular with Victorians 295 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,080 and favoured by examiners. 296 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:52,360 A well made suppository was easy to distinguish from one that was badly made. 297 00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:57,080 Of the three of them, Ruth feels she has the most to prove. 298 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:01,520 I'd always assumed that this sort of, you know, the exams and the 299 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:05,240 registering, only really applied to men. Only men were allowed to do it. 300 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:09,960 And the Act just forgot to mention that women weren't allowed to do it. 301 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:12,200 So, by default, they could. 302 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:17,240 Yes, absolutely! And a lot of these women were coming out top, and winning prizes. 303 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:24,000 The arrival of an official examination heralded a new era in the Victorian pharmacy. 304 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:30,080 Gone was the old name, "chemist and druggist", with its druggist origins in herbalism. 305 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,120 From now on, they would be referred to as "pharmaceutical chemists," 306 00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:36,680 embracing the new science of chemistry. 307 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:42,600 But to pass the exam, they needed a thorough knowledge of both disciplines. 308 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:46,080 As Ruth is the only one with no pharmaceutical qualifications, 309 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:51,120 she'll use the help of both herbalist Eleanor Gallia and scientist Mike Bullivant 310 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:54,440 to give her a chance of succeeding in the exam. 311 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,240 Come on, then! 312 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:02,520 They'll have to identify any one of the hundreds of chemicals or herbs a pharmacy stocked on its shelves, 313 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:10,640 as well as completing their practical experiment - making genuine Victorian suppositories. 314 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:36,120 That's all the pulmonaria, isn't it, the lungwort? Absolutely. Useful for tuberculosis. 315 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:39,600 Ruth is particularly interested in the women 316 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:44,800 who qualified as pharmacists for the first time in 1868. 317 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:49,200 They were mostly widows, or daughters of male pharmacists, 318 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,840 who, one way or another, had ended up with the business. 319 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:56,080 215 of them, I believe, at that point in history. 320 00:21:56,080 --> 00:22:01,200 Which is only a tiny number, it's only 2% of all the practising pharmacists, but they were there, 321 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,520 quietly, not being taken much notice of. 322 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,400 There's oxalic acid in the sorrel, you have the line of sorrel there. 323 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,080 And when that Act came in, and the exam came with it, 324 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:16,640 forgetting to rule women out, it allowed women in. 325 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,080 It allowed women to have a professional qualification. 326 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:23,880 And this gave them a footing, it gave people a toe-hold, 327 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:29,440 and it helped the argument for other women who were trying to enter all of the medical professions. 328 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:35,600 "Look, women can do this, we can be measured alongside men, look, we can prove our ability." 329 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:49,040 Inspired by her predecessors, Ruth is developing some new products. 330 00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,800 You're making up my zinc oxide for me, Mike? 331 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,560 I'm just about to start. 332 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:57,560 Scientist Mike Bullivant, who runs the lab, will help her to extract 333 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,520 zinc oxide from zinc metal for a new line of skin creams. 334 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,720 She already has a customer lined up who suffers from acne, 335 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,520 and has medical approval to test out the cream. 336 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:13,120 Oh, I remember that stuff from school! It starts fizzing. 337 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:16,840 Zinc oxide is one of many chemicals that were new to the pharmacist, 338 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,240 expanding their scope for commercial gain. 339 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:26,480 It's an antibacterial agent still used on the skin today in sun creams and make-up. 340 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,120 Now, be careful about that, because it's hot acid. 341 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:32,160 It's an interesting compound. Such a simple compound. 342 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:33,840 Is it? Simple to make. 343 00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:38,560 Is it? I just keep heating it like that, and stirring it, until all the zinc's disappeared, 344 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,640 and then I know what's left is zinc sulphate. 345 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:48,280 Making skin cream from zinc is a process that requires three chemical stages. 346 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:52,640 Each of those stages in turn produces a useful by-product. 347 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:56,640 One of them is calamine, used for treating chicken pox and measles. 348 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,960 Another is a sulphate used to make eye lotion. 349 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,720 That white solid is zinc sulphate. 350 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:07,000 So that's the next bit? 351 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,360 Can I do water? Am I allowed water? Yeah, go on, then! Tip the lot in. 352 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:12,000 Tip the lot in, OK. 353 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:13,880 All right, now, 354 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,680 to help that dissolve, that zinc sulphate dissolve in that water, you transfer it... 355 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,400 Back on the heat. Do you want to do that? 356 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,240 I can put things on the heat. Taking my job! 357 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,400 I know. Well, this bit's only like cooking. I can do that. 358 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,880 It is. Chemistry is like cooking, it really is. 359 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,640 The calamine will be created by the next chemical transformation, 360 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:36,120 which requires Ruth to apply a series of basic chemistry skills. 361 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,440 See the unreacted zinc at the bottom? 362 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:40,960 Yeah, I can see all the little bits. That's hot. 363 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,280 I'm glad to say, it's not actually hard to do physically, is it? 364 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:50,600 Just... Oh, I remember pipettes, this is another thing I vaguely remember from my school days. 365 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,120 Just add it, drop-wise. 366 00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:54,160 Yep. Just a drop? 367 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,200 Ooh, fizzy! You see? 368 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,920 Yeah, I did see that. And I just keep dropping until...? 369 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,920 The bicarbonate has neutralised the remaining acid. 370 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,240 OK, so until it stops fizzing, when it drops in? Yep. 371 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:13,200 Bicarbonate of soda, or baking powder, reacts with the zinc sulphate 372 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:18,720 to create the calamine, which chemists know as zinc carbonate. 373 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:23,800 We'll get to a point when the bicarb has neutralised all the acid. 374 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,080 Then it will start reacting with the zinc sulphate. 375 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,640 Once it's filtered, the final stage will be to heat the calamine, 376 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,760 and that will give Ruth the zinc oxide she needs to make her skin cream. 377 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:38,160 So, the stuff we want is going to get left in the filter paper? 378 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,720 That's right. And the liquid that passes through is... 379 00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,280 Is the discard? What we don't want. 380 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,120 That's largely water. Is it? 381 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:52,520 The particles tend to clog up the filter paper a little bit. 382 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:03,400 With a little time on his hands, Tom is taking the opportunity to brush up on his botany before the exam. 383 00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:13,600 Pharmacists needed to identify all of the plants used in medicine. 384 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:19,040 It's kind of really basic knowledge that I have to know what's going to hurt people 385 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,680 and what effects all these different plants are going to have. 386 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,120 And how to tell them apart in the first place! 387 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:28,680 As fresh plants were used more widely then, 388 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:34,760 a Victorian pharmacist needed a more in-depth botanical knowledge than his modern-day counterpart. 389 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,080 I probably shouldn't have just touched that. 390 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:44,720 As far as I understand it, it's foxglove, or Digitalis, which is poisonous. 391 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,440 It's really difficult to identify. 392 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:53,120 I know what a foxglove looks like, it's this tall thing with flowers on it. 393 00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:58,840 But I don't know when you make Digitalis out of foxglove, 394 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,640 are you meant to pick it when it's young, like this, 395 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,240 and hasn't grown to its full size? 396 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,920 Is that a better thing than waiting till it's completely flowered, and that sort of thing? 397 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:09,720 I've absolutely no idea. 398 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,720 Botany formed only one of six parts of the pharmacists' exam. 399 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:20,320 Extensive knowledge was also required of all the animal and chemical products used in medicines. 400 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,040 MUSIC PLAYS 401 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:41,800 For the practical part of the exam, Briony has set each of the team a challenge - to make suppositories. 402 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:46,040 So, these bigger suppositories... 403 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:50,920 Nick is the first to attempt the task. 404 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:58,800 Cocoa butter, beeswax, liquorice, olive oil, and hopefully a book which tells me what to do. 405 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:02,520 For reference, he turns to the Art Of Dispensing, an instruction manual 406 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,280 used by pharmaceutical chemists in the late 1800s. 407 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:08,440 Oh, lovely. Everything's in grains, 408 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:14,560 which I can't remember how many grains there are in an ounce. 409 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:19,600 The first thing Nick has to do is get the right proportions of cocoa butter and beeswax. 410 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:24,280 Together, these form the basic compound for the suppository. 411 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,600 What I'm trying to find is something to give me some sense of the quantities. 412 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,800 Think I should just sign my letter of resignation now, actually. 413 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,160 I think the chances of making this work are looking slim. 414 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:42,920 "Method: weigh the base, using at least 16 grains for a 15 grain suppository." 415 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:47,160 There we are. Bigger than that. 416 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,760 So, if we put a 1,000 of cocoa butter in the pan. 417 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,360 Maybe 20% of that for beeswax. 418 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,800 That's a bit too much. 419 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:02,640 Last time I made a suppository, it was probably about 1973. 420 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,720 Nick adds the liquorice powder to the mix. 421 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:11,800 This is the active ingredient, or the laxative part of the suppository. 422 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:13,880 We're talking bucket chemistry here. 423 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:18,320 There would be no agreement in Victorian times as to the right concentration. 424 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:25,040 Probably one pharmacy would have one formulation, another pharmacy would have another. 425 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,080 There are pharmacists who specialise in these physical skills. 426 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,920 It's not my area of specialisation. 427 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,480 But I still have that sense of pride about wanting to be able to make 428 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:37,960 a good product, or a reasonable product, at any rate. 429 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:44,160 Oh, dear! 430 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,800 What a way to end your career. 431 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,360 The moment is nigh. 432 00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:00,320 There we have some. One, two... 433 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,640 ..three, four. 434 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,760 Nick's previous experience has paid off. Et voila! 435 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,800 Ruth? Yeah? Do you want to come and have a look at the fruits of our labour? We're done, are we? 436 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:16,480 Look at that. 437 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,720 Back in the lab, all the zinc carbonate has been extracted, 438 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:25,200 and Mike is now showing Ruth the next stage in the process of getting the zinc oxide. 439 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,960 The zinc carbonate has to be dried out so it forms into a powder. 440 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:34,240 I'm just transferring it to a boiling tube. 441 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,360 Before being heated over a Bunsen burner. 442 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,720 Be cruel to that! Be cruel to that. OK. 443 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,240 All we're doing with this zinc carbonate, this calamine, 444 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,080 is to drive off the carbon dioxide. 445 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,200 And that leaves us with the zinc oxide. 446 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,280 The brilliant white powder will turn yellow. 447 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,240 Zinc oxide, when it's hot, turns yellow. 448 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:03,480 I suppose if you're a working pharmacist, if you've got notes on how to do these processes, 449 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,800 that's it, that's your stock in trade, isn't it? Mmm. 450 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,120 Definitely going yellow. It is. No doubt. 451 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,120 Give it a shake. 452 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,720 I think we're ready. Looks pretty yellow to me. 453 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:22,240 Just tip it out onto that. 454 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,520 Look at that. Yay, look at that! Lemon! 455 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:32,080 And to think that we've produced it from... From that. 456 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,480 From that to that in a series of remarkably simple procedures. 457 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,920 Yes! Right, come on then, let's go and make this cream. 458 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,680 It will go white as it cools down. 459 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,000 I'm pleased with that, thank you. 460 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,920 Oh, it grinds down really quick, doesn't it? That's ever so easy. 461 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,000 Ruth grinds the zinc oxide down to a fine powder. 462 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,160 I've got rose and lemon and bergamot. 463 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:59,120 And then adds a herbal infusion... Sourced from nature. 464 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,400 ..of essential oils, glycerine, and a red dye. 465 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,880 And look at the colour. Just look at the colour! 466 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,760 You can see I hardly need any. 467 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:12,200 Ruth will be trying it on a customer who's looking for an acne cure. 468 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,680 As a professor of the practice of pharmacy, Nick is all too aware 469 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,120 of the depth of chemical knowledge required to become a pharmacist. 470 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:29,640 You never know what's going to be asked. You're going to have to know the dose of things. 471 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,240 know what they're used for, all those sorts of issues. 472 00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:39,040 And sometimes the little stories help you remember things. 473 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,520 "Boracic acid comes from Tuscany." 474 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:49,160 The whole world was in here. 475 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,480 Pharmacists no longer extract their own chemicals from raw materials. 476 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:59,880 In his 30 year career, Nick has rarely had to put his knowledge of chemical formulae into practice. 477 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:02,520 These are past exam questions. 478 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:09,040 Quite frankly, I'm having difficulty reading some of the questions, never mind answering them. 479 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:14,200 "Describe the pharmacopoeia process for the preparation of acidum nitro-hyrdoc... 480 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,600 "..oricum dilutum." 481 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:24,880 Luckily, Ruth and Tom are only going to be tested on a small part of the examination. 482 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,440 Ruth's customer has arrived. 483 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:36,160 Hello, Bridie. Thank you so much for coming in. 484 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,840 Bridie Lloyd has suffered from acne for five years. 485 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:47,840 I've got this lovely zinc ointment here, which you can see, there's a sort of white, waxy substance. 486 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:52,840 That would be purely a therapeutic thing, designed to help with skin problems. 487 00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:54,440 And then we've got this one. 488 00:33:54,440 --> 00:34:00,800 With the glycerine in it too, you should get a slight sheen on the skin. You need the tiniest bit. 489 00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,600 It is a bit chalky. Chalky and... 490 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:09,400 The natural look was really in, in the Victorian period, and they liked them to be as light as possible. 491 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,680 I see. I think you should have a go, go on. Just on your cheek, yeah? 492 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,880 At the moment it's looking very, very purple. 493 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:18,440 Yeah? 494 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:22,360 I don't think you want to stay looking purple, do you? No. 495 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,520 That's something you ought to rub in. 496 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,400 You see, that has given you quite a bit of colour, oddly. 497 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,880 And this side looks both paler and pinker. Yeah. 498 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,160 Which is what they would have been looking for. 499 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,880 The paler the complexion the better, but they did like a little bit of colour in the cheeks. 500 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,640 So you get these stories of Victorian ladies that would pinch 501 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:45,040 their cheeks before somebody comes, to try to get a bit of colour. 502 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,200 A young man coming in the door, "I'll quickly pinch my cheeks," 503 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:52,440 make yourself look a little bit more red and natural and glowing. 504 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:56,160 How do you feel about taking it away with you and using it for a few days? 505 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,160 Yeah, as long as I really don't look purple! 506 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:04,120 Well, try it. See how it goes for a few days, whether it makes any difference to the acne. 507 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,480 And, you know, how you feel about wearing it. 508 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,200 Because it's two things, really, in one pot. 509 00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,360 It's both a medicine and a make-up. 510 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,880 Right. OK. 511 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,120 Thank you ever so much. 512 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:30,760 Even after the new exams came in, fully-qualified pharmacists were still at liberty to experiment 513 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,320 with the hazardous products on their shelves. 514 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,600 There were no restrictions, even on the manufacturing of fireworks, 515 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,360 which many enterprising pharmacists made and sold. 516 00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:45,320 It wasn't until 1875 that the government introduced 517 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:49,880 further regulations, following a number of serious accidents. 518 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:56,760 Today, only qualified explosives experts, like Steve Miller, can make fireworks. 519 00:35:56,760 --> 00:36:01,160 Steve, I've just been looking at this Chemist And Druggist 520 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:07,000 from April 15th 1868. There's a large article on a fatal explosion of chemicals at Nottingham, 521 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:10,400 saying that, "A frightful explosion occurred in the shop 522 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:15,600 "of Messrs Fletcher, Chemists and Druggists of Nottingham, by which the errand boy was instantly killed. 523 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,960 "And several persons more or less injured." 524 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:23,280 And he seemed to be doing what you're doing, really - making an explosive. 525 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,560 Yes, an awful lot of factories did blow up, and chemist shops and things. 526 00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:30,280 So that ended up with the 1875 Explosives Act being brought into force. 527 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:35,480 And that stipulated that you had to make your explosives in particular factories, 528 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,960 at specific distances away from storage facilities. 529 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,160 It took it away from the chemists, it made the whole process safer. 530 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,400 It could be done in facilities where everything was controlled. 531 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:50,600 I'm using things like a brass mortar and pestle here, so it's non-sparking... 532 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:55,800 Despite the Explosives Act, modern legislation does allow Steve to make a small quantity 533 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,760 of gunpowder in Nick's lab using the Victorian method. 534 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:03,120 So, I've now ground up the potassium nitrate. 535 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:06,640 Steve will make fireworks out of his gunpowder for a display 536 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,000 that Nick is organising to attract customers to his shop. 537 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,280 And then I'm going to add some water to it, and then give it a proper grinding. 538 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,760 Make it into a nice paste so I can grind it 539 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,480 with less chance of it going off in my face. Hmm. 540 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:24,320 Always an advantage, I think! 541 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,200 You see that's sort of clumped together? Yes. Shall I pour it out? 542 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,720 Yes, if you could pour it out onto the paper there. Then we can dry it. 543 00:37:32,720 --> 00:37:34,880 Well, let's lay this out in the sun. 544 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,840 The gunpowder will take the rest of the day to dry before it's ready 545 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:44,880 to be compressed into fireworks, but it's still explosive, even when wet. 546 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:49,120 This should give us just a little fizz. Right. So if I light this, like that, 547 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:53,680 leave it there, it should hopefully go "fizz" and produce a bit of smoke. 548 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:54,840 Here we go. 549 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:56,280 There you go. Wow! 550 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,320 That's even when it's wet, so it's still quite violent. 551 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:06,400 Armed with the tools and ingredients to experiment, and a solid understanding of science, 552 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:11,520 innovative pharmacists were well-placed to become successful entrepreneurs. 553 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,200 James Crossley Eno was a pharmacist in Newcastle. 554 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:21,560 He was worried about sailors on ships and their health, and so he developed Eno's Fruit Salts. 555 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:23,640 Here it comes, look at that go! 556 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:30,320 Robert Hudson was working an everyday task with a mortar and pestle - pounding soap, 557 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,520 and he realised he could market it as Hudson's Dry Soap. 558 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:39,320 Joseph Swan, who developed the light bulb at exactly the same time as Edison. 559 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:43,080 He's never got the fame for it, but invented the light bulb. 560 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,520 The key thing is, they were businessmen. 561 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:52,520 They knew what the public wanted, they knew what would sell, and some of them made a fortune. 562 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:56,360 Some real rags to riches fortunes made in pharmacies. 563 00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:02,280 Among the most successful of the great entrepreneurial chemists was Alfred Bird. 564 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:06,160 This Birmingham pharmacist, whose wife had a yeast allergy, 565 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:10,560 invented a yeast-free raising agent - baking powder. 566 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:15,160 She was also allergic to eggs, inspiring Bird to develop his recipe 567 00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,840 for custard powder - still a brand leader today. 568 00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,800 Ruth is adding custard powder to the Barber and Goodman line. 569 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:26,440 This is thickened, not with eggs, but with corn flour. 570 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:33,040 Really, really cheap - which of course helps. 571 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:37,560 And to be honest, that's pretty much all custard powder is - corn flour. 572 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:41,760 Cornflower that's slightly coloured and slightly flavoured. 573 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,080 I'm not sure that Mr Bird would have been too keen on people knowing 574 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,880 that that's all it was and that they could make their own quite simply! 575 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,560 So for the colour, the cheapest and easiest ingredient to use, 576 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,920 because it's already a food ingredient, is turmeric. 577 00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:00,720 The turmeric gives the pale corn flour an egg-like yellow colour. 578 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:05,520 Don't want too much turmeric flavour, just enough to give it a bit of yellow. And now, flavour. 579 00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:12,440 Then almond essence is added, to disguise the spicy flavour of the turmeric. 580 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:16,160 Alfred Bird really prided himself on his experiments. He actually had 581 00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:22,280 the words "experimental chemist" over the shop door. 582 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:26,000 And it's not difficult chemistry, this. It's a really simple thing. 583 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,400 It's like so many inventions - in hindsight, they seem simple 584 00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:33,680 and basic and obvious, but it's wanting to do it in the first place. 585 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:35,600 It's coming up with that concept. 586 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:37,320 I found this in the pharmacy. 587 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:39,840 It's another of his products. 588 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,120 "Bird's medicinal olive oil." 589 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:44,080 Look at the size of that bottle, 590 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,760 I wonder how much he was charging for that? 591 00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:52,200 Right, make myself a basic funnel. 592 00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:56,480 Bird gave up being a chemist to manufacture his custard powder 593 00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:02,360 on an industrial scale, supplying British troops in the Crimean War. 594 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:08,800 When his son, Alfred Frederick Bird, took over the business in 1878, he added further products 595 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:13,800 to his father's range, including jelly powders and tablets. 596 00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:20,600 Pharmacists marketed jelly as an invalid or baby food. 597 00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:24,200 Baby food as such didn't really exist in this period. 598 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,720 You'd get infant and invalid food all in one. 599 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:31,640 And it's all to do with digestibility. 600 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:38,240 The 19th century is the first time that people begin to look scientifically 601 00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:41,880 into how the body breaks up the food that we put into it. 602 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:50,360 This is one of those foods that was considered to be particularly easy to digest. 603 00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:52,560 Gelatine. Jelly. 604 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,720 So I've got a load of trotters here, these are leftovers from the chop house. 605 00:41:56,720 --> 00:42:00,160 So somebody's already had these for dinner. 606 00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:05,920 And eaten all the meat off them, leaving all the skinny, cartilagey bits, which is brilliant. 607 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,320 So I've got several batches - 608 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,840 there we go, up there - on the go all at once here. 609 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,240 Each batch of trotters needs to boil for several hours, 610 00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:19,760 so that the connective tissues congeal and reduce. 611 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,400 Although he won't be tested on this in the exam, 612 00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:34,840 Tom is trying to master a basic skill that an apprentice carried out regularly. 613 00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:39,960 I'm practising folding 614 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:41,800 powder papers. 615 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:47,280 People would have put powders into these sorts of things 616 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:50,640 and when they needed to put them... 617 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,280 ..in a drink or take them straight, 618 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,440 you just undo it, straight in there. 619 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,680 Take your medicine. So, yeah. 620 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:08,600 Still not quite mastered it yet. I mean this thing, for example, tells me that the powder folder - 621 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,640 which is this - "is a valuable implement to most dispensers. 622 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:17,760 "It is well to learn powder folding with it, rather than without, for powders of unequal length 623 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:23,680 "are as irritating to the equanimity of a practice pharmacist as pills of unequal size." 624 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,880 This is the one I reduced down... 625 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:42,520 In the pharmacy kitchen, Ruth has finished her first batch of jelly. 626 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:44,320 Come on out of there, you. 627 00:43:46,240 --> 00:43:51,040 Aha! That's a saleable product as it is, just chopped up into little squares. 628 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,560 I could sell that as a fresh product. 629 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:57,960 She'll promote her products tomorrow at the pharmacy's firework display. 630 00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:01,400 Mmm, that's really nice. 631 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:04,920 Nick is still in the lab. 632 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:11,080 Legally, although Steve Miller could make the gunpowder here, he can only make fireworks on licensed premises. 633 00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:13,600 If you take just iron filings... 634 00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:17,960 But he can show Nick the colours and effects he's going to put into them. 635 00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,160 We should be able to get some nice sparks. 636 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:22,800 See? Yeah! 637 00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,840 You can do the same thing by mixing iron filings with gunpowder. 638 00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:29,960 Steve will use the iron filings to create jet-like fountains. 639 00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:35,040 And different chemical elements will create different colours when they burn. 640 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:36,880 Step back. 641 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:40,160 Barium for green... 642 00:44:41,240 --> 00:44:43,480 Whoa! 643 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,520 Sodium for yellow... 644 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,160 And strontium for red. 645 00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,880 Materials still used in fireworks to this day. 646 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:56,000 Whoa! 647 00:44:58,000 --> 00:44:59,040 Poke that down... 648 00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:01,200 Steve demonstrates with a dummy firework 649 00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:07,240 how these chemicals are mixed with gunpowder to create the colour effects in a Roman candle. 650 00:45:07,240 --> 00:45:11,680 As the fuse burns down the cardboard tube, it lights each separate 651 00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:17,520 coloured star and propels it into the air, creating bursts of colour. 652 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:21,440 So, because of the 1875 act, 653 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,640 I certainly can't do this in the modern-day pharmacy. 654 00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:30,760 No, you certainly can't. The 1875 act was in place until 2005, so it lasted quite a long time. 655 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:34,400 Really? Good grief. Well over a century, it was valid. 656 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,240 For the pharmacy's display, Steve will make the fireworks 657 00:45:38,240 --> 00:45:41,920 to Victorian specifications, using real gunpowder. 658 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:45,840 As they test the power of the gunpowder they made earlier, it becomes clear 659 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:51,800 that Victorian regulations were much needed to bring this dangerous enterprise under control. 660 00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:56,520 Ooh! 661 00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:01,160 Thank goodness we didn't do that in the laboratory! 662 00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:15,480 After a long day, Nick and Tom can't resist the opportunity to try Ruth's custard. 663 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:29,120 Ruth's custard. This looks good. 664 00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,840 One of the key things you must learn as an apprentice 665 00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:36,200 is always to test the quality of the pharmaceuticals which you're involved in making. 666 00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:37,840 Right, shall we try it? Yeah. 667 00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:45,080 Mmm. It's not bad, is it? It's very good. 668 00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:50,320 That is good. I think we've got another good product on our hand here! 669 00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:55,240 Mmm. I think you're right. 670 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,160 It's the day of the examination. 671 00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:11,160 That's obviously olive oil. 672 00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:16,000 Ruth and Tom still have the practical part of the exam to do - making suppositories. 673 00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,520 Suppositories... 674 00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:25,200 Unlike Nick, a professor of pharmacy, neither of them have ever done anything like this before. 675 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:27,480 What is this powder? 676 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:31,880 What's the basis? That must be the wax. 677 00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:34,320 Put it on the weights... 678 00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:39,680 They're both using the same equipment as Nick, including a set of scales with weights. 679 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:45,680 I don't have any weights here, so I can't exactly work out proportions. 680 00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:50,440 Tom makes a bad start, failing to find his weights. 681 00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:53,720 I'm kind of guessing that if I chuck all this together, 682 00:47:53,720 --> 00:47:57,080 then we'll eventually get something I can bind with this stuff. 683 00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:00,520 I'm pretty sure I've done something drastically wrong. 684 00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:05,360 With too much beeswax, Tom will have trouble melting his mixture. 685 00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:07,440 Just how much oil should I put in? 686 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,800 Ruth shouldn't be adding the olive oil to the mix. 687 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:14,320 It's supposed to be used to lubricate the mould. 688 00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:19,320 Damn stuff won't melt. 689 00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,320 Strain it. 690 00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:24,760 There's bound to be all sorts of stuff in there. 691 00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:26,480 Oh, yeah! 692 00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:29,600 Tom's finally discovered his weights. 693 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:36,480 That is kind of the basic sort of knowledge that everybody would assume you to know. 694 00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:43,520 Messed it up. 695 00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:45,400 So... 696 00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:50,880 Ensuring the right medicinal content of the suppositories is only half the job. 697 00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:52,840 I'm a terrible one for improvising. 698 00:48:52,840 --> 00:48:58,720 I'm kind of working from a complete amateur position of ignorance. 699 00:48:58,720 --> 00:49:04,640 The other crucial thing is making sure they're the right shape. 700 00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:11,160 All we can do now is hope. 701 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:20,680 It's the moment of absolute, horrific truth. 702 00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:23,120 Ooh... 703 00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,560 Oh no! 704 00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:27,160 Oh! 705 00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,360 Well, shame me fingers were dirty. 706 00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:33,720 Half a suppository. 707 00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:40,240 It's back to the school house and time for Briony Hudson 708 00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:45,320 to judge their suppositories for shape, size and firmness. 709 00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:52,840 So, test one, suppositories. 710 00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:54,760 That's a nice one! 711 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:57,920 Can I just direct you to the nice ones? What about this one? 712 00:49:57,920 --> 00:49:59,920 That one's poorly. 713 00:49:59,920 --> 00:50:02,280 But you have got one, two, three 714 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,160 four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve... 715 00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,440 And yes, not badly formed. OK. 716 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:09,480 Mine come in a multitude of forms! 717 00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:11,240 Oh, they do! 718 00:50:11,240 --> 00:50:14,600 They're not bad, are they? Which one's that? That's my good one. 719 00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:18,400 That's the one you've identified, is it, as the best one?! 720 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:22,960 Yeah, that one's less successful, we might say. And next, Tom? 721 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:26,200 Um, yes. Not that successful, I don't think. 722 00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:27,760 I managed to get one and a half. 723 00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:34,240 Interesting colour difference, considering the idea is to spread them... They were bespoke! 724 00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:37,560 Oh, OK! So this is for a person that's more sick? 725 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:39,960 Exactly. OK. 726 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,720 I know he's had some practice, but Nick's do win. 727 00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:44,760 More produced, and a higher quality. 728 00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:46,840 So very well done, Nick. 729 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,720 With plants and chemical substances to identify, 730 00:50:51,720 --> 00:50:58,480 Ruth is joined for the next test by herbalist, Eleanor Gallia, and scientist, Mike Bullivant. 731 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:05,440 Having stronger medical backgrounds, Tom and Nick are taking up the challenge on their own. 732 00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:09,520 So I've selected a drawer from the Materia Medica teaching cabinet, 733 00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:13,280 and I'm going to ask each of you, in turn, to identify a few items. 734 00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:18,720 The drawers of the Materia Medica cabinet contain hundreds of samples of the plants and chemicals 735 00:51:18,720 --> 00:51:21,680 that a Victorian pharmacist would have had to identify. 736 00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:26,240 So, could you, for me, identify 737 00:51:26,240 --> 00:51:28,000 this specimen here? 738 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,240 You should be able to recognise that, I think. 739 00:51:31,240 --> 00:51:32,840 What part of the plant is it? 740 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:34,840 No idea what that is. No? 741 00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,520 Not at all? It's orange peel. 742 00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:41,800 Well, it's not orange! Clearly, it can't be orange peel, because it's not orange! 743 00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:45,520 It is used dried, particularly as a flavouring. What about this one? 744 00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,960 What's that one? 745 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:52,000 Is that black pepper? Absolutely right. Spot on! Well done. 746 00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:55,320 Tom is hoping his botany revision is going to pay off. 747 00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:59,760 Let's give you some different ones. What about starting with that one there, 67A? 748 00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:04,880 It's like resin of some sort. Yes. 749 00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:08,920 I'd say it's some sort of tree gum. Yeah. 750 00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:12,960 No, I can't get much closer than that. 751 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,800 I'd say...oh, what's a gummy sort of tree? 752 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:19,600 A gum tree! A gum tree. It's frankincense. 753 00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,760 Oh! That's quite good, though. 754 00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:26,400 Not bad. OK, what about this little section here? 755 00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:28,840 Oh, I know this one. This is cardamom pods. 756 00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:32,360 Very good. Straight to it. Known today for cooking. 757 00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:34,920 And finally... 758 00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:40,320 Ruth, Eleanor and Mike should be able to identify all of the substances between them. 759 00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:44,840 Let's start off with this little vial which you can pick out. 760 00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:48,680 Oh no! Just be careful of the cork. Oh no, this does look hard. 761 00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,400 Oh, I know these. That's cochineal beetles. Absolutely it is, yeah! 762 00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,640 Let's have a go at this one. 763 00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:00,240 Barberry. Barberry? Like Berberis. 764 00:53:00,240 --> 00:53:03,600 I'm going to go with what she says, barberry. Is that your final answer? 765 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:05,200 That's my final answer. You're right! 766 00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:09,720 Briony has an extra test for the budding Victorian chemists. 767 00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:13,200 So, number one, give the symbolic formulae 768 00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:15,320 of ammonice carbonas, 769 00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:21,240 chloroformum, and acidum tartaricum. 770 00:53:21,240 --> 00:53:24,720 OK, so who's got the answer to question number one? 771 00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:26,520 Oh yeah, Ruth there in the back row. 772 00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:30,920 (NH4) 2 CO3. 773 00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,520 Very good. And the next one. 774 00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:37,440 Oh really? Ruth again, OK. Chloroformum. 775 00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:41,280 CHCIL. 776 00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:45,440 I think you're there. And the third one, tartaric acid. Oh, Ruth again. 777 00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:46,800 This is hard. 778 00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:52,600 CH(OH)(COOH)2. 779 00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:54,080 Quite remarkable! 780 00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:59,040 So overall in the exam, 781 00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:05,080 the back row came first, with Nick coming first in the suppository first round. 782 00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:30,760 With the exams over, there's still a business to run. 783 00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:37,400 The team are using the firework display to bring in a crowd and promote Ruth's new products. 784 00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:41,200 I've got my flare, I've got my matches. So we're all set. 785 00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:42,880 Well, just be careful. 786 00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:47,120 That stuff was pretty dangerous when we were playing with it before. See you later! 787 00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:50,440 Do you think this stuff's going to sell? I hope so. 788 00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:54,640 Here we are, everyone. Jelly and custard. 789 00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:59,400 Can we interest you, at all, in a little taste of Barber & Goodman's jelly and custard? 790 00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:01,600 Our very own home-made custard powder. 791 00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,440 Even if you don't like it, you can go "bleugh!" 792 00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:08,720 Only the best quality, natural ingredients in this. We can guarantee. 793 00:55:08,720 --> 00:55:13,680 You're trying corn flour. Slightly flavoured, slightly coloured corn flour! 794 00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:19,080 Armed with his new matches, Tom has one last task to perform. 795 00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:21,120 OK, light the fuse. Crouch right down. 796 00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:27,320 Once it's lit, step away, walk back away from it, and let it do it's thing, OK? OK. 797 00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:34,120 Amongst the crowd of spectators is Bridie, Ruth's skin cream customer. 798 00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:37,280 How was our first product we gave you? It was really good. 799 00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:38,960 Yeah? Yeah, I'm still using it. 800 00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:41,640 Wow. Really? You really still use it? Yes, yeah. 801 00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:43,240 It's a lot better. 802 00:55:43,240 --> 00:55:44,800 Definitely. Jolly good. 803 00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:48,160 Hang on, I think the fireworks are about to start now. 804 00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:54,320 Like the matches, the fireworks have been made to Victorian specifications. 805 00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:57,240 Right then, on with the fireworks! 806 00:55:57,240 --> 00:55:59,800 They became extremely popular. 807 00:55:59,800 --> 00:56:05,200 Queen Victoria herself often celebrated her birthday with extravagant displays. 808 00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,920 Yay! 809 00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:19,920 Whey! Watch out, watch out! 810 00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,920 Oh, yes! 811 00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:28,120 Playing with poisons and explosives, this is every schoolboy's dream, in many ways! 812 00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:33,280 This is one of the reasons I went into chemistry, 813 00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,440 was to enjoy these sorts of things and to find out about them. 814 00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:43,360 They weren't just somebody tinkering in a shed 815 00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:46,480 and forgetting about it, they were people who were 816 00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:50,360 primed and ready to take these ideas and move them into the mass market. 817 00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:01,400 Wow! 818 00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:07,640 I think there would probably have been quite a high mortality rate amongst apprentice pharmacists. 819 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:12,720 And in some ways, I'm actually pretty glad that I don't have to use 820 00:57:12,720 --> 00:57:17,160 all these substances without being told about them in the first place. 821 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:26,680 WHOOPING AND CHEERING 822 00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:34,080 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 823 00:57:59,960 --> 00:58:01,600 Thank you very much, everyone. 824 00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:06,600 Thank you for coming and remember, we're open for business again at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. 825 00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:20,520 Next time on Victorian Pharmacy, the end of the 19th century draws near. 826 00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:23,720 With a massive expansion of new products and medicines... 827 00:58:23,720 --> 00:58:26,080 I am very chuffed about that. 828 00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:29,760 ..the team will take a giant step into the 20th century... 829 00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:32,280 Watch the birdie. Keep still. 830 00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:35,800 ..and towards the high-street pharmacy we know today. 831 00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:52,760 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 832 00:58:52,760 --> 00:58:55,800 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk