Page 4 - Pharmacy History 29 July 2006

(Cont. from page 3)
One entrepreneurial Englishman arrived in NZ with his cabinetry skills, making up to 6 sets of solid mahogany pharmacy shop interior fittings, one such set
still survives from Greens Pharmacy, (formerly in Dixon St, Wellington).
Local trade journals were published,
one initiated by the large trade house Sharlands (which publication was later taken over by the NZ Pharmacy Assoc.). Also ‘The Chemist, Druggist and Pharmacist of Australasia’, established
in 1886, which created a wonderful monthly information flow between the two colonies, and ‘The Home Country’.
This was also the period which began the plethora of glassware items that could be embossed with the chemists name and location, and either sold or given away, most being made by Whittal Tatum, USA, which have now become very collectable. Apart from medicines, pharmacies stocked an immense range and volume of other items, including Baby Feeders (often customised with
the shop’s own name); Turkish Sponges; men’s shaving gear; ceramic pap dishes and feeder cups etc.
However, they couldn’t sell enough, and Mr. Gillman of Onehunga was among the first of his profession in Auckland to have regard to the need to keep abreast of the times. Consequently, when he observed from the reading of overseas journals that chemists and druggists were stocking their premises with goods
that hereto were considered outside the province of such a business he was not slow to follow suit. He not only imported new and improved drugs, but also introduced hot-water bottles, teething powders, toothpastes and photographic accessories. In 1895, for the better extraction of teeth, he imported for his own use, a set of dental instruments of a newly designed type, which were coming into general use in England and America.
Naturally, many of his fellow chemists
in Auckland were apprehensive lest the standards of their profession would be lowered if they followed Mr Gillman’s example. But he counted the objections by pointing out that grocers were stocking proprietary medicines, cough lozenges, throat tablets and the like, and in this way were making deep inroads into the fields previously regarded as being reserved for chemists and druggists. The lead he gave was soon adopted generally throughout New Zealand.
Dentistry, often crudely and basically administered when out of the larger urban areas, was not uncommonly undertaken on a default basis by the country pharmacist. This was certainly so in the shop my grandfather managed in Mania, South Taranaki in 1917. My father recorded the following dubious practice and public spectacle of tooth extraction. To quote:
‘In the shop was an amazing range of appliances for the use of the chemist, with a complete dentist’s armoury which was in steady use and Dad had a large clientele of Maori men. After a few times wrestling with great big teeth Dad had a rule that all patients must bring with them two big assistants. It must be remembered that anything out of the ordinary was public property and tooth pulling was good fun.
The procedure was that a special lounge chair with arms was used for the patient, then one assistant would hold the patient’s head firmly, and the other assistant would extract the tooth under Dad’s guidance.
I was always in the front of the audience, as it was my father’s shop. The most memorable was when a large Maori came in for an extraction with his two assistants. Dad was a very small man with poor physique, so wrestling out this large molar was quite beyond his ability. In any case, everybody enjoyed the performance except, I suppose, the patient.
This particular day the patient was readied and the operator given the forceps and shown the offending tooth. With much wrestling, twisting, grunting and groaning, out came the tooth. Dad took one look at it and said that it was a good tooth. The operator merely smiled and went in again, this time he got the right one. The patient never said anything, spat a huge gob of blood on the floor, everybody applauded, and the bill was paid and off they went, no threat of legal proceedings for malpractice then.
Another area of business embraced by a handful of pharmacists was the establishment of the American Soda Fountains. As quoted in 1912 Australasian Trade journal:
‘Mr W R Cook, who returned recently from his quick trip to the United States, has been fitting up a very stylish and up to-date soda fountain in the shop next to his own in High Street, Christchurch. He is also supervising the fit-out of the two shops in Auckland to be opened in Queen Street, in conjunction with the company, which was successfully floated to take over his various businesses. Mr Cooke left to personally take charge
of the Auckland shops at the end of September.
The new soda fountain is on the Lippnocott model, which is as nearly automatic as possible. The shop fitted with the soda fountain is quite distinct from the drug section of the business. Mirror backs and many artistic stools and tables for the use of patrons have helped to attract the public, largely now that the warm weather has begun.
We should remember here that the proliferation
of Coca-Cola to the world had its humble beginning as a tonic in a chemist shop
in Atlanta. The soda fountains
had a huge popularity and success through
the Prohibition period in the U.S.A. The astute retailer didn’t miss the opportunity
to market their
4 ■ Pharmacy History Australia
volume 3 ■ no 29 ■ JuLY 2006