Pharmacy History 33 November 2007

PHARMACY HISTORY
AUSTRALIA
The Journal of the Australian Academy volume 4 ■ no 34
of the History of Pharmacy ■ ISSN 1445 3398
A U S T R A L I A N february 2008 ACADEMY OF
THE HISTORY
President’s Column
Ross Brown
Sister Dispensers
Dr.Kirsty Harris
The Spoils of War
Geoff Miller
Military Pharmacy Today
Bill Kelly
Cricket History
David Wells
PAC 2008
Book Review Prof.V.B.Sunderland
Indian Eye Drops
David Bruce
A Heritage Tale
Geoff Miller
Fisher & Co
Peter Lynch
Poisons or Perish
Joy Burman
Historic Cuban Pharmacy
Alison Atlott (Photos)
Napier’s Medicine Makers
Millar & Harris,
OF PHARMACY
Heading needed
At the closure of PAC 2007 in Melbourne last year, Professor Lloyd Sansom left us with this very provocative thought to dwell on: “We must celebrate and learn from the past but if we stay in the past, we cannot be part of the future”.
This small pictorial postcard from the time
of Queen Victoria sums up very succinctly what is currently happening in community pharmacies all over the country today today.
The discounting of
medicines at the expense
of one’s colleagues has
the undesirable effect of
encouraging people seeking
advice or help with their
medications to also buy and therefore consume more potent pharmaceuticals, often putting themselves at a great risk.
Dr.Gregory Higby, the Director of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, in a recent newsletter from his organisation stated that the most common question he is asked by pharmacists he meets as he travels around is “Why do you waste your time with that old stuff ?”
This is precisely the underlying reason for teaching the history of Pharmacy to students in their undergraduate years is central to the self image of pharmacists as educated people. Perhaps the greatest benefit to be gained by exposing students to the history of their chosen profession is to expose the extent to which the knowledge and practices of pharmacists are shaped by changing social, political and economic circumstances.
Sandy: “Just ma luck I hae naething the matter wi’ me.”
volume 4 ■ no 34 ■ February 2008
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 1
This issue