Page 8 - Pharmacy History 34 February 2008

companions, as he had just poisoned their ale with strychnine, bought
that very day for the purpose. As could be imagined, the local citizenry were not only appalled but in mortal fear of a particularly imminent and unpleasant death. Police, medical and ambulance facilities were mobilised with utmost speed and the drinkers all had their stomachs evacuated
with stomach pumps. Uncle Tom regarded the statement of criminal intent and the following wholesale panic with equanimity until all had been dealt with. He then stunned the assembly by commenting that he hadn’t liked the look of the fellow earlier that day and had given him
a bottle full of Epsom salts rather than strychnine. In any case, he
was of the opinion that the citizens would undoubtedly benefit from a good cleanout. Obviously he derived some amusement from waiting
until the assembled stomachs had been emptied before disclosing this information to their distraught owners.3
Tom Ingham was an astute businessman and in 1884 became the first in Rockhampton to illuminate his business windows with two of
the new-fangled electric globes. He apparently had a highly developed sense of pride in country using the emu, kangaroo and Advance Australia logo on his proprietary label for Euphorba Pilulifera Asthma Cure.
[Euphorbia pilulifera ( now Chamaesyce hirta ) is a widespread plant found
as a weed in Northern Australia and related to the poinsettia. The dried plant was used from the 1880s to make a tea or to smoke in an ordinary tobacco pipe, also administered as a liquid extract. It reputedly relaxed the bronchioles.]5
He also was awarded a medal at the Chicago World Fair in 1893 for Ingham’s Eucalpytus Oil.4 This citron- scented eucalyptus oil was produced from distilleries Tom established
in the local area at Wallaroo and Tungamull. The Post Office Directory for 1911 still shows ‘Ingham’s Eucalyptus Depot at 134 East St.’ Perhaps as a corollary of Tom’s interest in eucalyptus oil, he manufactured and sold extensively ‘Carbolised
Eucalyptus Ointment’ described on
the label as the ‘best healing and drawing salve for ulcerated sores, burns, scalds, Barcoo Rot.’ Its basis was lard, the young apprentice
being commissioned to buy several pounds weight from the butcher’s shop down the street. Manufacture always seemed to coincide with a
hot summer’s day as the lard had to be gently melted over a gas flame before the other ingredients such as friar’s balsam (compound tincture of benzoin) and oil of eucalyptus were carefully added. For the uninitiated person, a brief word about ‘Barcoo Rot’ may not be out of place. This was an affliction especially of the bush population in arid areas such as the Barcoo River district in the far south- west of the State. Small insignificant abrasions rapidly turned into chronic septic ulcerations. The monotonous diet lacking in green vegetables ( the antiscorbutic vitamin C ), lack of meat other than steak, the liver and kidneys (ie offal) being usually thrown away, led to a state of hypovitaminosis (A, E, C and B group) accompanied by dehydration due to the hot dry and dusty climate. This condition was also familiar to troops in places such as Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine, Sinai, and Iraq in the 1914-1918 conflict.
On selling his pharmacy in 1897 to
E N Symons, the proprietary rights to this product were vested in the new owner. Coincidently (or not) a number of ostensibly similar products were marketed by several other local pharmacies of the early 20th century (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery)!
He promoted the properties and benefits of Eucalyptus citriodora and Backhousia citriodora and
an advertisement of the time in Queensland Country Life 1908 portrays Ingham’s ‘Citron-scented Eucalyptus Soap’ and his ‘Depot at 482 Petrie’s (sic) Bight, Brisbane,6,7 which address was also recorded officially in an early Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists.
Pharmacists of this era were reputed to be all things to all people, traditionally experts in many
fields, from fossil Archeopteryx to
whale ambergris, from zoonoses (animal-borne disease) to zymosis (fermentation processes). Nonetheless it is true that pharmacists provided
a dental service in the early days
of the colonies when dentists were scarce. Contemporary dental boards permitted pharmacist practitioners
to register as dentists provided they could prove competence. We find that Registers of Dentists in 1890 and 1892 listed Rockhampton chemists Edward R Row, E R Row & Co (sic), T Ingham, Chas Blake, Blake & Gordon, and Edwin D’Weske.
Post Office Directories between 1890 and 1895 list Edward R Row, E R Row & Co (sic), Tom Ingham, E Chas Blake, Blake and Gordon, Edwin D’Weske as dentists as well as pharmacists. Indeed Edwin D’Weske advertised variously in Post Office Directories of that same era as a ‘Pharm. and Disp. Chemist, Homeopathic Chemist; Surgeon Dentist, Ph. Chem. & Dentist’ (sic).
Ernest Nathaniel Symons
Ernest Nathaniel Symons was born in Camborne, Cornwall in 1870, the second child but first son of William Henry Symons, a Cornish miner. When the Cornish mining industry declined, the family moved to Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire. It was here that the young lad initiated a life-long interest in pharmacy, being employed at the age of 12 by H & J Annistead, one of the leading chemists in northern England. His involvement was terminated when the family emigrated to Queensland on board the SS Crown of Arragon in 1884, settling in Gympie, possibly
8 Pharmacy History Australia
volume 4 no 35 September 2008