Description

Prescription book from the Sacquépée Pharmacy - PARIS

French Liberation period – 7 May 1945 to March 1946

Volume 1 of 4 available from these official records, originating from a former Parisian pharmacy, which trace twenty-five years of medical history, from the Liberation to the 1970s. Far from being ceremonial documents, these prescription books are authentic working tools, marked by the urgency of everyday life and the evolution of pharmaceutical science.

The prescription book was the mandatory legal register in which the pharmacist had to transcribe, day after day and without blanks or deletions (in theory), all magistral preparations and medicines containing dangerous substances.

This first volume opens on 7 May 1945. It bears witness to a pivotal era when pharmacists still worked in their laboratories located in the cellars of pharmacies in Paris to make their extemporaneous preparations.

Those based on poisonous substances such as belladonna, henbane or opium had to be highlighted in red for better control.

Since the 1916 decree, substances had been classified into tables (A, B, C). The prescription book was used to monitor toxic products (Table A) and narcotics (Table B).

It contains substances that fascinate us today: opium, cocaine, morphine, belladonna, arsenic, etc., but which were commonly used in preparations at the time.

Each line had to include the name of the doctor, the name of the patient, the date and the exact composition of the preparation. In fact, in the event of poisoning or suspected addiction of a patient, the police or pharmacy inspectors would come to check the prescription book to see who had prescribed what.

The first pages are authenticated by period revenue stamps and the initials of the Police Commissioner, so all the pages were stamped and could not be torn out.

The added bonus of this volume is that it contains a handwritten ‘blacklist’ of false prescriptions from doctors that should not be filled!

Dimensions: 33x24.5cm - Weight: 1.1Kg

Condition: used