Description

Hemlock leaves - POISON

Antique pharmacy jar - Wide-mouthed apothecary jar. 19th-century mouth-blown glass.

The glass displays the typical irregularities – air bubbles and slight ripples – characteristic of semi-industrial production from the early 20th century or end of 19th. The base shows a mark from the blowing rod.

Red POISON label

Signaling to the pharmacist that it is imperative to keep apart the other substances in the cabinet of toxic substances, the famous poison cabinet.

It comes from an old cellar-laboratory in a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not moved since the late 1950s on the shelves. The cellar had served as a laboratory for medical analyses and a laboratory for magistral preparations of the pharmacy from 1900 until around 1950.

This large-capacity jar was a reserve jar intended for the storage of raw materials to be processed into powders, tinctures or infusions in the pharmacy laboratory.

It was used to store the dried leaves of Hemlock (Conium maculatum).

The famous poison of ancient Greece, used notably for the execution of Socrates, who was sentenced to death.

The ingestion of this plant causes a particularly terrible death because it leads to progressive ascending muscle paralysis.

It starts with the lower limbs, slowly ascends towards the trunk, eventually blocking the respiratory muscles, causing death by asphyxiation.

The most terrifying thing is that the victim suffers this paralysis while remaining perfectly conscious until the last breath...

In the pharmacopoeia of the 19th century, it was for a time exploited at therapeutic dose as an antispasmodic to calm convulsions, before being totally banished from pharmacies due to its extreme dangerousness.

This large-capacity jar was a storage jar intended for raw materials to be processed into powders, tinctures or infusions in the pharmacy’s laboratory.

The ‘POISON’ label at the bottom of the jar is not decorative. Foxglove has a very narrow therapeutic window: the curative dose is very close to the toxic dose. Handling the dried leaves required extreme precision and was strictly regulated due to its high toxicity.

Beautiful handwritten cursive script in pen on the label.

The red paper used for the label was intended for toxic substances, so that the chemist could immediately distinguish them from non-toxic substances. The label also bears the supplier’s details: “Mod. 250, M., J. & Cie, Paris”.

Height: 23.5 cm – Diameter: 10 cm