Medicine Chests and Colonial Endeavors
One element of the medicine chests and the British Pharmacopeia in medical innovation is their use by explorers, medics, and missionaries in the spread of the British Empire. For every colonial traveler, a medicine chest equipped with drugs and tools was a necessary accompaniment in their travels, especially as innovation and more compressed tablets became accessible. This lead to the spread of the idea of the supremacy of the British Empire and their medical practices, diminishing other indigenous medical systems.
One of the most famous examples was the “Livingstone Medicine Chest”, that was created by the Burroughs Wellcome and Company that went on different people on expeditions. It also brought in a new form of medical consumerism advertising.
Sources Used:
Anderson, Stuart. “Pharmacy and Empire: The ‘British Pharmacopoeia’ as an Instrument of Imperialism 1864 to 1932.” Pharmacy in History 52, no. 3/4 (2010): 112–21.
Bhattacharya, Nandini “The Colonial Medicine Chest.” In Disparate Remedies: Making Medicines in Modern India, 7:21–46. (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023)