Victorian Pharmacy - Episode 2

The Pharmacy brought medicine to the masses.  Pharmacists experiment with new medicines and tried to come up with one medicine that will cure everything.  Ruth and Tom go out into the community to do market research to determine the needs of the community.  With market research in hand, Nick comes up with a cure-all with the ingredients he has on hand.

Nick tries to find safe ideas for his cure-all.  During the Victorian Period, there was little to no understanding of what causes diseases.  There was a strong belief if miasmas, bad clouds spread around the disease.  They concluded that where there was a stink, there was illness. 

Ruth carefully gets the supplies stored up and Nick struggles to find the ingredients to make his cure-all.  The Cure-Alls were the way people cut out the middle man to avoid going to the doctor.  Nick and Tom make their cure-all and make pills for their cure-all.  Ruth makes a hair loss remedy.  She makes a hair oil.

Nick comes up with an advertisement for his cure-all and was advised not put a reward to put a reward on his poster if his cure-all did not work.  It was during the Victorian Period where the precedent for false advertising was set.  A lady sued the company behind the carbolic smoke ball for giving her influenza.  He changes it to his cure-all cures insomnia, low spirits, and consumption.  The lack of rules in the Victorian Period is something new Nick is experiencing.

Tom works on publicity for Nick’s Cure-All.  He was the pharmacist’s apprentice.  In the Victorian Period the parents of the apprentice would pay the pharmacist to take on their child and teach them the trade.

Ruth and Tom eventually make their way through town distributing Nick’s Cure-All.  The citizenry is a little bit shy about trying the cure-all.  Ruth and Tom sell all the cure-alls around town.  They also explore how electricity was used in cures. 

This would not only be a good show to present to a history class but a science class.  It discusses scientific advances in what causes diseases.  It was during this period that products were advertised as disinfecting and antiseptic.  Pharmacists developed cleaning products. 

To find out more about the Victorian Pharmacy, continue to watch the episode.

For use in the classroom, just highlight the questions, copy and paste them into a word document.  You can format it the way you want to.  All questions fit on one page.

You can access the YouTube Video here.

Victorian Pharmacy Questions

1.       Who did market research in the community? 
2.       What did the Victorians believe cause diseases?
3.       Who deliberately mislead the public?   
4.       How many pharmacies went bankrupt every year?
5.       What did Nick put in his cure-all? 
6.       How many pills did they make?
7.       What was seen as an illness? 
8.       How long did the hair loss mixture have to heat?
9.       What took off during the Victorian Period? 
10.   What device set the precedent for false advertising? 

Victorian Pharmacy Answers
1.        Who did market research in the community?  - Ruth and Tom
2.       What did the Victorians believe cause diseases?  - Miasmas
3.       Who deliberately mislead the public?  Pharmacists
4.       How many pharmacies went bankrupt every year?  100
5.       What did Nick put in his cure-all?  -  Soap powder, Licorice root, rhubarb root, glucose syrup
6.       How many pills did they make?  1,000
7.       What was seen as an illness?  - Hair loss
8.       How long did the hair loss mixture have to heat?  An hour
9.       What took off during the Victorian Period?  - Advertising
10.   What device set the precedent for false advertising?  - Carbolic Smoke Ball