Trivia meme
Aug. 25th, 2005 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaFrom ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minisinoo
List five bits of trivia you think your Flist might find interesting that pertains to whatever you consider your specialty (defined as your occupation or long-time hobby). These should not be matters of pragmatic advice, but simply fun esoterica.
1: Pharmacy students, up until twenty years ago, were examined on their ability to determine the contents of herbal solutions by smell. They had to sniff a mysterious liquid, then hazard a guess at what herbs went into the mix. They had to study botany, and be able to draw and label the important parts of medicinal herbs. I think this will be very handy when the apocalypse comes.
2: Amaranth syrup is an old colouring agent, nobody uses it any more, but it's a really pretty ruby colour, and it's a really pretty name, so I always remember it. Other interesting names for things I never use any more: Quilleia tincture (used to "wet" sulfur so that it mixes into stuff more easily), tragacanth powder (used to thicken mixtures), Fuller's Earth (a kind of talcum powder), and ichthammol, which is some kind of sulfur-rich bitumen. I used to think that ichthammol was made from fish, partly because of the name, but mostly because of the smell. It's for eczema. I love the arcane alchemy that is the foundation of my job, but would hate to use it on a daily basis.
3: Pharmacists used to keep frogs in tanks, to carry out early pregnancy testing. Women would bring in urine samples, and the pharmacist would drop the urine onto the female frog's back. If the male frog became sexually aroused and mounted her, then the woman was deemed to be pregnant. In Australia, this procedure was still being used in the twenties and thirties. Your local pharmacy was also the place to bring your tom cat to be de-sexed.
4: In days of old, pharmacists were encouraged to put as little information on their labels as possible, to avoid distressing their patients. Thus, medications would be labeled "The Mixture" or "The Ointment", with no ingredients or description of purpose. It is much the opposite nowadays.
5: The first important Australian legal case involving a pharmacist was due to a complaint from a woman in Ballarat, who found a snail in her bottle of ginger beer. We all learn about this case, although we no longer make or sell ginger beer.
minisinooList five bits of trivia you think your Flist might find interesting that pertains to whatever you consider your specialty (defined as your occupation or long-time hobby). These should not be matters of pragmatic advice, but simply fun esoterica.
1: Pharmacy students, up until twenty years ago, were examined on their ability to determine the contents of herbal solutions by smell. They had to sniff a mysterious liquid, then hazard a guess at what herbs went into the mix. They had to study botany, and be able to draw and label the important parts of medicinal herbs. I think this will be very handy when the apocalypse comes.
2: Amaranth syrup is an old colouring agent, nobody uses it any more, but it's a really pretty ruby colour, and it's a really pretty name, so I always remember it. Other interesting names for things I never use any more: Quilleia tincture (used to "wet" sulfur so that it mixes into stuff more easily), tragacanth powder (used to thicken mixtures), Fuller's Earth (a kind of talcum powder), and ichthammol, which is some kind of sulfur-rich bitumen. I used to think that ichthammol was made from fish, partly because of the name, but mostly because of the smell. It's for eczema. I love the arcane alchemy that is the foundation of my job, but would hate to use it on a daily basis.
3: Pharmacists used to keep frogs in tanks, to carry out early pregnancy testing. Women would bring in urine samples, and the pharmacist would drop the urine onto the female frog's back. If the male frog became sexually aroused and mounted her, then the woman was deemed to be pregnant. In Australia, this procedure was still being used in the twenties and thirties. Your local pharmacy was also the place to bring your tom cat to be de-sexed.
4: In days of old, pharmacists were encouraged to put as little information on their labels as possible, to avoid distressing their patients. Thus, medications would be labeled "The Mixture" or "The Ointment", with no ingredients or description of purpose. It is much the opposite nowadays.
5: The first important Australian legal case involving a pharmacist was due to a complaint from a woman in Ballarat, who found a snail in her bottle of ginger beer. We all learn about this case, although we no longer make or sell ginger beer.
