1864 Catalogue of the Museum of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland
In 1867, during Aquilla Smith’s tenure as King’s Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland presented their Materia Medica collection to the Trinity College School of Physic. Aquilla Smith was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and played an active role in the institution, serving as Vice-President of the college three times, inlcuding until 1864, the same year be was appointed King’s Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy. Some of the artefacts presented to Trinity College remain in the hands of the Department of Pharmacology and reside in St. James’s University Hospital in the Historical Medicinal Collection.
In 1864, a ‘Catalogue of the Museum of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland’ was published at the Dublin University Press by M. H. Gill. This catalogue, which we received from the Keeper of Collectors at the Royal College of Physicians includes the origins and history of some of the samples in our collection, such as Cinchona Bark, Diarbekir Manna, Sarsaparilla and Scammony.
All images on this page belong to the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland.
The full catalogue is available at https://ia801405.us.archive.org/15/items/recordsofkingque00belc_0/recordsofkingque00belc_0.pdf
On page 9 of the Catalogue, a number of specimen are listed, which were acquired by the Royal College of Physicians from ‘Messers. Allen and Hanbury, London’ a British Pharmaceutical Manufacturer that was founded in 1715. The specimen had been on display at the International Exhibition in 1862 before arriving at the College. We believe that both Sample #4 ‘Cortex Cinchonæ Calisayæ, quilled’ and Sample #9 ‘Sarsaparilla. Collected in the Volcano Chiriqui, Central America’, are the same ones found in the Historical Medicinal Collection today, and that they have been preserved since their presentation to Trinity College in 1867.
On page 14 and 15 of the Catalogue, 44 samples originating in Turkey, were acquired by purchase by Dr. John Moore Neligan at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London. Of these 44 samples, we believe that Sample #9 "‘Manna, Diarbekir’ and Sample #23 ‘Scammony, pure, in three valves of shells” to be the same samples that remain in the Historical Medicinal Collection today.
