Jenny,
There is an excellent article in the Autumn 1991 issue of Caduceus: A
Museum Journal for the Health Sciences (vol 7, no.2). The whole issue was
on safety issues in medical museums. The article is, "The Preservation and
Disposition of Hazardous Substances and Controlled Drugs in Museum
Collections." The author, Ramunas Kondratas, Curator and Supervisor of the
Medical Sciences Division of the National Museum of American History,
offers assistance and suggests other resources. If finding the article is a
problem, I'd be glad to send you a copy.
Pat Miller


At 02:08 PM 11/10/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I have a bit of a dilemma and was wondering how other people have handled
>this problem in their museums.  We just received two Doctors bags from a
>father and son who were in practice together. The father started in 1906 and
>the son was practicing into at least the 1950's.  Well, these bags still
>have a lot of drugs/medicines in them including strychnine, digitalis,
>morphine, and nitroglycerine.  We are debating if we should leave the
>bottles of medicine as is, or if we should dispose of the contents (drugs)
>but keep the bottles.  So folks, what have you done in the past?
>
>Thanks
>Jenny
>
>
>Jenny Yearous
>Curator of Collections Management
>State Historical Society of North Dakota
>
>[log in to unmask]
>
>01/01/2001 The REAL start of the new millenium
>
>=========================================================
>Important Subscriber Information:
>
>The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
>http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain
>detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line
>e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message
>should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
>If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
>[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
>Museum-L" (without the quotes).

Patricia L. Miller, Executive Director
Illinois Heritage Association
602 1/2 E. Green St., Champaign, IL 61820
phone: 217-359-5600; email: [log in to unmask]

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).