This is a difficult issue to address.  Doctors, unless they have an
interest in the history of medicine, are too busy remaining current with
their specialty to be able to do much more than refer to the current PDR
(Physician's Desk Reference) for the shelf life of a drug or preparation.
Then, too, shelf life may have as much to do with repeat sales as it does
with the breakdown of components.

In addition to a current PDR (you can likely talk a local hospital or
physician out of last year's copy) museums/historical societies with
collections of old medicines should have a reasonably current _Merck Index_
and Lange's _Handbook of Poisoning_

But modern medicine does not always know about some things which were
common in earlier medical practice.  For that reason, my reference
collection includes toxicology books from the early 20th c., including
veterinary toxicology (animals sometimes eat what we've made medicine
from).

_A Modern Herbal_ by Mrs. M. Grieve is available as a 2 vol. Dover reprint;
back it up with a botanical dictionary and a good Latin dictionary.  Access
to Pliny's _Natural History_ is a good idea, Likewise the writings of
Dioscorides, Maimonides, and Paracelsus.  These works give good background
for understanding the development of medicine in the 18th - 19th centuries,
and today.

During the early - mid 19th c. there were published many
dictionaries/cyclopaedias/receipt books which contained everything one
needed to know, from shoeing a horse to making medicine.

Nineteenth century US Patent Office reports, and the early Smithsonian
Reports are mines of interesting (and sometimes useful) information.
Consular reports from US embassies around the world also tell much about
commodities being traded and sometimes how they are adulterated.

_Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis_ also gives good information about
adulteration of chemicals and drugs.  And then there are early numbers of
the _Year Book of the American Pharmaceutical Association_, and Arny's
_Principals of Pharmacy_.

This is not intended to be anything more than an indication of directions
for research.  So many drugs were made up by a local pharmacist using
materials of unknown purity that each exemplar must be tested on its own.
Testing generally destroys the sample.  If testing is not possible, then it
is necessary to read what others have written about the preparation, use
and efficacy of a drug and extrapolate from there.  Always a difficult
prospect.

Jack



>Date:    Mon, 27 Jan 1997 15:46:42 PST
>From:    John Handley <[log in to unmask]>

...and,

>From:    "Henry B. Crawford" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>>    Regarding pharmaceuticals that, over time, become dangerous, I
>>    would be most interested to know if anyone knows more on this.  I
>>    work with a medical collection and have consulted several
>>    physicians who, in their opinion, say there is nothing to worry
>>    about as far as off-gasing, etc.
>>
>>    John Handley
>>    San Francisco
>
>
>And, is is not true that some pharmaceuticals become weaker with age.  I
>remember an MD saying that some medicines carry expirations because they
>are inneffective after a certain shelf-life period.  There ought to be
>standards for certain basic compounds out there somewhere.   Maybe the FDA
>or the CDC.  Also the effects of fumes from old medicines should be
>explored.
>
>Henry B. Crawford        Curator of History
>[log in to unmask]     Museum of Texas Tech University
>806/742-2442           Box 43191
>FAX 742-1136             Lubbock, TX  79409-3191

Jack C. Thompson

Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, OR  97217

503/735-3942  (voice/fax)      "The lyf so short; the craft so long to learn."
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