Lavender and Leeches - What Did A Victorian Pharmacy Offer?

As a lookback on my past works, this blog post is going to focus on my short story Lavender and Leeches. This was previously published in The People’s Friend magazine back in 2019. 

Alongside it was this lovely illustration by Jim Dewar.

It was my sixth story with the magazine and was heavily inspired by watching reruns of Victorian Pharmacy, a BBC documentary series starring Ruth Goodman where historians recreated working in a 19^th century pharmacy. 

Other influences came from the pharmacy display at the Bridewell Museum in Norwich, which, while based on a 20^th century pharmacy, certainly has a varied and interesting selection of old medicines. There’s even a carboy 😊

Lavender and Leeches is set in 1845. Herbalist Rowena is disheartened to see a new pharmacy is opening. Locals have turned from the old ways and she fears she will be left behind. 

Will her rivalry with shop owner Jenny Cooper cause her to do something underhanded?

I wanted to write something which examined both methods of healing during this time period. Before the arrival of pharmacies we know today, a doctor or woman knowledgeable in herbs was the first port of call. 

Then, like everything else in the 1800s, medicine became industrialised and commercialised. Advertisements focused on a housewife’s cabinet being stocked up with essentials to keep her family well.

Victorians were particularly obsessed with purges. They believed ridding themselves of everything in their guts would wipe out any sickness. Their methods could be highly dangerous, as can be seen in Everlasting Pills which are mentioned later on in this post.

It’s no surprise people wanted to feel they had some control over their own health, considering cholera, tuberculosis and diphtheria outbreaks were common in England during the early 19^th century.

What is a carboy?

The opening scene in Lavender and Leeches features a carboy being placed in the shop window. Carboys are large glass containers used by pharmacies as calling cards. As early as the 1600s these vessels were displayed and filled with bright chemicals to catch the attention of potential customers.

Various shades were mixed (and at the end of my story the characters come up with a very unique combination) but often red, blue, yellow and green were used, possibly referring to the Four Humours: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm.

Bitter Pills

Nowadays pharmacies stock medicine which have gone through rigorous quality control. Victorian medicine was a bit more… adventurous. Laudanum, opium and cocaine were ingredients for everyday pain relief, even cough medicine for babies had it.

Laudanum is the most mentioned medicine for those writing about this era and that’s because the Victorians turned to it for almost everything. It could “cure” headaches, menstrual cramps, hysteria, insomnia, coughs, pretty much everything, and that’s because the ingredients included morphine and opium. 

It was cheap, highly addictive and easy to overdose on. Laudanum was finally banned in the UK in 1906.

Everlasting Pills (also known as Perpetual Pills/Antimony Pills) were very popular. These pills were made of metallic antimony and prescribed for constipation, as the effect it had on the guts would be rather explosive – and poisonous.

This single pill was for the whole family, as it was fished out of the latrine, given a rinse, and put back in the medicine cupboard. Recycling I’d want to avoid!

Leeches

õ Something jabbed me. Tepid slime coated my fingers. I fell, barely supported by the counter.

A leech clung to the back of my hand. It went stiff as it slurped on my blood, like a black thorn. When I grasped the tail, it dug in even harder. I shrieked.

The shop bell rang.

“Well, well,” a woman called, “what do we have here?” 

- scene from Lavender and Leeches õ

Alongside pills and tonics, pharmacies stocked leeches for patients wanting to remove supposed toxins from their blood. Just like the carboys, this practice stems from the Four Humours theory. People believed letting out some blood would help balance these humours, so why not give the little bloodsuckers a meal too?

Leeches have been used as a medical tool since the Ancient Egyptians. It was only in the mid-19^th century this practice died down. Leeches are still used in medicine today, though mainly for plastic surgery (and as someone who grew up reading A Series of Unfortunate Events, I can’t help but imagine the Lachrymose Leeches *shudder*)

Worms

This only gets a brief mention in the story, but Oil of Earthworms was a remedy for bruises. Worms were ground up with oil and wine. According to a brief search online about whether it was effective, some studies have suggested it can help with wound healing.

What else did Victorian pharmacies offer?

Other products pharmacies offered was tonic water and cooking sauces. Tonic water appeared in the early 19^th century as a sweeter method of getting quinine down, which was used by soldiers to prevent malaria. 

Gin and tonic originated as a way of making this preventative more palatable. It was only in the 1860s that it was treated as a regular drink rather than medicine.

Alongside chemical mixtures, pharmacists also did a bit of cooking to bring in more money. A well-known brand which began life in a pharmacy is Worcestershire sauce.

One of the medical tools used in my story is the bronchitis kettle. These were for people suffering with breathing difficulties. Similar to putting a towel over your head and hunching over a bowl of boiling water, patients sat in a cabinet with the kettle's long stem poking inside. Menthol and steam would then fill up the enclosed space and make it easier to breathe.

Herbs

Alongside the pharmacy, Lavender and Leeches also mentions some of the herbs and plants Rowena picks.

Feverfew looks a bit like a chunky daisy and was used for headaches, fevers and menstrual cramps.

Spiky milk thistle was given to those suffering with liver and gallbladder problems.

Bright yellow St John’s Wort was believed to help a person’s mood and sleep.

As well as being a vegetable, the blue pinwheel borage was used to treat breathing issue.

And, of course, I have to mention please don’t go looking for these plants in the wild. Just like with laudanum, Victorians didn’t always know how harmful certain plants could be. Instead, approach a trusted herbalist/retailer if you’re interested in this type of medicine.

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Hopefully this blog post has sparked an interest in Victorian medicine. Four years after writing this story, I do have a sequel in mind that has been knocking around in my ideas folder. This time from Jenny Cooper’s perspective with the two women working together after a witchcraft accusation.

Lavender and Leeches has been re-released under its original submission title, Bitter Herbs and Sweet Pills, in my anthology collection The Wherryman’s Daughter, featuring stories set around Norfolk and inspired by folklore and local history.

Kindle and paperback versions are available on Amazon!