Pharmacy History
Unite or face bleak future
Calls for the formation of “a pharmacy guild or union” by Australasian Journal of Pharmacy columnist should not be “lightly disregarded”, the publication’s January 1926 editorial states Weaknesses in the pharmacy sector’s position could see …
Cocaine in hayfever
With pollen in the air, the very first edition of the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy highlighted an interesting treatment for hayfever It’s January 1886 and the inaugural edition of the AJP is …
Flashback Friday: Are bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics?
Doctors are divided on whether the manufacture of heroin should be banned… and what’s this about resistance to antibiotics? Welcome to 1955… In the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy’s December 1955 …
An opening for lady chemists
It’s December 1925, and with female pharmacists struggling to find employment, one AJP correspondent proposed a solution “A correspondent recently drew attention to ‘the number of lady chemists out of …
Sir John solves Guild problem
It’s 1975 and Australia is in the middle of a constitutional crisis, but Sir John Kerr’s controversial move may solve an issue for the Guild “The argument between the federal government and …
Brandy for the sick
It’s November 1945, and calls are being made for pharmacists to have access to emergency supplies of brandy. A letter from the Minister for Trade and Customs, Senator RV Keane responding to a …
Flashback Friday: The cry of substitution
It’s 1895, and the AJP has a question to ask of the colonies’ pharmacists: are they being rough on medicines manufacturers? We began our England report in November 1895 by …
Flashback Friday: Crayon crackdown
The Pharmacy Board turns its sights on poisonous crayons, while a girl dies after a doctor’s bad handwriting takes a deadly turn “With the full consensus of the Health Department, …
Flashback Friday: Is pharmacy doomed?
This was the cheerful question with which we busied ourselves in the mid-50s, worried about the potential end of retail pharmacy It’s November 1955, and after noting the countdown to …
Flashback Friday: ‘Victorian pharmacists are suffering a great disability’
It’s October 1925… and what’s going on in Victoria that has the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy up in arms? We began our edition 100 years ago by thundering that there …
Flashback Friday: Pharmacy battles inflation
Could the Whitlam government’s approach to drug prices result in pharmacists going “on strike?” The Whitlam government only had a few weeks left before the infamous Dismissal of November 1975: …
Flashback Friday: Should pharmacists spend less time in the dispensary?
It’s October 1965, Australia has just celebrated Pharmacy Week, and the AJP is excited about its theme, “For Safety Destroy Old Medicines” The theme had been sponsored by the Pharmacy …