Sunday, October 12, 2003

By David Templeton, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The curator of The Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life near Avella and a University of Rochester professor traveled to England last month to present information about the museum's collection of 19 th- and early 20 th-century medications.

During Neurotox 2003 at the University of Nottingham, the two succeeded in enticing participants to consider doing research to determine the chemistry, effectiveness and toxicity of the medications.

"We set up a poster there to present the materials, and participants went through and made comments," Meadowcroft curator Bonnie Sanford said. "Our goal was to present the material as well as initiate further interest in researching the collection -- in-depth chemical research. We did get interest from several participants to chemically analyze the medications.

"We got a really wonderful response from all participants," she said.

There was particular interest in how pills were made a century ago, especially regarding Dr. McClure's hand-rolled constipation pills, she said.

Sanford and Dr. John G. Benitez of the University of Rochester's Poison and Drug Information Center participated last month in the conference, sponsored by the British Toxicology Society and other groups.

Returning from England, Sanford learned that the Toxicology Historical Society has scheduled her and Benitez to give an oral presentation about the museum's collection during an upcoming North American Congress of Toxicology conference in Orlando, Fla.

Sanford said she's interested in doing the presentations to let researches know about the unique collection and encourage further research.

A July 6 Seldom Seen column described the Meadowcroft collection of medications of yore, including Lydia E. Pinkham's Cure for Female Weaknesses, Dr. Hobson's EZy Liver Pellets, Radio X and Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People. The collection includes more than 100 bottles, vials and boxes of medications including heart, bladder and liver pills, ointments, laxatives, corn plasters, tooth powders, worm pills and dandruff medications.

In 1970, Meadowcroft founder Albert Miller, who died in 1999, bought the contents of an apothecary and general store in Wellsburg, W.Va. that John Fowler ran from 1856 to 1900, and whose family continued operating it until about 1940. The store and post office were situated inside the historic log building now housing Drover's Inn.

Among Miller's acquisitions were bottles and containers full of old-fashioned remedies.

But Sanford grew concerned the medications might pose a health risk to employees and visitors, especially if displayed at the "Fowler Store" that Miller built to house the general store inventory at Meadowcroft. She summoned Benitez, the former Pittsburgh Poison Center's medical director, to check the contents of the bottles and containers and recommend how best to store and preserve them.

Benitez determined some of the medications to be innocuous, but others contained narcotics, while still others were spiked with such poisons as arsenic and strychnine. He sent a Radio X pill to a lab to determine if it is radioactive, and what measures to take if it is. Some medications from the early 1900s contained tinctures of radioactive radium.

Benitez recommended that the museum display only the packaging and bottles at the Fowler Store, but said the pills and tonics should be preserved for research.

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