0:00:02 > 0:00:04Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire
0:00:04 > 0:00:07revives the sights, sounds and smells of the 19th century.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10- Morning.- Morning.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13At its heart stands the pharmacy -
0:00:13 > 0:00:19a treasure house of potions and remedies from a century and a half ago.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Now, in a unique experiment, Ruth Goodman, Nick Barber
0:00:22 > 0:00:27and Tom Quick are opening the doors to the Victorian pharmacy,
0:00:27 > 0:00:33recreating a High Street institution we take for granted, but which was once a novel idea.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35How can I help?
0:00:35 > 0:00:41They'll bring the pharmacy to life, sourcing ingredients, mixing potions and dispensing cures.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44But in an age when skin creams contained arsenic
0:00:44 > 0:00:49and cold cures were made from opium, the team will need to be highly selective.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52They'll only make safe versions of traditional remedies
0:00:52 > 0:00:56and try them out on carefully selected customers.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59The start was like the Wild West.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03- People didn't know what was good and bad.- Try and get a bit of speed up... Oh, there we go.
0:01:03 > 0:01:09The pharmacy was something that affected everybody's lives in one way or another.
0:01:09 > 0:01:15They'll discover an age of social transformation that brought healthcare
0:01:15 > 0:01:18within the reach of ordinary people for the very first time,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22heralding a consumer revolution that reached far beyond medicine
0:01:22 > 0:01:28to create the model for the modern High Street chemist as we know it today.
0:01:38 > 0:01:45Victorian cities and other industrial centres were notorious for thick smogs or "pea-soupers".
0:01:45 > 0:01:49This noxious mix of smoke and sulphur dioxide,
0:01:49 > 0:01:55thrown up by the burning of coal, made breathing-related illnesses a scourge of the age.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Ruth is preparing a Victorian cough treatment called a plaster.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11I have a volunteer coming in,
0:02:11 > 0:02:19who says he's willing to try out a plaster.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22This isn't quite the same as a modern plaster!
0:02:22 > 0:02:30This is a medical treatment, something you put on the skin to draw things out of the body.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33It can be all sorts of things, like there are plasters
0:02:33 > 0:02:38that fit on the head to help draw away, working for headaches.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41There are plasters that help to sort of, like earache, you could put
0:02:41 > 0:02:46plasters around the back of the ears that will help to draw humours out.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51All sorts of conditions were believed to be able to be relieved in this way.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Of all the sort of early Victorian forms of medicine, in some ways
0:02:57 > 0:03:00this is one of the least invasive, one of the most gentle methods
0:03:00 > 0:03:06because you're not breaking the skin or anything, you're just applying it on the surface of the skin.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Certainly that warmth and the vapours that rise off it,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14even if they do nothing else, can be really soothing.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20I've got to melt this wax down, which is going to take a little while,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23and then I add the olive oil.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28Plasters were a common preparation for many conditions throughout the 19th century.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32These sticky leather strips could be infused with different active
0:03:32 > 0:03:36ingredients and were used to treat a variety of ailments.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39This is the most active ingredient.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41This is an oil of Frankincense.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46It smells wonderful.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49I just want a couple of drops of this.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55Some ailments were treated with more dangerous ingredients - the poisonous belladonna plant
0:03:55 > 0:03:58to relieve muscle spasms, lead for cuts,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and opium for local pain relief.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Gosh, as that goes into the warm oil, boy, can I smell that!
0:04:06 > 0:04:10Frankincense is one of those valuable spices...
0:04:10 > 0:04:14well, it's not a spice, it's a resin from a tree, but it's one of those
0:04:14 > 0:04:17really important ones in the history of medicine.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22It's particularly good at sort of clearing things out from the chest.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28That's why it's an important ingredient for this plaster.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34Next door in the treatment room, Tom is using a favourite Victorian implement - the bronchial kettle -
0:04:34 > 0:04:39to try and relief the symptoms of customer Keith Dodd's dry, wheezy cough.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43What we've got to try and help you with that today is a thing called a bronchial kettle.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48- Looks very interesting. - The idea of this is it's going to
0:04:48 > 0:04:51create a lot of steam and so on, and it's got some herbs in there,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and what we're going to do is get you,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57if you want to come around here and I can sit you in this
0:04:57 > 0:05:01little booth that we've made in the back here.
0:05:01 > 0:05:07With added herbs and Tom's self-made tent, the bronchial kettle is an industrial step up from placing
0:05:07 > 0:05:11the customer's head under a towel over a bowl of steaming water.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16We'll try and create a kind of steamy environment.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20Hopefully what will happen is we'll get a kind of nice
0:05:20 > 0:05:25thick steam coming up, and you mentioned the cough was dry...
0:05:25 > 0:05:26It's a very dry cough, yeah.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29And so what the idea behind it would have been
0:05:29 > 0:05:33would be to counteract the dryness of the cough in some way by
0:05:33 > 0:05:36creating a very wet environment for you.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Now this is the scary bit.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Ruth now has to cut out a template for her cough plaster.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45"Place the leather on a thick...
0:05:45 > 0:05:49"and smooth it before putting on the shape."
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Now I've got to cut
0:05:51 > 0:05:54a paper stencil.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56A decent bit of card.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59That's sort of the shape I want...
0:06:01 > 0:06:03..ish.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08Oh, I like making things. And to make it stay in place, I'm to wet it.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12Ruth then spreads the waxy mixture into the gap
0:06:12 > 0:06:14left by the card template.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17I obviously don't need very much at all.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20So all I've got to do now is cut around
0:06:20 > 0:06:24and then I could pack these in boxes.
0:06:24 > 0:06:30You put a bit of wax-proof paper between each one and you can stack them up in boxes so you could sell
0:06:30 > 0:06:33a box of cough plasters, a box of headache plasters.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Although it's a very old idea and sort of a very old technique,
0:06:37 > 0:06:42the whole way of packaging it and selling it is actually really new.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45There we go.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49That's me first chest plaster.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53- I do have a bit of a cough, yes.- You do? And what sort of a cough is it?
0:06:53 > 0:06:56A bronchial sort of cough.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58A bit asthmatic.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Retired army medic Anthony Dunford has come in to try the plaster.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09What I'm hoping is that as the wax melts it will release the active ingredient, which is Frankincense.
0:07:09 > 0:07:16- Frankincense.- So you're going to get that sort of pungent smell rising up under your nose.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18You'll be breathing it in.
0:07:19 > 0:07:25It's pointy end down. So that just goes on the centre there.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28We just smooth that. I can feel the warmth of your body
0:07:28 > 0:07:31is melting that wax. It's more pliable than when I put it on.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33That seems to be sticking.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Oh, it is, isn't it?!
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Hey, the self-adhesive plaster! SHE LAUGHS
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Perhaps I don't need my bandages after all.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47The Victorians obviously would have worn it as long as possible, two or three days,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52so it is really a matter of how much you can put up with before you need to get it off and have a wash.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54I will persevere.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59- Are you getting any benefit from that there?- Yes, it's definitely helping.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I can actually breathe really deeply now,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06which I couldn't have done 10 minutes ago, so it's really helped.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09I'm certainly breathing more easily at the moment.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13As you seem to be enjoying it so much, then, I'll leave you there for a while.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15OK, don't forget me!
0:08:15 > 0:08:17OK, see you in a bit.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22The bronchial kettle was one way of clearing the airwaves, but another popular method was spitting.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28If a shop wanted to keep the phlegm off the floor, it was in their interests to provide a spittoon.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31What we've got here is a spittoon full of phlegm.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39Would have been of the worst duties in the shop, to have to empty this thing, basically.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Cleaning them out was a serious health hazard
0:08:42 > 0:08:45as the spittoon could easily be contaminated with tuberculosis -
0:08:45 > 0:08:48a common disease in Victorian times.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52The way we think about medicines today and disease today,
0:08:52 > 0:08:59this idea of lots of different people spitting into the same bowl, it seems bizarre.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05But actually, if you think about certainly early-19th-century ideas of disease,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10it's not so weird because...
0:09:10 > 0:09:12the idea is that really,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15disease is like a visible thing.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20This is before bacteriology, remember, so there's no idea of
0:09:20 > 0:09:24a hidden substance there that's going to give you a disease.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26So although there might be a big sort of...
0:09:26 > 0:09:33the way we might think of it, a huge amount of tuberculosis
0:09:33 > 0:09:39and all sorts of things festering in this swamp, really,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42actually, as far as they were concerned,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46as long as you get rid of the mucus itself, no problem.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Few things worried Victorians more than their bowel movements.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01The pharmacist was able to offer a very special treatment to keep them regular.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Victorians believed there was nothing like a good purge to make them feel better.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10It was what you needed to do, clear yourself out.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13This is something called the everlasting pill.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18It's one of my favourite remedies from the Victorian age.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23Particularly at this time, people wanted to purge the body, and this was one of the ways of doing it.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29What they used was a pill a bit like this, which was made out of something called antimony.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Antimony is a really heavy metal.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36It's quite a toxic metal, which we wouldn't use these days, but in those days they didn't see it as that.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38They'd take this, it would go into their gut,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41a little bit of the antimony would be dissolved,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43they'd have vomiting,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47they'd have diarrhoea, and the pill would pass through.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52It's called the everlasting pill because it's fished out of the faeces at the end,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55washed up, put in a bottle on the shelf,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58and any member of the family who wants a good purge
0:10:58 > 0:11:01takes it the next time they want to take it.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Potentially, it's passed on through the generations.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Some doctors began to question the wisdom of using such dangerous techniques.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15The search for alternative, less risky treatments was on.
0:11:20 > 0:11:27Malvern Spa in Worcestershire offered an alternative therapy - the revolutionary new hydrotherapy cure.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Hello, John. Nice to meet you.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32I'm in such trepidation about this.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Don't worry, it's only cold water.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Remember, it's 5.00 or 6.00am
0:11:36 > 0:11:41and I need your help to wet the sheets.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43OK.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48- Dr John Harcup has brought the water cure to Blists Hill. - Have you done this yourself?
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Not wrapped in a white sheet, but I had a cold bath on many occasions.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55- By cold do you mean...? - Oh, yes. Very cold.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59We did some research work in the 1990s about this.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05It was amazing. I had my blood test before and after a cold bath,
0:12:05 > 0:12:11- and my white cell count went up dramatically.- So this is actually...
0:12:11 > 0:12:13..stimulating the immune system.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16And it really is. Did they know that in the Victorian period?
0:12:16 > 0:12:19- No, they hadn't a clue. - So why were they doing it, then?
0:12:19 > 0:12:21What's this supposed to do for me?
0:12:21 > 0:12:24This is supposed to relax you.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27- To relax?- Yes.- Wet sheets?!
0:12:27 > 0:12:30- SHE LAUGHS - I don't call that very relaxing!
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Well, this is the effect of water, you see.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Your heart works more efficiently and harder,
0:12:37 > 0:12:42and you get a better circulation in other parts of the body.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46It was so different from bleeding and purging,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48and these heavy-metal poisons.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51So this is a cure for the same sorts of things that
0:12:51 > 0:12:54- all those really invasive techniques were being used for? - That's right.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Of course, non-invasive, really.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01The Malvern Water Cure was first offered in 1842 by two local doctors who were
0:13:01 > 0:13:06appalled by the dangers of the drugs and techniques in common use.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09- You'll warm it up very quickly. - Oh...- Honestly.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11I wish it did hurry up and warm up!
0:13:11 > 0:13:14You're impatient. You're an impatient patient.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16God, I am. I hate being cold!
0:13:16 > 0:13:23You're going to feel better because you've been relaxed and you've been stimulated by the cold water.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Strange though it is, I would rather do this than swallow a dose of arsenic, mercury...whatever.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31- Lead.- Lead. Exactly.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36So you could either go to your physician and have something really poisonous prescribed...
0:13:36 > 0:13:38- Yes, or you could come to Malvern and...- Have the health regime.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41- That's right. - One day sort me out?- No, no, no.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43You came for three weeks, at least.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46- So you've got accommodation costs, yeah.- It was four guineas a week.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50- That's a lot of money!- It's £400.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54There were quite a number of famous names on the patient list.
0:13:54 > 0:14:00- Yes. Charles Darwin came and he ended up by saying he didn't think the Water Cure was quackery.- Right.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05And Florence Nightingale came when she collapsed after working
0:14:05 > 0:14:09too hard doing the report for the Royal Sanitary Commission.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14- Oh, right.- And she wrote, seven years afterwards, that she owed
0:14:14 > 0:14:18- her life to the Water Cure at Malvern.- Really?- Yes.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22So how long do I have to stay at this?
0:14:22 > 0:14:25- An hour.- Right. Great.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27And then I'll come and unwrap you.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30- OK... - I expect you'll be asleep, actually.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33- OK.- Cheerio.
0:14:33 > 0:14:34Bye.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40I don't like having my feet all tied up.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45I always pull the bedclothes out at the bottom when I go to bed.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53The Malvern Water Cure was far more than just being wrapped in wet sheets.
0:14:53 > 0:15:00Plenty of hill-walking and the drinking of endless glasses of spa water were all part of the regime.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Taking the waters was hugely fashionable, and manufacturers began
0:15:03 > 0:15:08producing drinks that mimicked the taste and fizziness of spring water.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12These quickly established themselves as popular health drinks.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Scientist, Mike Bullivant, will be running the pharmacy laboratory.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24His working knowledge of 19th-century chemistry will be invaluable.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Aerated gassed waters were a really big part of the sales for pharmacists.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31- They made lots of money on it. - Oh, hopefully.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34The basic ingredients are cheap enough, aren't they?
0:15:34 > 0:15:36So how do you make gaseous water?
0:15:36 > 0:15:41- Three ingredients. First is water, obviously.- Good start.- We've got citric acid.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46- Right.- Which is an ingredient in today's waters.- Oh, right.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47It's perfectly harmless.
0:15:47 > 0:15:53Second... Or third ingredient, sodium bicarbonate, baking soda.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55Another harmless compound.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58I can see them gassing together there, the gas being produced.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03The carbon dioxide forming. So there's your aerated water.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06And the acid test is, does it pop when you open it?
0:16:06 > 0:16:08OK, give it a go.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12- CORK POPS - Whoa! Result.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16That's a fairly tight seal on there.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19- Nice design, there.- This is a good bottle, as well, isn't it?
0:16:19 > 0:16:24One of the big problems in the early days was that producing this water
0:16:24 > 0:16:27produced pressure, and the bottles weren't strong enough.
0:16:27 > 0:16:34And in the early days the pharmacists used to have thick woollen jumpers on
0:16:34 > 0:16:38to protect them from the broken glass if the bottle exploded.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41They tried various other bottles. I've got a couple that they tried.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44This was a bottle which they produced because one of the problems
0:16:44 > 0:16:52was if you produced a normal bottle, put a cork in it, as you did, as the cork dried out, it shrank, pops out.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55And therefore, they produced this bottle
0:16:55 > 0:16:59which has a round base, so it can't stand and let the cork dry out.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05It's put down, it rests on its side, so the cork was kept permanently wet.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Right, here we are, shallow bath.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14And this will prepare you for going up the hills.
0:17:14 > 0:17:15It's to tone you up.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17Tone me up.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Argh! Blimey!
0:17:20 > 0:17:21Ohh...
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Now, there is other things we can do with the water.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29We can give you a douche.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32You stood naked underneath one of three pipes.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36One and half, two and half, or three and a half inches in diameter.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41- The water from the springs on the hills was in a cistern...- Yeah?
0:17:41 > 0:17:43And it dropped 20 feet on to your naked body.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49And you get 56 imperial gallons of cold water going on you.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53I think I'd better go and get some more water.
0:17:53 > 0:17:54Oh, God...
0:17:59 > 0:18:04The popularity of aerated or soda waters spread across the Empire.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08In India, British Army officers discovered that mixing soda water
0:18:08 > 0:18:12and the drug quinine was the perfect tonic for victims of malaria.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17Simply named Indian tonic water, it became not only the world's
0:18:17 > 0:18:21most celebrated medicinal drink but also the perfect mixer for gin.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26Tom's going to learn how to extract the vital ingredient, quinine,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30from the bark of the South American Cinchona tree.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32So what is this bark, then?
0:18:32 > 0:18:34- This is bark from a tree. - Yeah, which one?
0:18:34 > 0:18:36It was Peruvian bark from the Cinchona tree.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40They would have got the quinine out that way, by chewing it.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Or you can make tea with it. You can boil it up in water.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45It controls fever. And it stops you shivering.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50That's one of the things...the reasons they used to take it.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55Which is quite separate from its anti-malarial properties, killing the malarial parasite.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58I'm going to take the stuff that you've ground already.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00This is the ground bark,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04- and mix it up with this very strong alkali, calcium hydroxide.- Right.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06And it releases the quinine.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12This is the process that we're getting that one element out of all of these, then?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Yes, we're going to isolate one. It's like a needle in a haystack, I guess.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18We will be able to isolate the quinine and none of the others.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Let's add the chloroform.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25The solvent chloroform was also popular as a Victorian anaesthetic.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30Queen Victoria was administered the drug for the birth of two of her children.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36The quinine will be dissolved in...the chloroform.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41The next stage is to add sulphuric acid to separate the quinine from the chloroform.
0:19:41 > 0:19:47- Return that chloroform.- We want the custard layer, then, right? - The quinine is in this top layer.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49The custard layer, I like that.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54And this would be very highly skilled work for an apprentice, as well.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58This would be kind of...almost, if you were going into a laboratory
0:19:58 > 0:20:04and doing something like this, it would be really kind of top of your game sort of stuff.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Tom's chemistry lesson is about to get even tougher...
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Tell me if you want a break.
0:20:11 > 0:20:18- I'm all right so far. - ..as Mike adds ammonia to the solution, releasing a pungent odour.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21I'd do it outside but one of the reasons for showing you this
0:20:21 > 0:20:25is to show you what a profession you've joined.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27- Oh, wow.- That's the turning point.
0:20:27 > 0:20:33Now, that means that all of the...sulphate...converted.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Right, let's leave that to heat up a little bit and see what happens.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Let's go and get some fresh air and a cup of tea.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47- OK, great. I'll see if Nick wants to have a look.- Good idea.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Hi, Mike. How's the quinine extraction going?
0:20:57 > 0:21:00You've arrived at just the right moment, mate. The quinine is in here.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04- Let's see.- But we've also got a load of rubbish in there,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07and all the impurity we don't want, so I'm filtering it off.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10The quinine should crystallise out.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12That's if the process has worked.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17Yep. This is just such a tremendous story of the Victorian times, wasn't it?
0:21:17 > 0:21:20It's sort of how things changed, in terms of...
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Well, the extraction, in particular. Because quinine was valued so much.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27There were wars were fought over quinine.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Well, certain people would say that it enabled Europeans
0:21:31 > 0:21:33to colonise Africa, the Dark Continent.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38- People were going over, exploring Africa, getting malaria and not coming back.- Yes.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43But quinine, because of its anti-malarial properties, would actually allow people to come back.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48- You can see it crystallising as it's falling out.- Yes.
0:21:48 > 0:21:55Adding the crystallised quinine to the pre-prepared soda water produces the classic Indian tonic water.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Just pick up one crystal.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00It's probably way over the legal limit, but...
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I don't think there was a legal limit in those days.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07It was a damn sight safer than anything else they were doing.
0:22:07 > 0:22:08There you are, Professor Barber.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Oh, fantastic.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13- Let's go and find some gin. - Sounds good to me. - HE LAUGHS
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Tonic water wasn't the only recipe
0:22:16 > 0:22:20to be brought home from the British Empire.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23As pharmacists established themselves,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26customers came to them to make up all kinds of preparations.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32Not only medicines but anything that required precision, including exotic food recipes.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42This needs to be very, very, very much more precise than I'm used to.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44I'll grab myself a bowl.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49Ruth is attempting to recreate a recipe made famous in
0:22:49 > 0:22:551838 by two Worcestershire chemists, John Lea and William Perrins.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59I tend to be quite a touchy-feely cook.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02This precision, this being able to produce something
0:23:02 > 0:23:06exactly the same, time after time, has not brought in the money.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Worcestershire sauce began life as a recipe for curry powder brought back from India and given
0:23:11 > 0:23:14to local pharmacists Lea and Perrins to make up.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17I've gone over, how annoying!
0:23:17 > 0:23:21An employee then suggested that it might work better as a sauce.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23You see, if I was just cooking,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25it would have done, it would have been fine.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29We've got ginger, obviously, and allspice.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34Pepper, coriander, mace, brandy.
0:23:34 > 0:23:40And asafetida. An interesting substance.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42It was used as an aid to digestion
0:23:42 > 0:23:46for centuries in Persia, which is where it's from.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50It helps to...it stops flatulence basically.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54This, like many of these ingredients, were actually felt to have medicinal
0:23:54 > 0:23:58properties, of course, as well as being a nice taste.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00That could be some of the reason why they're in here.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04The asafetida, this is a sauce, a relish to eat with food so the fact that it
0:24:04 > 0:24:11might help to calm your digestion would be really useful, a benefit, a bonus. Now, the vinegar.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14But Lea and Perrins found the resulting mixture so distasteful
0:24:14 > 0:24:18that they abandoned it in the shop's cellar.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Years later, while clearing out the cellar, they discovered
0:24:21 > 0:24:25the sauce had fermented into something far more acceptable.
0:24:25 > 0:24:26The new product was born.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30My instinct is just to guess. SHE LAUGHS
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Right, that's all of those in there.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43A nice spicy, spicy mix.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48If a recipe proved particularly appealing, there was nothing
0:24:48 > 0:24:53to stop pharmacists from selling their own preparation en masse.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58Some of today's biggest brand names started from such humble origins.
0:25:00 > 0:25:06Mr Lea and Mr Perrins thought it tasted utterly disgusting at this stage. So...
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Urgh, blinking heck, that's powerful! SHE LAUGHS
0:25:13 > 0:25:17It's strong. But it's quite nice.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Maybe I've got a stronger palate than Mr Lea and Mr Perrins.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29There, that looks quite good.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31All I've got to do is come up with a name.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33In the 1840s, getting the name right,
0:25:33 > 0:25:36getting the brand right was really important if you were to sell loads.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Barber and Goodman's Spectacular Shropshire Sauce.
0:25:44 > 0:25:51Ruth's Spectacular Shropshire Sauce joins the pharmacy's new range of branded products.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53- The end of the process, isn't it? - Yeah.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59And just getting an insight into all the different processes
0:25:59 > 0:26:02that went into making this tonic water.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06It is different, isn't it, the whole business of making stuff and then selling it.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09You can see how people would have felt really proud of what they had
0:26:09 > 0:26:14achieved as well, in terms of seeing it through from the very inception.
0:26:15 > 0:26:22There's a sense in which the chemist and druggist is becoming a much more powerful force in some ways,
0:26:22 > 0:26:27through, on the one hand, being hard-headed businessmen
0:26:27 > 0:26:33and making their shops into profitable going concerns
0:26:33 > 0:26:40and on the other hand, saying, "We're going to introduce chemical knowledge into the pharmacy."
0:26:40 > 0:26:45To mark the launch of their Spectacular Shropshire Sauce,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48the pharmacy's invited some of its customers in for a tasting.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Can I interest any of you in a little try of some Shropshire Sauce?
0:26:52 > 0:26:56You only need a tiny bit, it's strong.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59A couple of drops on your chips sort of sauce. Those sorts of flavours.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02- It's that scrunched up face! - THEY LAUGH
0:27:02 > 0:27:04There's something about it that just gets me.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10I've really enjoyed this first experience of early Victorian medicine.
0:27:10 > 0:27:17It's been such a combination of so many things from the past and new experiments into the future.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21We've been launching off now into the new science and if anything,
0:27:21 > 0:27:28this experience has really whetted my appetite for the next finding out, the next, where did it go from here.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31I'm dying to ask, how long did that plaster last?
0:27:32 > 0:27:34About three hours.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Three hours? That's more than I thought, actually.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39- BOTTLE POPS - Once the actual steam kettle got going
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and the actual herbs came through, there was that 10-minute spell
0:27:43 > 0:27:48when the smell of rosemary came in and it was beautiful.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Once it got going, it was really exciting for me.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52So, let's have a toast.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56Cheers, or perhaps we should say, good health!
0:27:56 > 0:27:59- May you all come back as customers, often! - SHE LAUGHS
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Next time on Victorian Pharmacy...
0:28:05 > 0:28:09the medicine that was supposed to cure everything.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Soap powder acts as a laxative.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Yep, I'm willing to try everything.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17I can feel them working already.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Ruth cooks up some Victorian hair-restorer.
0:28:21 > 0:28:22How long does this take?
0:28:22 > 0:28:25I don't think we're working in minutes.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29And more Victorian contraptions are unleashed on the public.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Look at that! She's almost doing that by herself!
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
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