An English rural apothecary's shop in which women apothecaries produce eye-lotion from their own urine. Watercolour by Thomas Rowlandson, ca. 1800 (?).
- Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827.
- Date:
- [1800?]
- Reference:
- 645283i
- Pictures
- Online
Selected images from this work
View 1 imageAbout this work
Description
The watercolour shows a rural medical practitioner, a woman, not young, using her own urine to create a medicine which she offers for sale for rubbing on the eyes to dispel bad humours of the eye. She urinates in the right foreground into a funnel over a chemical vessel; another, younger woman urinates in the left background into a funnel placed in a barrel, and a cat urinates in the left foreground on to the ground
"Humours in the eyes" which are mentioned on the signboard seem to have been a kind of disease, possibly cataract. The recipe book of Deborah Bragge (also called Deborah Branch), Wellcome Library MS 1343, has a recipe "For a homour in the eyes. Take a popey head break it into half a pint of watter Lett it be ready to boil then take it off and dape the eyes with it it curred Dr Trotters childs eyes for a homour that fell in them after the small pox" (fol. 79r)
Publication/Creation
Physical description
Contributors
Lettering
Reference
Type/Technique
Languages
Where to find it
Location Status Access Closed storesNote