Saturday, July 21, 2007

Tiny Pill Tales - An old recipe from 1936

WARNING: I am about to give you a piece of totally useless information, but without which, the world would be slightly less richer.

I was talking to Fidel last night about a chapter he is writing for a handbook. He was asking me to look up some information for him, which he figured I could easily do considering my background in pharmacy. As an added bonus, it's information that I'm likely to find in my collection of old pharmaceutical compendiums and pharmacy reference books.

Yes, one of those things I collect is old medical and pharmacy texts. Actually I collect almost any old book that is either a reference or teaches, or has to do with the Canadian Navy or military medical service.

But I do digress.

As we were talking, I pulled out one of the compendiums, the American Druggist Formula Compendium - 1936, and started flipping through it and reading off the odd recipe or comment. I was having a wonderful time going down "pharmacy lane". I don't think Fidel was getting as into it as I was.

I found a gem (actually one of many) and said to Fidel that I must send it to one of the bloggers I read; they'll be tickled (I hope).

The recipe below is listed in the "Miscellaneous Formulas" section, between "Cigar Lighter Paste" and "Etching Fluid for Silver".

So... the is one is for DeathSweeper


~ Embalming fluid ~

" The following formula is approved by the National Funeral Directors Association of the United States.

Solution of Formaldehyde 11 lbs.
Glycerin ............................ 4 lbs.
Sodium Borate .................. 2.5 lbs.
Boric Acid ......................... 1 lb.
Potassium Nitrate ........... 2.5 lbs.
Solution of Eosin (1%) ... 1 oz.
Water to make ................ 10 gals. "


How the heck do you dispense 10 gallons ? I figure that one would have to use 9 Winchester size bottles. I hope you ate your spinach DeathSweeper, 'cause this order is going to be heavy.

1 comment:

deathsweep said...

You know I love your "Tiny Pills" and can't wait until you write these sequences. Ten gallons at a clip must have been hard to dispense as you said but I would imagine that with todays factories manufacturing this juice they must be making it in Thousands of gallons at a time if not more. I wonder how long their 10 gallons of fluid lasted the embalmer of that day?

DS