Pharmaceutical bottles

Heather Place <heatherplace [at] hotmail__com> writes

>I recently found some bottles in our drugstore display containing
>Tr. Arnica. Tr.Nuc.Vom.  Tr. Iodi and Pv. Jalapa. All look as though
>the contents inside have created such a pressure that the glass
>bottles have cracked...

If I'm not mistaken, these labels sound like Homeopathic remedies,
not modern pharmaceutical chemicals. This is especially likely if
the bottles are over 70 years old. You'd best contact a book on
Homeopathy, but the active compound in a homeopathic remedy is
diluted (succussated?) in minute concentrations in water (or in
sugar pills treated with this water). Perhaps the bottles in
question cracked from freezing, rather than from a chemical
reaction. (Gets mighty cold up there in Winnipeg, we hear.)  I don't
know about whether you want to save the contents, or if they are
under pressure now, but if they are homeopathic remedies, you
probably have little to fear from poisons, etc.

Jerry Shiner
Keepsafe Systems
Micro-climate and Oxygen-free storage for Professional Conservators
800-683-4696
Fax: 416-703-5991


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:15
                 Distributed: Thursday, August 24, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-15-003
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