Museum of Pharmacy in Riga

Riga has the wonderful Museum of Pharmacy. Let's make a short tour along such an interesting place.

This woman is a guide. She welcomes the visitors and tells them a lot about medicines, their production, sale and history. 

These are various pharmaceutical brands.

That's how they were attached to the phials with an appropriate remedy.

Old containers of medicines.

A mortar.

Various old literature on the subject.

In former times, when Wikipedia didn't exist yet, pharmacists had their own analog - "Pharmacopedia". It looked like this.

At those times pharmacy was directly related to the production of medicines. A pharmacist was both a holder of a trade shop and a producer. Every pharmacy had a laboratory in which remedies were produced. Now pharmacy is just a shop. If it has such a lab it's considered something really exceptional.

The exact copy of a modern pharmaceutical laboratory occupies a separate room in the museum.

This lab has two lockers for strong medications and poisons, and drugs. Keys are hold by the main pharmacist of the lab. The picture shows the locker with drugs. It's notable that all the labels are black and inscriptions are white.

Such nice lockers were used by ordinary people to keep their medicines in there.

Tinctures were sold in such creative packaging.

This is the road kit of Alexander II.

Let's look at the packaging of different times.

Thermometers.

Cupping glasses. 

Condoms.

Pharmacy scales.

Pharmacy scales of a bigger size.

Famous Riga Black Balsams invented in the 18th century. 

The matrix of medicines.

Making medicines of herbs.

A device for herb cutting.

For grinding.

Inside the woman's house.

Some medicines are made of snake's poison.

The museum has a wonderful cash desk. And what's amazing - it still works and is used for legitimate purposes.

So take your medicines according to your doctor's prescription until it is too late...