Stuart Anderson - Legacy of Empire: Pharmacy, medicines & slavery in British West Indies, 1650-1914

In the late 19th century medical and pharmaceutical authorities in Britain took a series of actions that together represented attempts to standardise the use of medicines and the practice of pharmacy throughout the British Empire. By 1914, the General Medical Council had declared that the British Pharmacopoeia was ‘suitable for the whole Empire’; and the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain had published arrangements for the reciprocal recognition of colonial pharmacy qualifications.
A British model of pharmacy had emerged. But when we ask how ‘British’ pharmacy was in 1914, we find very different situations in the 70 colonies.In this seminar I explore the use of medicines and the role of pharmacy in the British West Indies during and after the age of slavery.