Medicine Chests
Some of the early English medicine chests, the foundation of which is of wood, are covered with tapestry, others with green satin, sometimes ornamented with floral devices made of puffed satin, overlaid and outlined with gold thread. Medicine chests varied in size, but few households were “furnished” without a fitting receptacle for home-made recipes for simple ailments, such as were much resorted to in the past. The chests were usually well fitted with bottles and phials, and with glass stoppers or silver or pewter tops. Many of the medicines had been prescribed by local practitioners, and were regarded as sovereign remedies to be used on all occasions; others were family recipes held in high repute. In such chests there was often a drawer or compartment containing bleeding cups and lancet—a remedy often resorted to when an illness could not be diagnosed.