BOOK PHARMACOPOEIA

The hospital at Fremantle Prison was built between 1857 and 1859. When completed the hospital had the following capacity; a general ward for 33 patients; a ward each to treat fever and ophthalmic diseases, equipped for 10 patients each; four observation wards, each with a single bed; and two cutaneous wards with three beds for patients with skin complaints. There was also a kitchen, bathroom, surgery and morgue on site.

The hospital was an essential part of the infrastructure at the Convict Establishment. There was a surgeon attached to the Prison, and a more senior staff surgeon who was the Principal Medical Officer in Perth. The Medical Officers were very aware of the ease with which any epidemic could decimate a prison population, so care was taken to prevent such an eventuality. Moreover, there were some diseases which were more prevalent among convicts in Western Australia, which required hospital treatment, such as ophthalmia, dysentery, tuberculosis and lunacy, for which a separate asylum was eventually built outside the Establishment.

Medical Officers and administrators at the Convict Establishment would likely have used this book in the treatment of convicts. Titled 'A Translation of the New London Pharmacopoeia including also The New Dublin and Edinburgh Pharmacopoeias, with a full account of the chemical & medicinal properties of their contents; forming a Complete Materia Medica', it was written by J. Birbank Nevins M.D. of London. This pharmacopeia includes instructions on the use of herbs and palliatives, as well as compounds of mercury and other minerals, splints and bandages. Surviving records written by the Medical Officers at the Convict Establishment show the limitations of what was available at the time to ease pain or to cure serious complaints from which the convicts suffered. This book is a second edition of this title, published in London by Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, in 1854. It is a hardback leather-bound publication with 880 pages.