Rx: Take Twice Daily

Lawson Hall, 2nd Floor

Installed December 2025

Curated by Erin Case, Kimberly DelMedico, and Audrey McKenzie

Indigenous Medicine

Did you know that the first birth control pill in Canada contained compounds from a North American plant?

Plants native to Turtle Island are, and have been, traditional, sacred, and spiritual medicines to many Indigenous nations. They have also been used in Western medical ideas, often without credit or compensation.

Searle, makers of the first birth control pill in Canada, Enovid 10, used compounds found in wild yams, native to what is now called Mexico. Additionally, Aspirin is made using compounds found in willow bark.

Brown glass bottle labelled "Enovid" 10 mg, with 50 tablets. The first birth control pill in Canada.

Enovid, the first birth control pill in Canada

A brown glass bottle labelled "Aspirin" in handwriting, with a black cap.

Aspirin

In 1835-36, the Stadacona peoples famously cured Jacques Cartier’s men of scurvy, a severe Vitamin C deficiency, with Annedda, a tea made from leaves of a coniferous tree high in Vitamin C.

A branch of white cedar, green in colour.

White Cedar (Wikipedia).

Samuel Thomson

Would you trust a medicinal recipe from someone who is not a doctor?

Samuel Thomson (1769-1873), although not a licensed doctor, founded the Thomsonian method, which promoted Western herbalism for medical treatment.

He created the method in response to doctors’ practices of the day, such as enemas, blood-letting, and opioid medicines that he believed were harmful. He encouraged everyday people to treat themselves with his recipe books. His most recommended plants were lobelia inflata (tobacco) and cayenne pepper.

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Thomson’s ideas became popular in Upper Canada as distrust of the government and traditional authority figures deepened. Upper Canadians in the first half of the 19 century could turn to Thomson's book for information on how to treat themselves medically.

Image of a purple flower with green spiny leaves and three petals.

Lobelia inflata was the first plant with which Thomson experimented (Wikipedia).

Dr. John Salter

Do you know the ingredients in your medicine?

Approximately 190 years ago, Londoners could visit the city’s first apothecary and see for themselves.

Dr. John Salter (1802-81) established London’s first apothecary in 1837 at Ridout and Dundas streets.

Salter immigrated from England to London, Canada West, in 1835. He operated his apothecary first on Ridout and, after that, at Clarence and Dundas until his death. He offered apprenticeships to notable pharmacists such as William Saunders. Upper Canadians in the first half of the 19 century could go to apothecaries like Salter's to receive medicine.

Map of London segment from downtown with a location marker on the corner of Dundas and Ridout.

Location of Dr. Salter's first store (MAP OF LONDON, CANADA WEST, 1840-41. Archives and Special Collections, Western University).

Apothecary scale made of wood base with drawer in it and an upright metal scale with round plates hanging on each side. In front are a bunch of tiny weights, both round and square shaped.

Apothecary Scale, c. mid-19th century

William Saunders

Would you trust an entomologist with your prescriptions?

Born in England, William Saunders (1836-1914) came to Canada when he was just twelve years old. He came to live in London. A few years later, Saunders apprenticed under John Salter.

In 1855, Saunders opened his own practice that focused on pharmaceuticals derived from plants, as he was an avid botanist and agriculturalist. Saunders often made his own extracts from natural elements. His extracts became so famous that he exhibited them internationally at the World Fair in Paris in 1889.

Stoneware mortar and pestle, white.

Mortar and pestle

His business on Dundas Street flourished, and Saunders became a founding member of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society in 1868 and was later its president. Saunders helped establish the Ontario College of Pharmacy. In 1877, Saunders became the president of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

Black and white photograph of William Saunders, with a well kept beard and moustache, wearing a suit and bow tie.

William Saunders (Library and Archives Canada).

Professionalization

Did you know it was legal to sell poisons to customers?

In the middle of the 19th century, pharmacies started to become more professional and regimented with legislation. There was confusion around who was responsible for the compounding and dispensing of drugs, the physician or druggist.

The first official legislation for the apothecary came with the Poison Act of 1859, which regulated the sale of deadly poisons dispensed by a pharmacist.

In 1867, next was the establishment of the Toronto Chemists and Druggists Association (which became the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society a year later).

The TCDA started to standardize the profession and created the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, which allowed pharmacists to share knowledge. Within two months of its creation, the TCDA had over a hundred members.

The first Pharmacy Act of 1871 led to the inauguration of the first Ontario College of Pharmacy in 1882. This meant the pharmacists could control what was being taught and advocate for themselves. The Act recognized the rights of pharmacists and protected the profession from being absorbed by the physician.

The Modern Pharmacy

How did pharmacists’ roles change?

By the 1950s, pharmacists increasingly dispensed pre-prepared formulas from wholesale pharmaceutical companies like W.E. Saunders Ltd. The types of medication changed, too.

Drug store with large picture windows on the front and a recessed doorway. Displays are in the windows and drapery hangs above them.

Cairncross and Lawrence Drug Store, c. 1899. (The Ivey Family London Room, London Public Library).

How did medications change?

Researchers made major advancements in antimicrobials, psychoactive drugs, and hormones. Scientists discovered or invented many common medications during this time, such as penicillin (antibiotic), fluoxetine (antidepressant), and insulin (hormone). Today, laboratories create fully synthesized drugs rather than naturally derived ones.

Drug store on a corner with a rounded corner on the building containing tall arched windows. Above this is the drug store sign.

Chapman’s Drugs at 540 Dundas Street in 1959. The London Free Press Collection of Photographic Negatives, [March 19, 1959], Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries, Western University, London, Canada. [Copy from the Ivey Family London Room.]

How did the pharmacy change?

Pharmacy chains became more common in the 20th century. For example, the London drugstore, Cairncross & Lawrence, had five locations when Loblaws-owned Tamblyn Ltd. purchased it in 1967. By the 1980s, the British brand, Boots Pharmacy, acquired Tamblyn, then sold again to the now-familiar Pharma Plus in the 1990s.

Interior of a pharmacology lab; contains a sink and tabled with drawers underneath, one of which stands open. Stools sit beside this, and along the entire wall are shelves full of pharmaceutical bottles.

Pharamcology Lab Preparation Room in the Ottaway building at the South Street Hospital in London, c. 1960s (A08-042-001. Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries, Western University).

A new age of legislation?

The Proprietary or Patent Medicine Act (1908)

The Food and Drug Act (1920)

Major amendments in 1961 and 1969

The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (1996)

Featured Artifacts

Medicine Spoon

Wooden chest with two doors. Inside the doors and the interior are clear glass bottles full of medicine. There are two drawers inside and one is open, showing tiny medicine vials full of substances.

Medicine Chest

Wooden pill cutter with brass pieces. Brass is scalloped to create pill tubes which are pressed and cut. The handle pieces fits over the base to do this and has the same scallops.