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Koester, George W. (1863-1898) Manuscript on Paper, Pharmacist's Formulary.
Lyons, New York: 1887-1898.
12mo format manuscript on lined laid paper, approximately 150 pages including index, original sheepskin wallet binding, quite worn, boards detached, sewing perished, minor dampstaining and wear to contents, a few pages coming loose, related clippings inserted, 6 x 3 1/4 in.
Koester was raised in Lyons, Wayne County in western New York. He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in 1887 and returned to Lyons. He not only sold medicine by prescription and retail, but he was also a manufacturer with a specialty in perfumes and toiletries. He died of pneumonia at the age of thirty-five. This volume of pharmaceutical formulations is signed only "W. Koester, Lyons," but seems almost certainly to belong to the same man; he went simply as William in the 1870 and 1880 census. Some entries appear to mimic well-known patent medicines by other manufacturers, such as "a cough syrup similar to Boscher's German syrup"; "Van Buskirk's fragrent sozodont" (a type of toothpaste); "Perry Davis' pain killer"; "Sanford's Liver Invigorator"; "Brandreth's Pills"; and "Dr. B.W. Hair's Asthma Remedy." Others are simple remedies for whooping cough, burns, sore throat, gonorrhea, cholera, sore nipples, and other ailments. Alcohol is a frequent ingredient. A recipe for camphor powder calls for sulphur of morphine (page 94), as does Tully's Powder (page 121), while Chandler's Chlorodyne calls for muriate morphia (page 117). Interspersed are more mechanical applications such as "machine oil," "mixture for cleaning brass," and fly paper. A "table of signs and abbreviations" appears on pages 44-45, and the metric system is summarized on page 96-97.Lyons, NY, circa 1887-98
