I cannot believe and imagine living in this time frame, worrying about dying from sickness all the time, and using these "medicines" to help me. They used many types of pain management such as alcohol, opium, mescal, and needle injections with heroin and morphine. In the 19th century there was no knowledge of how diseases were spread, and contraceptives were not allowed in the City of New Orleans, the Roman Catholics. The city was filled with sickness, especially during the summer times. Some of the diseases that were prevalent were Syphilis, diphtheria, cholera, malaria, and yellow fever being the largest deadly killer. The pharmacy was more used as a pain management and to purchase items that would distract you from whatever disease you had contracted. The death rates were outrageous. There were no cures or any idea how to even stop or prevent any of these diseases from happening. It was just known that most people in New orleans at this time died, unless they left during the major disease epidemics. I think this is very upsetting to hear about. Listening to the tour guide talk about all the different things they used to help people was jaw clenching and terrifying. I would not have wanted to live here at all during the 19th century. I also absolutely loved this tour and hearing about how pharmaceuticals were back then in the first ever pharmacy in the U.S. Since I am a nursing major, this really struck my interest. It is amazing to see how far pharmaceutical practice and medicines have evolved since the very beginning. Pharmaceutical industry really is a live and learn type of practice. Who knows if we would have become this advanced in practice without all the previous mistakes and problems we have experienced. This really fascinates me to learn about and I would love to do more research myself on the history.
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