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Re: medication bottles



I would recommend contacting Edison NHS in West Orange, NJ. ( http://www.nps.gov/edis/ )
They still have the lab with all of those bottles. Because the contents are unknown they have been pretty much left alone. I would recommend contacting their curator to find out what they are doing.
-Doug (former Park Ranger) 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Doug Bohnenblust
Information Technology Specialist
Wyoming Legislative Service Office
dbohne@state.wy.us

>>> Terry Abraham <tabraham@UIDAHO.EDU> 10/12/2001 9:30:59 AM >>>
This won't answer your question (although I would tend to dump them out
and wash them carefully) but it does recall to mind an appropriately
Friday story.

The archivist at the Thomas Edison Laboratory, I was told, once looked
around the public part, where people wandered through Edison's lab
benches, and asked, "Say, what's in all those bottles?"  The answer was
an enormous number of hazardous and perhaps unstable chemicals that were
now over 50 years old. Many at child level. Oops, time for a
housecleaning.

   ---Terry

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Terry Abraham   Special Collections, University of Idaho
<http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/>


On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, Deridre Routt wrote:

> I need some assistance from the list.
>
> We just received a collection of materials from a local medical society and
> included in this collection, to my surprise, are 18 "medication" bottles.
> They contain a wide variety of materials from mecuriochrome to "green
> pills" (for disenfecting)to potassium pomemgrate (I think I misspelled at
> least that one)which is clearly labeled poison. The bottles range in size
> from about the size of a little finger to one about 6 inches tall and 2-3
> inches wide with a 1 inch mouth. I would hazard a guess that all of them
> are 20th century, the labels are all printed and appear to have been mass
> produced.
>
> I am presuming that we should empty the bottles -- uh, yeah they are all at
> least partially filled. Does anyone know of any good reason why we
> shouldn't empty them? And what kind of precautions should we take? I guess
> I should ask, should we keep them (actually, we may not have much choice on
> that one given the way this donation works -- the archives did not become
> involved in accepting this collection until late in the process) or return
> them saying they are too dangerous?
>
> If anyone has had experience with dealing with these kinds of materials we
> would be very grateful for any kind of advice, or warnings or tips you
> might have.
>
> As I get the list in digest, feel free to respond to me personally but I
> will post responses to the list.
>
> Thank you very much in advance.
>
> Deirdre Routt
> Librarian/Archivist
> Douglas County Historical Society
> Library/Archives Center
> 5730 N 30 St #11B
> Omaha NE 68111
> (402)451-1013
> archivist@omahahistory.org 
>
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