Special Homeopathic Pocket Pharmacies now part of the IGM Collection

After reading the description, it was clear that the two pocket pharmacies offered at an auction in May 2023 were something special and that the IGM would therefore submit a bid: "Homeopathic pocket pharmacies: compiled in tin boxes by Dr. med. homoeop. R. Haehl. Dr. Fr. Mauch Göppingen. 1 x Hahnemannia Landesverein für den Kriegsbedarf. Equipped with glass vials. With instruction booklet. Lid rubbed. Age spots.‘ Until then, the ’homeopathic pocket pharmacy for home and travel use" included in the lot had been known only from advertisements in medical journals. Furthermore, virtually no such item from the Mauch pharmacy in Göppingen had been handed down or was known to have been preserved in other collections. But the happily acquired lot had another surprise in store: on closer inspection, the accompanying ‘Hahnemannia Homeopathic War Pocket Pharmacy’ also turned out to be a previously unpreserved specimen.
Until the acquisition of the new addition, the IGM collection already included an empty wartime first aid kit, which had been misused as a storage container for screws during its lifetime and is therefore no longer in very good condition. There is also a wartime first aid kit from Hahnemannia, which is not completely intact. This and a similar device from Willmar Schwabe were discussed at a conference on ‘Objekte als Quellen der Medizingeschichte/Objects as Sources of Medical History’ in 2019. (Vgl. Baschin, Marion: Zwischen Notwendigkeit und Kommerz. Homöopathische Kriegs-Taschenapotheken als Objektquellen. In: Virus. Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Medizin 19 (2020), S. 113-128.)
A closer look at the new additions revealed that the contents of the new war first aid kit differed from those of the existing one. The new kit was originally intended to contain 14 remedies, while the instructions for use listed 15 remedies. The composition of the active ingredients was also different. It is particularly nice that the bottle for the Ledum remedy, which was intended for external use, has been preserved in the acquired kit. This active ingredient was no longer listed in the existing box. Instead, it contained Arnica and Ferrum phosphoricum. But how does it all fit together?
The solution becomes clear when one considers the history of the development of these wartime first aid kits. After the First World War began, the Hahnemannia homeopathic lay association in Stuttgart, in cooperation with the Mauch pharmacy in Göppingen, developed small tin boxes containing homeopathic medicines for soldiers who had been deployed, so that they could help themselves with minor health problems at the front. These were primarily intended for members of homeopathic lay associations. The first version of this war first-aid kit cost 75 pfennigs and contained ‘14 of the most important remedies for wartime needs’. However, by December of that year, a corresponding pocket pharmacy with 15 remedies was already being advertised. This makes it clear that the newly acquired object was one of Hahnemannia's first homeopathic war pocket pharmacies, while the existing pharmacy probably dates back to 1915. After the end of the First World War, the small, practical tin box continued to be manufactured. It was now sold for seven marks as a pocket first aid kit for home and travel use by the Mauch pharmacy in Göppingen. The other newly acquired tin can therefore be dated to after 1919.
The instructions for use and composition of the remedies were developed by the homeopathic physician Richard Haehl (1873–1932). He was responsible for the creation of the IGM collection. In this respect, the two special pocket pharmacies are an excellent addition to our unique collection.