THE APOTHECARY'S WIFE

Exploring the commodification of domestic medical remedies

- Emily Staniforth

Author: Karen Bloom Gevirtz Publisher: Head of Zeus Price: £25 Released: Out now

When Karen Bloom Gevirtz was researching in the archives of Chawton House Library, she became fascinated by a ya book known as Blackwell's Herbal, written by a physician in the 19th century called Elizabeth Blackwell. In the book, Blackwell describes how women of the time she referred to as "Herb Women" were selling fraudulent herbal remedies to ignorant patients. Understanding that Blackwell wrote for prominent medics and physicians, Bloom Gevirtz wondered why people were turning to these Herb Women instead of trained medical professionals, and why these women seemed so threatening to people like Blackwell and her patrons. From there, she began to question when and why people stopped relying on remedies from home and the result was The Apothecary's Wife: The Hidden History of Medicine and How It Became a Commodity.