Mystery Item No 5

So this month’s mystery item is a mini first aid kit. Again sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, I didn't realise until I uploaded them :(

The museum's item

Whilst I can’t tell you where the item came from, it would have been useful to have on you. Our kit contains a box of sterilised dressing made by S, MAW, SON & SONS, LTD. In 1814 Maw purchased a surgical plaster factory at Whitecross Street in London, and soon began manufacturing surgical instruments and various medical and pharmaceutical products.[1] The bottle contains Gentian Violet, which is thought to have been introduced by the German pharmacist George Grübler.[2] This is a dye which has antiseptic properties to it.

Another view 

Depending on their use, first aid kits can contain many different items and can be contained in many different things, such as our metal tin example. The term 'first aid' was first used in 1878, as a combination of ‘first treatment and ‘national aid’.[3] Before this many different ways of treating injuries occurred. Prehistoric man would have had their own ways of dealing with problems, witchdoctors would have had their own strategies and ways of dealing with injuries would have been passed down by word of mouth. This meant aid could be given by someone who wasn’t a trained professional. First Aid in warfare was a very important aspect. In 1099, religious knights were trained in medical care and organised the Order of St. John to specifically treat battlefield injuries, ‘in other words, although these knights were considered laypersons, they were formally trained to provide first aid’.[4]

In 1890 Johnson & Johnson invented the invented Johnson & Johnson’s First Aid Cabinet.[5] It was in 1885 that Robert Johnson invented the first ready-made surgical dressing, he believed that ‘sterile wound dressings could lessen the chance of infection in surgical wounds, thereby speeding healing’.[6] The company went on the produce medicinal plasters and ready-made, antiseptic surgical dressings, ‘these products were the early forerunners of the Johnson & Johnson RED CROSS First Aid Brand gauze pads, covers, tapes, and other first aid items now used and recommended by doctors throughout the world’.[7]

Patent for Surgical Dressing. [8]

The museum also has other fist aid kits, varying in size, date and purpose. The image below shows the various supplies found in a 1943 first aid kit. 

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[1] COSGB, ‘S. Maw, Son & Sons Ltd.’, (2010). [Online] Available from:  www.cosgb.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/s-maw-son-sons-ltd.html. (Accessed 22/04/12). 

[2] Conn, H.J. (1992) ‘An Investigation of American Gentain Violets Report of Committee on Bacteriological Technic’, Journal of Bacteriology, 7(5) : 529.

[3] Medicine.Net, 'First Aid: From Whitchdoctors & Religious Knights to Modern Doctors', 2005. [Online] Available from: www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52749. (Accessed 22/04/12).

[4] Medicine. Net, ‘First Aid: From Witchdoctors & Religious Knights to Modern Doctors’, 2005. [Online] Available from: www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52749. (Accessed 22/04/12).

[5] Johnson & Johnson, ‘First Aid’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.jnjcanada.com/brand-template.aspx?id=11. (Accessed 22/04/12).

[6] Johnson & Johnson, ‘Timeline’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.jnjredcross.com/timeline-of-innovation. (Accessed 22/04/12).

[7] Johnson & Johnson, ‘Timeline’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.jnjredcross.com/timeline-of-innovation. (Accessed 22/04/12).
[8] Google Patents, 'No 582, 926', 2011. [Online] Available from: www.google.com/patents?id=HGVaAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=dressing+ininventor:robert+ininventor:johnson&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q=dressing%20ininventor%3Arobert%20ininventor%3Ajohnson&f=false. (Accessed 22/04/2012).