drip vial -- ever dig one?

[Harry Pristis]

I suspect these vials were used by compounding pharmacists to dispense fluids drop-by-drop. I'm not sure just what fluids they were used for, though the chloroform bottles I have seen had ground-glass stoppers.

Anyone here ever dig a little dripper vial like these?

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[ivan salis]

olive oil & vinager or salad dressing type cruets

 

[Harry Pristis]

olive oil & vinager or salad dressing type cruets

Take a ruler and, with thumb and forefinger, measure 2.5 inches. Try to imagine in your hand the 0.72" outside diameter of the vials to go with the 2.5" height. These vials would be totally useless as cruets. They do drip water drop-by-drop, accomplishing that without any practice.

Anyone else?

 

[ivan salis]

humm get your point -- once I actually used a ruler size wize -- clearly their very small -- as you say meds of some type most likely.

 

[RPG]

humm get your point -- once I actually used a ruler size wize -- clearly their very small -- as you say meds of some type most likely.

OR, very strong olive oil.

As usual, very nice Harry.

 

[Harry Pristis]

An antidote to pain, perhaps . . . like laudanum ("opium tincture") which was dispensed in drops, I believe. These little drip vials contain about five mililiters (mL). Ten mL of laudanum could be a fatal dose to an adult unaccustomed to opiates. This is from Wikipedia:

"...opium tincture's weaker cousin, paregoric, also confusingly known as "camphorated tincture of opium", is 1/25th the strength of opium tincture, containing only 0.4 mg of morphine per mL. A 25-fold morphine overdose may occur if opium tincture is used where paregoric is indicated. Opium tincture is almost always dosed in drops, or fractions of a mL, or less commonly, in minims, while paregoric is dosed in teaspoons or tablespoons."

 

[ivan salis]

ether is dripped unto a cotton mask type device and the fumes "knock out" folks for being operated upon --was said item found near a CW "medical" hospital area or CW era battle "medical"site maybe?

 

[Harry Pristis]

I believe these vials date closer to the turn of the century than to the Civil War.