Submitted by Caribou Memorial Hospital

SODA SPRINGS — The Mini-Medical Museum at Caribou Memorial Hospital received a book from a descendent of Dr. William H. Anderson, who was both a registered pharmacist and a physician, said Administrator, John Hoopes.  

A contemporary of Dr. Kackley, Dr. Anderson practiced in Soda Springs from 1898 until he passed away in 1914. He operated the Palace Drug Store in Soda Springs, of which there is a photograph, with him standing outside.

The book is titled, “The Standard Formulary.” It was printed in Chicago in 1897. The title page says it is a “collection of nearly 5.000 formulas for pharmaceutical preparations, family remedies, toilet articles, veterinary remedies, soda fountain requisites and miscellaneous preparations especially adapted to the requirements of retail druggists.”

The 500-page book was in pretty good shape, except the binding was off and some pages were coming out, said Hoopes. He went online to learn how to repair antique books and bought special archival glue to repair the book so people could handle and read it.  

Hoopes said it has a certain smell to it, and it is obvious it was well used by Dr. Anderson, with notations and figures written in. He rubber-stamped Dr. Wm. H. Anderson, Portage, Utah, in 1897, where he practiced before coming to Soda Springs in 1898.    

There are formulas in the pharmaceutical section for making injectable morphine, headache remedies, and catgut sutures (from sheep intestines), as well as for making “greases” from the fat of geese, dogs, cats, rabbits, and bears. There are sections on making perfumes, dentifrices (tooth powder and paste), and soda waters, which were sold at the soda fountain, which old-time drugs stores had (and a few still do).   

As an example, the formula for making root beer extract is: 10 fluid drams sarsaparilla extract; 10 fluid drams of extract pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata, an herb, a Cree word meaning “it breaks into small pieces”); 4 fluid drams extract of wintergreen; 4 fluid drams extract of licorice; 48 drops oil on wintergreen; 24 drops oil of sassafras, 12 drops oil of cloves, and 10 fluid ounces of alcohol.  

This made the “extract” which was mixed with syrup (recipe also given) and is diluted with nine gallons of water containing one gallon of refined molasses and charged (with gas) in a fountain.

In the misc. preparations section there are formulas for making cement for bicycle tires, leather dye and polish, fountain pen ink, oil for watchmakers and various soaps.

Hoopes said he would be happy to have people come in, see and handle the book, but if they are just interested in seeing the formulas, he said they could go to Google Books and read a 1904 version of the same book. It is found by “googling”:  (“The Standard Formulary” Ebert, Englehard, 1904 Google Books).  

He added that Google has digitized millions of old, out-of-print books, including a book of the “History of Idaho,” from which he copied a picture and a biography of Dr. Anderson. These may be read, downloaded and printed for free on Google.