The pharmacy, a gilded pill and the Spanish disease

Since September 2022, the old guesthouse pharmacy from 1765 has been beautifully restored and the original furniture has been restored. Inside you will see countless bottles, jars and appliances.

However, little is known about the pharmacy's historical existence. The first mention can be found around 1730 during a visitation of the Archbishop of Mechelen to put things in order after a period of internal turmoil. For example, the report gives 'rules' not to eat or drink in the pharmacy and not to allow unauthorized persons to enter.

The current pharmacy was installed during the management of Mother Superior Liebrech. The fact that the pharmacy was well developed and gives some presentation, suggests that it was a public and important pharmacy in the city. Actually, we don't even know if there were other pharmacists in town. It is not until around 1830 that we find some names, namely of P.J. Laenen (brevet in 1816) and J.G. Hertoghe (brevet in 1820). Around 1860 there were three pharmacists. When the law stipulated that hospices, too, had to employ a legally qualified pharmacist, Jules Henri Adriaens, born in Diest on 10 April 1862, was recruited around 1890.

When the Spanish flu raged in the city in October 1918, the pharmacy was 'stormed' by as many as 40 clients with a doctor's note. In two months' time, 60 people were killed: 35 in October and 25 in November. There were families of ten people, nine of whom were in bed. In one day, the parish priests were to give the last rites to seven dying people. The two doctors in town couldn't get the job done. Sick people rightly complained that it sometimes took three to four days for a doctor to come and visit, often only after frequent insistence. Sometimes the doctor just didn't show up.

Jan Rymenams