This is a bottle containing a mixture of Glyco-Thymoline manufactured by Kress & Owen Company. Glyco-Thymoline can still be purchased from Kress & Owen Company today as a mouthwash and an agent against mucosity, gingivitis, and a sore throat. Kress & Owen also have marketed similar types of Glyco-Thymoline products as treatments for cuts, burns, and skin irritations, such as sunburn or poison ivy. This particular bottle was originally from the collection of Eastwood Pharmacy in San Antonio, Texas.
The pharmacy has been associated with Texas since the middle of the 16th century when Europeans began to practice pharmacy and medicine in the Americas and Texas. Some of the medications used were associated with Native American healing traditions and practices. Early practitioners in Texas dealt with difficult conditions due to a lack of supplies and sanitation. Many practitioners had to rely on local vegetation and knowledge in order to construct a supply of medicine. Some were able to amass large enough quantities needed to open the first drugstores, and thus they were the pioneers of drug manufacture and sales in Texas. During the middle of the nineteenth century many druggists in Texas acted as manufacturers, wholesalers, prescribers, and retailers of medicines. Frederick J. Kalteyer opened up one of the earliest retail drugstores in San Antonio in 1854 which became known as the San Antonio Drug Company. The San Antonio Drug Company stayed in operation for more than a century.
In 1879 the Texas Pharmaceutical Association formed in Dallas in order to professionally organize the pharmacists in Texas and to standardize the profession. The Texas Pharmaceutical Association also allowed for pharmacists to receive their education locally rather than abroad in Europe. Later, the Texas Pharmaceutical Association became an integral part in the formation of a chair of pharmacy at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The first pharmacy chair was James Kennedy from San Antonio, Texas. Both the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Texas Pharmaceutical Association, now known as the Texas Pharmacy Association, are important players in the pharmaceutical and public health care system in Texas today.