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On September 15, 1859, the first issue of The Chemist and Druggist was published, then a monthly title. In an editorial letter “to our readers” in the first edition, we opened with the Latin “Si monumentum requiris circumspice”, which translates as “if you seek his monument, look around” – the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren in St Paul’s Cathedral, of which he was the architect. Less obliquely, the editor set out the purpose of the new publication: “Our humble aim is to be simply useful.” That first issue included what might now be described as a market analysis of galvano-electric brushes; the announcement that “gold keeps flowing into the Bank”; the revelation of a safety match “fully deserving its title”; and a damning comment on a French advertisement for a place “where illegitimate children might be safely, secretly and luxuriously brought into the world, and afterwards comfortably got rid of”, about which C+D concluded that “the public opinion of England on matters of morality is far as yet from having sunk to the level of France”. Read more about the first issue of C+D >>
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