Prescribing the royal treatment
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Staff Writer
A store window display in Kaimuki held me spellbound for half an hour, although it deals with a subject that never caught my interest before.
This window display in The Pillbox Pharmacy describes the first prescription written in Hawai'i. It was for Queen Ka'ahumanu. Here's how pharmacist Jim McElhaney tells the story in his window:
Medical kahuna had been healing people in Hawai'i for more than 1,000 years before the HMS Blonde, Lord Byron in command, brought back the bodies of Kamehameha II and his queen, Kamamalu, from England in 1825. They had died there.
Meanwhile, kahuna in Honolulu had been unable to improve the health of Ka'ahumanu and bring relief to Chief Kalaimoku, the royal premier who suffered from swelling of the abdomen and legs.
So Dr. W. Davis, surgeon on board the Blonde, offered to try his hand at a cure. The "poor sufferer willingly consented."
The ali'i who gathered to watch, including Ka'ahumanu, were aghast when they saw that Davis was going to drain fluid from Kalaimoku's stomach by making a hole in it.
Artist Robert Dampier described the proceedings, stating: "The surrounding chiefs seemed much astonished and affected at what appeared to them a hazardous experiment.
"Ka'ahumanu frequently shed tears as the instrument and apparatus was prepared.
"Owing to the gentleman's extremely tough hide, the surgeon had great difficulty in perforating his stomach. Having at length accomplished this, he drew a considerable quantity of water which offered ... instant relief.
"The chiefs could not at all understand that it was possible for a man to exist after a hole had been made in his belly. ... One of them asked Lord Byron if the (prime) minister's breakfast of poi would not issue through the apparatus."
Nevertheless, Kalaimoku was soon up and about. That's how we get to the first prescription written in Hawai'i. Ka'ahumanu, encouraged by Kalaimoku's recovery, asked Dr. Davis to treat her also.
The display doesn't say what was wrong with her.
Anyway, Davis wrote out the historic prescription. It called for 10 ounces of gentian, a tonic to improve appetite and digestion; 4 grams of hydrastis, for prevention of uterine bleeding; 4 grams of colocynth, an intensely irritating resinous substance; plus syrup and another compound to make it all go down better.
Ka'ahumanu was supposed to take three large teaspoonfuls twice a day. Dr. Davis asked for feathers in payment.
Druggist McElhaney also tells about five prescriptions written by King Kalakaua between 1880 and 1890. Since the king was not licensed, he exercised his divine right to engage in a practice legally limited to physicians.
The prescriptions "reflect an expertise and knowledge of medicine requiring not only a high degree of intelligence but also a disciplined study of a demanding subject," the window display explains.
