Cysta Medicamentorum. Collegii Medicorum Dublin Wooden material medica chest, with lockable double doors. Interior comprises four drawers, shallower at the top and deeper at the bottom. A brass plate on the top of the chest is inscribed Cysta Medicamentorum. Collegii Medicorum Dublin AD 1736 (Medicine Chest. College of Physicians Dublin AD 1736). Drawers contain glass bottles housing animal, vegetable and mineral specimens used as materia medica, the drawers and some of the bottles are numbered, although no key survives. Some of the bottles may be contemporary to the chest, others are later additions as they are marked with the label of William Allen, a pharmacist on Henry Street, Dublin, who operated in the mid-nineteenth century. Materia medica is a Latin term for the study of medical preparations, their sources and uses. It also refers to the ingredients ground up and used to make these treatments. 1736