Les hygiéniques de la Pharmacie centrale de France : entre semi-médicaments et produits de confort

Abstract

The Pharmacie centrale de France is a capitalist and industrial cooperative between pharmacists founded in 1852 by F.L.M. Dorvault. From the 1870’s, it offered to put on the market a new range of products: hygienic goods. Those products, at the crossroads between food, medical and cosmetic fields, were aimed at preserving the body both internally and externally. Those hygienic products were first and foremost commercial and industrial innovations. The goal of the company was to answer new consumption trends guided by the new tendencies which were increasingly present in the midst of the upper-classes. For some pharmacists, this trend meant a drop in status. Nevertheless, dispensaries turned to those goods which were promised to a bright future since they now represent what is officially called “health and beauty products”.

Keywords

• pharmacy
• hygienic
• body
• appareance
• care