Pill box containing 'Hyposulphate of lime'. Hyposulphate of Lime was suggested in the 19th century by Alfred Swaine Taylor as a fixing agent in photography (John F.W. Herschel suggested using hyposulphite of soda in 1839).

This sample and pill box come from a 14-drawer cabinet found in the Herschel family home in the 1950s. The contents of this and a similar cabinet seem to suggest that they were used by successive generations of the family to store specimens, material and apparatus for carrying out experiments.

This is one of a set of pill boxes each containing a different chemical or mineral sample presumably used by John F.W. Herschel or his children (it may even have been used by John F.W. with his children) as the raw materials for experiments.