A box containing twenty one turquoise blue opaque crystals. The writing on the lid of the box reads: 'Fine Crystals of Sulphate of Zinc - and Copper'

This 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 number of 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.