vial

Antique vials

Vial with two handles and flattened belly, Louvre MND1503.

Gallo-Roman glass: vial with wrinkled decoration, 3rd century AD. Museum Saint-Remi in Reims, Marne, France.

A vial ( latin fiola , ancient Greek φιάλη Phiale , Shell ', vascular broad bottomed') is a pear-shaped glass vessel with a long, narrow necks, which already from the alchemists of antiquity was used.

use

Today vials are mainly used in chemistry , pharmacy and medicine, a use similar to test tubes . Sometimes larger vials are also used to store perfumes or spirits .

literature

The term vial is rarely used colloquially. The vial is known from the literature for:

• In Shakespeare's Hamlet , Hamlet's father was murdered by pouring poison into his ears from a vial. (1st act, 5th scene, line 63)
• Goethe's Faust I : “I greet you, you only vial!” (Verse 690), Faust II : “Even in the innermost vial it glows like living coal” (verse 6824).
• Robert Louis Stevenson , The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : "Given the crushed vial in his hand and the strong bitter almond smell that hung in the air, Utterson knew he was looking at the body of a suicide."
• In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings , Galadriel gives Frodo Baggins a vial with the light of Eearendil . With this vial, the spider Shelob could be blinded and eventually defeated.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Phiole . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 15, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p.  802 .
2. ^ Rudolf Schmitz : Mortars, flasks and vials. From the world of pharmacy. Stuttgart 1966; Reprint (extended by a foreword) Graz 1978.
3. ^ William Shakespeare: Hamlet (Extended Edition) . Jazzybee Verlag, 2012, ISBN 3-8496-2571-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
4. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust: the tragedy first and second part, Urfaust . CH Beck, 2010, ISBN 3-406-61138-9 , pp. 29 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
5. ↑ The story 5/5: tricky card games from Bambus Spieleverlag: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - The Story 5/5 , accessed May 18, 2014
6. ↑ Gregory Bassham: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: Getting smarter with the most popular ... Klett-Cotta, 2009, ISBN 3-608-93879-6 , p. 78 ( limited preview in Google Book search).