What's the Deal with Medicine Cabinets?

I was filling a prescription today and naturally began thinking about medicine cabinets. At least, this seems natural to me. They're not a piece of furniture I've ever paid much notice. I always avoid taking pills when I can. Not out of some distrust of pharmaceuticals, but out of a dislike of routine daily tasks. Any medicine, prescription or not, is another thing I have to remember in the morning – the time of day when I'd most like to forget everything. And since, unlike couches, chairs and desks, medicine cabinets never accompany me on moves, I've never had to think about they're construction or position in a house.

But today at the pharmacy, the thought struck me: why is the medicine cabinet in the bathroom? Obviously, much of what it holds is bathroom-related: shaving cream, toothpaste, q-tips. I see why those belong there. But it's not called a “shaving cream cabinet” and there's no obvious reason to me why medicine should be stored in the same place that I shower.

I'm sure other people have asked this question before. Why shouldn't medicine be stored in the kitchen or bedroom. It would be no more accessible to underage hands in either of those places. And many medications are taken in the morning, before bed or after meals. A trip to the bathroom just to take a pill seems silly.

The only thing I can think of for why we, in North America at least, store our prescriptions behind the mirror above the sink is privacy. The bathroom is where we go to do things everybody's aware of but nobody talks about in polite company. There's a certain logic that would put medication in that category. Nobody wants other people peeping at their pill bottles, wondering what they're afflicted with. I know I don't. So we we store them behind a closed door behind another closed door and open them with the fan and faucet running. All our secret, daily, bodily tasks stay confined to the same room.

But I'd love to know if other places do it differently. Are medications in Japan or Germany or South Africa stored in different rooms, in different ways or with different associated taboos? A book on the history of medicine cabinets would be fascinating.

Google is no help. All I can find there are furniture retailers and blog posts about the relative benefits of recessed shelves. Wikipedia is similarly useless, offering only the assertion that “Although a bathroom tends to be generally the smallest room is the home, it is the busiest place second only to the kitchen.” Citation needed. 

P.S. I was told that the font on the blog is too small, so I've increased it. Hopefully it makes things easier to read.