![]() ![]() No doubt, more medical advances on the horizon will make some of today's medicines outdated. Novocain replaced its predecessor, cocaine, as an anesthetic. Opium and other addictive drugs also fell by the wayside once scientists realized their pitfalls. When doctors began treating syphilis with penicillin, a grateful generation was spared the toxic effects of arsenic and mercury, including inflammation of the gums, destruction of the teeth and jaws, and organ damage. The golden age of patent medicines ended in the early 1900s, notes the FDA web site, when muckraking journalists wrote exposés and the federal government cracked down with new legislation to prohibit adulteration or misbranding of foods and drugs, as well as false advertising.Īlso, as the state of legitimate medicine evolved, new cures replaced the old. Its advertising promised that the chair would give "efficient exercise to the essentially important nutritive organs of the body."Īccording to the manufacturer, all that jiggling and jolting was essential for "millions of human beings who may be living sedentary lives through choice or necessity." The chair was, "For certain classes of invalids a veritable Treasure-Trove." End of an Era It resembled a garden-variety armchair-only rigged with springs and levers. ![]() They also invented a dizzying array of devices, such as electric insoles and magic shoes, to cure sore feet and crippling conditions.Ĭonsider, too, the Health Jolting Chair of the 1880s. Hucksters didn't just limit themselves to elixirs and pills. Cerralgine Food of the Brain boasted of being "a safe cure for Headache, Neuralgia, Nervousness, Insomnia, Etc." In 1862, Mixer's Cancer and Scrofula Syrup claimed to treat "Cancer, Tumors, Erysipelas, Abscesses, Ulcers, Fever Sores, Goiter, Catarrh, Salt Rheum, Scald Head, Piles, Rheumatism, and ALL BLOOD DISEASES." Some patent medicines simply took a scattershot approach. Just an old-fashioned way of saying congestion - the kind that comes with the common cold. Bonker's Celebrated Egyptian Oil was available for " colic, cramps in the stomach and bowels, and cholera."Īnother classic: Mack Mahon the Rattle Snake Oil King's Liniment for Rheumatism and Catarrh. Also touted for "weak hearts, weak blood, weak nerves" was a product called Anglo-American Heart Remedy. They included: Fatoff Obesity Cream, Make-Man Tablets, and Antimorbific Liver and Kidney Medicine. Plenty of other patent medicines flooded the American landscape, according to a history posted on the web site of the FDA. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, one of the most popular women's remedies of the time. Many nostrums targeted vague "female complaints." The delicate dames of yore didn't mention menstrual cramps and hot flashes in polite company. "You couldn't get away from them," Whorton says. People bought nostrums from traveling medicine shows, and the cures beckoned boldly from billboards and newspaper and magazine ads. While doctors of the late 1800s considered these drugs legitimate, a whole range of shady patent medicines, sometimes called "nostrums," also flourished during that period. One Belgian company even promoted cocaine throat lozenges as "indispensable for singers, teachers and orators." Dentists and surgeons also used cocaine as an anesthetic. Old medicines and antique urinals? Check out one collector's story.Ĭocaine drops for toothache came on the market after doctors discovered its pain-relieving qualities. One company sold heroin tablets to relieve asthmasymptoms. 'Legitimate' Medicine of an Earlier Eraĭoctors used arsenic and mercury to treat syphilis before the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s. Whorton, PhD, a medical historian and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. One physician called it 'God's own medicine,'" says James C. But doctors have favored it throughout history, especially to control coughing and diarrhea. ![]() Some were fanciful potions that quacks concocted to make a buck, while others were legitimate - even revered - treatments that eventually yielded to more enlightened science.įor example, opium suffers a tainted reputation these days. Today, no one would dream of calming an infant with morphine, but the museum of medicine is littered with such discarded remedies. It was touted as an indispensable aid to quiet bawling babies and teething tots, and it packed a wallop of an ingredient: morphine. Pity the poor Victorian-era family whose bottle of Mrs.
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