Drugs such as cocaine
and heroin aren't just glamorous because they're illegal. Even when you could
buy them at any pharmacy or grocery store, they still had a certain cool factor.
Just look at these fantastic vintage advertisements for opium, coca-laced wine
and "medicinal tonics."
Mrs Winslow's
soothing syrup
This stuff was
compounded by Mrs. Charlotte N. Winslow and first marketed by her son-in-law
Jeremiah Curtis and Benjamin A. Perkins in Bangor, Maine in 1849. It contained
65 mg morphine sulphate per fluid ounce (0.03 l), sodium carbonate, spritis
foeniculi and aqua ammonia.
It was "likely to
soothe any human or animal", and often used on restless or teething small
children.
Cocaine Toothache
Drops (1885)
Bayer's
Heroin
Two decades after
heroin's invention in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, a chemist (Felix Hoffman) of
the German pharmaceutical company Bayer re-synthesized heroin while he was
trying to produce codeine.
The company
decided to market the drug as a morphine substitute and cough suppressant
between 1898 and 1910. It turned out that heroin was highly addictive, and four
times stronger than morphine. The number of addicts grew out of control, and
Bayer ceased production of the "medicine" in 1913.
Coca-Cola
Originally
intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in 1886 by John Pemberton. He
used five ounces of coca leaf (141.7 g) per gallon of syrup in the first five
years, but the company was bought by businessman Asa Griggs Candler in 1891, who
claimed his formula contained only 0.5 ounces. (14.2 g)
Over the next
twelve years, Coca-Cola contained an estimated 9 milligrams of cocaine per
glass. After 1904, the company started using leftovers of the cocaine-extraction
process, instead of fresh leaves.
Allen's Cocaine
Tablets
Forced March
cocaine tablets (1897-1924)
Ernest Shackleton
took this stuff to Antarctica in 1909, as did Captain Scott in 1910, but it was
used in World War I, too.
Heroin
hydroclor
Indian and
American Cannabis by Parke, Davis & Co.
Heroin
hydrochloride by Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis
Allenbury's Throat
Pastilles
"Containing menthol, cocaine, red gum, eucalyptus, guaiacum, rhatany,
potash, borax, formaldehyde and cinnamon oil" – according to the
Herb
Museum, Vancouver.
Ferratin and
Lactophenin, by C. F. Boehringer & Soehne
One of the best
sedatives around the turn of the century was a special mix of cocaine and
quinine laced with iron.
Vin Mariani, the
Bordeaux wine with coca leaves
Litography by
Jules Chéret, 1894
This patent
medicine was created by a French chemist, Angelo Mariani in 1863.
The ethanol in
the wine extracted the cocaine from the coca leave, altering the drink's effect.
The Vin Mariani contained 6 mg of cocaine per fluid ounce, (0.028 l) but the
exported drink contained 7.2 mg per ounce to compete with the similar drinks in
the United States.
Some famous
people and royalties liked the Mariani wine, Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, Pope
Saint Pius X, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, Thomas Edison and
Ulysses S. Grant, among others.
Theodore Metcalf's
Coca Wine
Vin Des Incas
poster by Alphonse Mucha
Glyckeron
Glyco-Heroin (-Smith)
For the treatment
of coughs, bronchitis, phthisis, asthma, laryngitis, pneumonia and whooping
cough.
Cocaine and
chlorate pills to cure sore mouth, throats and lungs by Diego Gibson
Stickney and
Poor's paregoric
A mixture of
opium and alcohol helped infants and little children to fall asleep.
Ascatco
"Treatment for
asthma, bronchitis, hay fever, rose fever and other diseases of the respiratory
organs." The Ascatco contains 13% alcohol, opium and arsenious acid.
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