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Coke - the "intellectual beverage."
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
The cocaine (coca) cured "headaches, neuralgia, hysteria, and melancholy".
Nothing like radium to cure a headache!
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Sweet face - dispensing opium? Probably!
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
One night cough syrup
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Contains alcohol, marijuana, chloroform, and opium - taken 3 times a day. That would suppress more than a cough!
Good idea to give the kids cocaine?!
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Stop teething discomfort
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Give 'em morphine!
Opium, marijuana, & chloroform
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Cures migraines, diarrhea, and more.
Morphine, codeine - of course they don't cry . . .
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
They've passed out!
Oh yes, smoke to ease your asthma!
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Often taken for "female illnesses"
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Contained alcohol and opium
Snake venom
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
May, or may not (please not!) have contained snake venom.
Hair tonic
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Thickens hair, restores gray hair to its original color, cures dandruff and prevents baldness - we want this now! But what was in it?
Lots of options even back then!
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Drug shelf in a country store
Get rid of fat!
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Lose 2 to 5 lbs per week - just by taking "purely vegetable" oil? Hah!
Wear an electrified corset!
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Oh sure, like corsets weren't uncomfortable enough!
Electricity cures "nerves"
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
By making you jump!
Cures "depression, impotence, and fatigue"
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Ouch!!! Look closely at where the electricity is dispensed . . .
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
"diarrhoea" medicine patent with photo of the inventor - Robert S. Bernard
1928 prescription for alcohol
![Pam Marks Photo of Pam Marks](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/014/6410/641020201126235328-tiny.jpg?)
During Prohibition, you had to have a prescription.
Opium and alcohol
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Opium/morphine
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Yep, heroin for your cough
![Kathy Pinna Photo of Kathy Pinna](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/821/38128/38128-tiny.jpg?)
Offensive - and "herbal"
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Wonder what was really in it?
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Cures everything from "foul breath" to dyspepsia . . . and more.
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
TomTom herb tonic being sold at migrant camps.
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Selling patent medicine - complete with anatomy chart!
"Medicine man"
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Oh yes, he's proving his credentials by wearing a "war bonnet". 1935
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
Patent medicine vendor in a Florida migrant camp.
Selling medicine on the street
![AncientFaces Photo of AncientFaces](https://media-af-photos-user.ancientfaces.com/137/10731/1073120210602201733-tiny.png?)
On top of a Kotex box table!
The FDA was formed in 1906 but it was years before true regulation took place. From the 1800's through the 1930's, patent medicines were sold to cure everything from baldness to serious diseases. Some "cures" were harmless sugar water and some were strong drugs. Laudanum, for instance (which included opium, alcohol, and morphine), was used to relieve coughing, diarrhea, and general pain.
Below are just some of the cures used by both doctors and patent medicine sellers for ailments. As you can tell, the same powerful drugs were in almost every medicine:
- Arsenic and mercury to treat syphilis (used until penicillin was discovered in the 1940's!)
- Heroin tablets to relieve asthma symptoms
- Cocaine drops for toothache
- Cocaine as an anesthetic - used by both surgeons and dentists
- Bayer Heroin (the actual name) for coughs, menstrual cramps, and migraines
- Heroin as a cure for morphine addiction
- Opium to calm babies and cure asthma (yes, infants were given this!)
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