Medicine Chest: Some Killer Finds

By John Panella and Joe Widman

LET’S LOOK AT A FEW KILLERS

The era of patent medicines really blossomed after the Civil War and continued as a major mode of self-treatment until the early 1900s. It was a period when the art of medicine was very primitive. The nation and the world were full of quack doctors plying their trade with little or no training, using blood purifiers and strong purgatives, as well as alcohol, chloral, cannabis, chloroform, coca leaves, cocaine, ether, camphor, opium, mercury, even gold and silver derivatives.

The use of deadly poisons was less concerning to the doctor, chemist and patent medicine company then the effect of the nostrum. Effective and intoxicating drugs were in vogue to relieve symptoms and keep the taker coming back for more. Hell yes, it cured sometimes via psychotropic effects rather than anything else. When the cure/tonic/killer wore off the malady usually returned with a vengeance and the taker was crying for more. Basic positive economic gain for the maker and a temporary but invigorating feel good cure for the taker, a win-win situation. But was it really?

The Promises

Many people turned their trust to patent medicines recommended by friends, local grocers and pharmacists. The medicinal value of these substances was “proven” by word of mouth and an abundance of

TOP RIGHT: An image of a notorious "Joy to the World" trade card put out by Perry Davis. BOTTOM RIGHT: Detailed label from a 24 bottle wooden crate of Pain-Killer.

FOLLOWING PAGE:

TOP ROW: A cute Pain Killer trade card featuring a young boy and girl; A portrait of Perry Davis. BOTTOM ROW: A beautiful label on large size wooden crate; The author's patent medicine display, including four Perry Davis box crates.

By John Panella and Joe Widman

By John Panella and Joe Widman

By John Panella and Joe Widman

exaggerated print testimonials (usually tucked away in the brightly-printed bottle carton) trumpeting the medicine’s efficacy to heal everything from cancer to malaria. Panaceas to be sure, with many beneficial uses. No government agency demanded exhaustive laboratory analysis before the product was released to the public. It was a self-medicating, drug-fueled culture, a real free for all.

Now we’ll talk about killers, just a few, as there are too many for us to even scratch the surface. We will look into only bottles that had the word KILLER embossed. Whether digging or scouring the bottle shows or auctions, these concoctions should be brought into consideration.

Perry Davis, Manufacturer of the PAIN KILLER

Perry Davis (1791-1862) epitomized a 19th-century, self-made man. He struggled to overcome physical, mental, and financial hardships during most of his life. Davis was born into a poor family from Dartmouth, Mass. He received little formal education and was sent to work when still a child. At age 14 he severely injured his hip in a fall. He suffered from chronic pain, walked with a limp, and could never run again.

Perry’s father apprenticed him as a shoemaker. By the age of 22 he had saved

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TOP ROW (left to right): An extremely rare, possibly unique, 1845 advertising flyer for Perry Davis; A trade card recommending taking Pain Killer along on a voyage; An image of the first Perry Davis apothecary shop, in Providence, Rhode Island. BOTTOM ROW: Front and reverse sides of an illustrated Pain Killer trade card.

THIS PAGE:

TOP: A highly graphic Perry Davis Pain Killer metal advertising sign BOTTOM ROW: Perry Davis Pain Killer bottle with label and reverse of same bottle showing directions.

By John Panella and Joe Widman

A Dr. Seth Arnold's Cough Killer trade card reading "Perfectly Safe". enough money to marry, and for the next thirty years he and his wife lived in poverty, punctuated by tragedy. Five of their seven children died before adolescence.

Despite lack of formal education he was a tinkerer and inventor. His first invention was a grinding mill, for which he received in 1840 a patent. It was a clever device but unfortunately not a popular one. Like many people of his time he was needing an epiphany to survive, some divine intervention. The next step was this concoction he dreamed up.

He had long suffered from a combination of disorders related to his overall weakened and painful array of medical conditions. He wrote: “I searched the globe in my imagination with eager anxiety and selected the choicest (vegetable) gums and plants that I thought the world afforded, and directed, as I believe by the hand of Providence, in compounding and proportioning the medicine so that the narcotic influence of use might be destroyed by the other, in order that when the stimulating influence was over, it became a nervine to sooth and a balm to heal.” Bingo!

The cholera epidemic of 1844 and the public fear of the disease that followed gave the Pain Killer a huge commercial boost. Perry Davis and Sons set up their Pain Killer Establishment at 74 High St. in Providence, Rhode Island.

Comparing that situation with today’s Covid-19 pandemic, I am sure we can all understand Perry’s overnight success. It was the panacea everyone needed! It was out on the market. By the early 1850s, the gross revenue from the sale of the Pain Killer had amounted to over $300,000 dollars. In his fifties, Perry Davis finally achieved financial success. His image, along with his signature, was used as branding on every bottle of the Pain Killer, which was stashed in most American households. He was set for life!

People in cities, those going overland in covered wagons, the Forty-Niners, the missionaries going to China, all packed the Pain Killer by the case in their bags, literally spreading it about the country and the world. Two or three gulps taken out of the bottle could calm the nerves and assuage the pains of daily living, thanks to the opium and the ethanol in the nostrum. Raw opium contains more than 35 alkaloids, including morphine, codeine, papaverine, and thebaine.

Many patent medicines of the era contained opium, or an opium preparation such as laudanum, or morphine. Pain Killer had them all. They advertised aggressively as being the “vegetable” pain killer. They advertised on trade cards, in newspapers and almanacs, medical journals, and offered giveaways like sewing needles and script coupons.

All this advertising included wild claims, hyperbole, lavish illustrations and bogus testimonials. Opium was readily available in the United States until 1914, when its distribution came under federal control after the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act. It went into effect in 1919, so the public had plenty of opportunity to stock up before it was pulled from the shelves. This was by far its greatest era of sales. Bought by everyone, hidden everywhere, yes, everyone was “saving for a rainy day.”

Dr. Seth Arnold and the COUGH KILLER / BALSAM

From Perry Davis, fast forward to 1898. You wake up freezing on a cold morning and the full effects of a cold/virus/flu hit you. Unlike today’s Covid-19 pandemic, you are not thinking of calling an expensive doctor, but probably a supernatural healer or another quack, and the idea of

By John Panella and Joe Widman

going to a hospital does not even appear in your mind.

Right away you think you’d better pop over to a post office, a drugstore, general store or even hairdresser and pick up a small size of Dr. Seth Arnold’s Balm (or Cough Killer, one and the same). The packaging claims it cures anything from a toothache to a full-blown cold in just five minutes flat! You think, this is for me, a fast-acting panacea, this is just what I’m looking for.

What the packaging fails to say, of course, is that this “medicine” that can be ingested or applied topically to the skin, contains opium, morphine and alcohol.

Unlike Perry Davis, it seems that Dr. Arnold was a licensed medical practitioner, on record as running a laboratory in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Dr. Arnold peddled his balm/cough killer as a quick cure for any bowel discomfort caused by cholera, dysentery or diarrhea, the regular litany for any 19th-century urban dweller. Opiates are truly effective for many bowel complaints. In short, more narcotics and booze to cure what ails you.

The Decline of Patent Medicines

By the end of the 19th century the patent medicine business had become so corrupt and abusive that it was a total national disgrace. False and misleading advertising filled medical journals. Newspapers and magazines contained fictitious testimonials and unabashed lies. Publications like the Ladies Home Journal stopped accepting patent medicine advertising.

In 1904, Edward Bok published the results of analyses of many patent medicines, publicizing the fallacies of their claims. Another effective attack came from Samuel Hopkins Adams, writing in Colliers magazine. His series of articles, called “The Great American Fraud,” exposed the abuses of patent and proprietary medicines and were instrumental in changing legislative public opinion.

Both the Perry Davis Pain Killer and Dr. Seth Arnold’s Cough Killer were instrumental in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which required the labeling of all narcotic and poisonous ingredients.

As mentioned before, the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act in 1914 marked the beginning of the end of narcotic-laden patent medicines. The four year “window of opportunity” allowed the populace to stock up. In early 1919 federal FDA officials combed the pharmacies and points-of-sale of narcotics and effectively took them off the legal market. This was the beginning of the illegal drug trade and the end of the Golden Age of American Medicine, patent medicines containing narcotics, and the beginning of a new era.

Dr. Seth Arnold trade card showing a young girl with a puppy. From the collection of Gordon Hugi. Dr. Seth Arnold's Cough Killer! bottle. From the collection of Gordon Hugi.

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CANCELLED

WANTED!

PAINTED-LABEL (ACL) BOTTLES from Thatcher Glass in Elmira, NY.

Looking for company sample bottles that had square painted label of one color on the front. Says Thatcher Glass, Elmira, N.Y. on the back.

I have several different ones, looking for more!

Also looking for pictured Lion's Club bottle from Pennsylvania, and Brockway bottle from Oklahoma, as well.

If you have or know someone who has some, I would appreciate contacting me.

Thank you.

David Meinz 407-854-8108 David@DavidMeinz.com

October 2nd & 3rd, 2020

Sacramento Valley Museum Presents the 3rd Annual Bottles and Antiques Show & Sale October 2nd & 3rd, 2020

1491 E Street, Williams CA Show Chair Slim Edwards: 530-473-2502 closethegatefenceco@yahoo.com Friday, Early Bird Admission $10, 10:00 a.m. Saturday, General Admission, 9AM to 3PM, Free