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Leonard Ear Oil

Leonard Ear Oil is the first patent medicine in the collection that I found that was condemned as useless by a medical authority.  In 1925, DR. ARTHUR J.CRAMP (Director of the Bureau of Investigation, American Medical Association) condemned Leonard Ear Oil and eardrum as useless quackery and...

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Mrs. Winslow’s Syrup

This small bottle contains 1.5 fluid ounces of syrup that contains senna, sodium citrate, fennel, sodium bicarbonate, rhubarb, oil of anise, glycerin, and sugar. We’ve seen these ingredients in other medications for gastrointestinal disorders. This one says that it’s a stomach and bowel regulator...

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Local Champions

I just finished putting up a display in the lobby of the District of Lake Country offices. It was inspired by the Heritage Week theme for 2010. In 2010 Heritage Week is February 15-21, and this year it coincides with the Olympics, hence the theme of athletic endeavor, sports and community spirit....

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McPhee’s 33

Looking this medication up was yet another adventure.  “McPhee’s 33″ led me to Katharine McPhee’s wallpaper site where you can download 33 different poses of the singer/songwriter.  I also found Adam McPhee, an Australian footballer whose player number is 33.  I tried “McPhee-Orr Limited”,...

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Frese’s Hamburg Tea

I don’t have an insertion for this because the box is still sealed and I was reluctant to open it. The product is supposed to be a ‘True Herbal Medicine’ for disorders of the Digestive System.  Regulates the bowels for constipation, headache, Indigestion, Dyspepsia, Biliousness,...

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Catarrhozone

This patent medicine, Catarrhozone, is very different from the last one—Uricones.  That one had no insertion; this one has a 32-page booklet! I could find nothing on the company—the box lists Laurentian Agencies Reg’d, Montreal—nor anything about what is in this medication.  On the French side of...

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Uricones

Uricones is the latest medication that I have investigated. I was disappointed that there was no inclusion in the box but I did find an ad on line, dated about 1939 for this stuff: “RHEUMATIC ACHES have been curbed by URICONES.  Sufferers who have taken a few doses of ‘Uricones’...

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Japanese Collection

Dan Bruce, our museum’s curator, announced yesterday at the Board of Directors meeting that he was intending to increase the Museum’s collection of all things Japanese.  Since the early 20th century, we have had a significant population of Japanese immigrants who first worked in...

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What is Imperial Granum?

What is Imperial Granum?  Granum is Latin for seed.  In modern medical jargon it is a “stack of thylakoids in the chloroplast, containing the light harvesting system and the enzymes responsible for the light dependent reactions of photosynthesis”. A diluent is a substance used to dilute or cut...

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Patent Medicines

I think that I have found an interesting topic. Glen, a retired chemistry teacher, was cataloguing our patent medicine collection. Glen is thorough—picky even. He read each inclusion within the packaging of each medication and he was blown away with some of the ingredients in these things. At the...

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