Shock of the old: 10 scandalous vintage medicines – from asthma cigarettes to cocaine wine

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Cure any ailment! Never known to fail! Early medicine adverts made grand claims but they look alarming today

‘In Fluid Form And Always Ready For Use’ … Dr McMunn’s remedies, containing quinine, cinchonine or opium. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archivehe confusion with patent medicines starts with the name, since they were rarely ever patented; manufacturers just thought it sounded cool. Bamboozling was always part of the package: from the 17th century, concoctions of water, alcohol and herbs were sold with wild claims and exotic origin stories.

Mass production and the media supercharged patent medicines in the later 19th century, particularly in the US, where they became big business. The advertising industry cut its teeth and developed its creativity on them: ads were everywhere and travelling shows took quack medicine live. Attention-grabbing colour-printed trade cards were particularly popular, luridly playing on fears and aspirations and confirming prejudices.

 

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