This late 19th Century medicine is part of a large collection of bottles of liniments, nostrums, syrups, balms and tooth drops peddled by unscrupulous druggists, adventurers, but mostly quacks. Unregulated, many of the medications had addictive and potent narcotis (cocaine, morphine, opium or heroin). Claims were exagerated, cure was promised from toothache to tuberculosis, to everything. This bottle DeWitt’s Soothing Syrup is one example of “patent-medicine” . It was advertised first around 1899. The Chicago-based company advertised the syrup to be “an unfailing remedy for children during nursing and teething”. Due to its narcotic content, exagerated claims, Congress finally introduced the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, a precursor of the FDA. Description provided by Andrew I Spielman
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