Reposting: Arsenic Wafers, SEXONERVE, and Other Cure-Alls
...as promised in these delicious 19th-century ads. Happy New Year!
Do you eat them, or…?
It wasn’t so long ago - okay a few decades - that ads for hair dye were touting “only her hairdresser knows for sure.” This ad takes hair-shaming to a whole new level. You owe it to your friends, at LEAST!
Maybe wearing Dr. Owen’s contraption distracts you from the fact that you have a Rupture. (And does L. Manasse sell glasses in addition to human eyes? Artificial ones, that is.)
Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani was in the news that year because the U.S. had recently overthrown the kingdom of Hawaii. Seems a little churlish (if American) for the makers of Beefmalt to kick Queen Lill while she was down. (She was pretty bad-ass. It’s worth reading the wikipedia article about her.)
Politicians were frequently used in ads. This one, in the Chicago Tribune’s February 28, 1897 edition, was run in newspapers across the country. It’s unclear to me if George B. was actually interviewed for this ad.
I saved the best for last. The makers of SEXONERVE must have been high on their own supply when they wrote this ad because I don’t think it reads the way they intended.
Speaking of legit, there’s Doctor Sweany above “when all others fail,” and below, benzoin lotion, the “perfectly harmless” solution to chapped hands. I looked up benzoin, and exposure to it turns out to cause contact dermatitis. Perhaps a wafer of arsenic would cure that.