Rectangular clear glass bottle with flat corners, rounded shoulders that taper into a wide neck ending in a collar with cork stopper and original paper cover secured with string; tan paper label; embossed words on bottom; two thirds full of brown liquid contents.
Rectangular clear glass bottle with flat corners, rounded shoulders that taper into a wide neck ending in a collar with cork stopper and original paper cover secured with string; tan paper label; embossed words on bottom; two thirds full of brown liquid contents.
Printed on label: "HOMEOPATHIC TINCTURE // OF // PHYTOLACCA // POISON! // THIS TINCTURE // CONTAINS 60% ALCOHOL // PREPARED BY // P. H. MALLEN COMPANY // CHEMISTS AND PHARMACISTS //125 North Wabash Ave. CHICAGO // 4 OZS"; embossed on bottom: “.2 41 // U.S.A.”
Temporary Location
On exhibit “Selling Hope: A History of the Medical Marketplace” at Museum of Health Care, 29 June 2017.
This bottle is an example of a “French Square”. In the late 1860s, a pharmacist from Philadelphia, Thomas Wiegand recommended French Squares for the elegance of their shape, strength, and the “facility and economy of space with which they can be packed together.”
This type of bottle was manufactured until the 1920s. This bottle style was frequently made for homeopathic pharmacists like P. H. Mallen and Company, Chicago.
Phytolacca is a homeopathic medicine used for glandular swelling and inflamation, mastitis, boils, and pustular skin lesions (acne).