Cardboard postcard, unused, for Piso's Cure, showing a sketch or false-colour photograph of two men rafting down the Allegheny; four-wheel cart, filled with cut lumber on shore (unhitched); island in the middle has a house on it.
Cardboard postcard, unused, for Piso's Cure, showing a sketch or false-colour photograph of two men rafting down the Allegheny; four-wheel cart, filled with cut lumber on shore (unhitched); island in the middle has a house on it.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Purchased by Dr. M. Chiong for his patent medicine collection, before July 15, 1995.
Doesn't say "cure for", it says "cure, a medicine for ...", so it would be after Food and Drug Act of 1906; product around in 1872; by 1915 name changed to Piso's Remedy
Material
paper: red; grey; blue; green; yellow
Inscriptions
"Nearly 50 Years the Favorite // PISO'S CURE // A MEDICINE FOR // COUGHS COLDS etc. // Price, 25 Cents. // Rafting on the Allegheny"; back: "POSTAL CARD. // PLACE A ONE // CENT STAMP // HERE" etc.
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-G Chiong Trade Cards Binder A
Dimension Notes
Length: 13.8 cm. x Width: 8.8 cm.
Condition Remarks
Front: edge of top (middle to left) paper has come off; edges (especialy corners) a little worn; slight smudging and staining from inks; back: ink staining from front; top right corner, bottom left corner definite age discolouration (sun)
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Book
Reference Comments
"Nostrums and Quackery" Vol. II, by Arthur J. Cramp, pp. 101-102, 163-165; "Nostrums and Quackery" Vol. I, p. 350; "The Medical Messiahs" by James Harvey Young, p. 45; "Secret Nostrums and Systems" by Charles W. Oleson (1894), p. 137; "The Great American Fraud" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, pp. 8, 50, 172, 180; "The Snake-Oil Syndrome", pp. 10, 31, 145, plate # 49
Research Facts
Before the Food & Drugs Act, called "Piso's Cure for Consumption"; old analyses: alcohol, chloroform, opium and cannabis indica (hasheesh), but they claimed they had not used morphine or any opium derivative since 1872; in 1906 it contained everything but opium and became "Piso's Cure, a medicine for coughs, colds, etc."; even later it became Piso's Remedy, a medicine for coughs and colds; in 1910, analysis showed cannabis indica, chloroform, methyl salicylate and oils of peppermint and bitter almonds; recipe: 1/2 oz. tinct. tolu, 2 dr. Fl. ext. lobelia, 2 dr. Fl. ext. cannabis indica, 1 dr. chloroform, 4 gr. sulph. morphia, 4 gr. Tartar emetic, 10 drops Ess. mentha viridis, 8 oz. water, 14 oz. sugar (directions, p. 137 of "Secret Nostrums and Systems"); one president of the Piso Co. was W.A. Talbot