Mrs. Winslow’s Syrup.

This small bottle contains 1.5 fluid ounces of syrup that contains senna, sodium citrate, fennel, sodium bicarbonate, rhubarb, oil of anise, glycerin, and sugar.  We’ve seen these ingredients in other medications for gastrointestinal disorders.  This one says that it’s a stomach and bowel regulator for infants and children and states in large letters that it DOES NOT contain morphine, opium or alcohol.  POSITIVELY NOT NARCOTIC.  This is an improvement over the practice of giving teething or otherwise fussing children a dose of laudanum. 

The bottle has a curious label.  It’s a paper cylinder, open at the cap end and folded over and glued at the bottom.  Also on the label are two fancy medallion type illustrations.  One looks like Justitia, The Roman Goddess of Justice.  She is carrying a sword and a set of scales but she is holding them over her head and she’s not blindfolded as so many Lady Justice representations are.  The other ‘deity’ looks like she might be holding a spindle and working with thread although the worn edges of the label make it hard to be sure.  It doesn’t look like any of the representations of goddesses of fibre arts that I found but it might be a better fit for this medication that the Justitia.  A spindle is also called a distaff in German and distaff refers to the female side of a family.  Women usually look after children so distaff might make sense.  Is that a stretch?

Anyway, this label makes a big deal of copyright and making sure that this product is genuine.  It says that the distributors are Curtis & Perkins of 217 Fulton Street, New York U.S.A.  Anglo American Drug Co. Successors.  It goes on to state:

This new label with the fac-simile thus:

to guard against counterfeits and imitations.

It further states that this has been entered according to Act of Congress A.D. 1852 by Curtis & Perkins in the clerk’s office in the District Court of…(unreadable)

At least this baby's medicine has a legal seal of approval.

Local Champions

I just finished putting up a display in the lobby of the District of Lake Country offices.  It was inspired by the Heritage Week theme for 2010.  Heritage week is February 15-21, 2010 and this year it coincides with the Olympics, hence the theme of athletic endeavor, sports and community spirit.  Our files have records of quite a few athletes from Lake Country who have excelled and the sports are varied.  There are Olympic rowers, champion volley ball players, wake-boarders, skate boarders, a bicycle athlete, equestrians, skiers, curlers, a body builder, horse-shoe teams and likely more that we don't have records for.  If you are passing the District offices, pop in and have a look.

McPhee's 33

McPhee’s 33

Looking this medication up was yet another adventure.  “McPhee’s 33 led me to Katharine McPhee’s wallpaper site where you can download 33 different poses of the singer/songwriter.  I also found Adam McPhee, an Australian footballer whose player number is 33.  I tried “McPhee-Orr Limited”, the company that marketed this product and got Bobby Orr.  Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, also listed on the bottle, turned up nothing—not even any heritage buildings.  Well, I did find a couple of McDonald’s listed in the Moose Jaw businesses.

Finally, I just started looking at ingredients.  McPhee’s 33 says it is for the relief of RHEUMATIC and ARTHRITIC PAINS – GOUT – NEURITIS, LUMBAGO and SCIATICA.  The print in red says 1.  A Time Tried Remedy; 2. Contains no Laxative; 3. Shake well before using.  It also says that the trade mark is registered and that there is a proprietary medicine patent.

In small print, it says the medication contains 9 ¾ mins. of wine of colchicum per maximum dose. The directions say to take 1 teaspoon in a wine glass of water three times daily, after meals.

Colchicum  is a genus of flowering plants containing around sixty species of perennial plants which grow from corms. It is a member of family Colchicaceae, and is native to West Asia and part of the Mediterranean coast.

Colchicum autumnale, commonly called "autumn crocus" or "naked ladies", is the best known species.

I found out that colchicum is actually dissolved in wine because it does not dissolve well in water and that either the corm or the seed can be used although the seed keeps better than the corm. It has been used for gout, gouty rheumatism and neuralgia but also to reduce edema and it is more effective in solution with sulphate of morphine or magnesia or magnesium sulfate.

Overdoses are serious with all sorts of nasty effects and it can be lethal.

From Wikipedia:

Its leaves, corm and seeds are poisonous, containing the alkaloid colchicine. Its roots and seeds have long been considered to have valuable medicinal properties deriving from the use of small doses of this drug, such as to treat gout. Murderess Catherine Wilson is thought to have used it to poison a number of victims in the 19th century.  Nasty woman.  It sounds like a very unpleasant way to die.