Montserrat Arrowroot

I have always liked arrowroot biscuits but I didn’t realize the history behind them until I started researching the museum’s can of Montserrat’s Arrowroot.  Arrowroot has a long history of cultivation in the Caribbean as a food staple. Arrowroot thickens at a lower temperature than does flour or cornstarch is not weakened by acidic ingredients, has a more neutral taste, and is not affected by freezing.  In the Victorian era it was used, boiled with a little flavoring added, as an easily digestible food for children and people with dietary restrictions but it was popular in Britain before that.  Napoleon said that the Brits used it only to support their Caribbean colonies.

Our can of Arrowroot was distributed by the National Drug and Chemical Co. of Canada Limited  (Montreal).  By the turn of the century, drug manufacturing in Canada was becoming established with more effective medications on the market replacing some previously doubtful concoctions. By 1910, the National Drug and Chemical Company of Canada was the leading manufacturer of both prescription and nonprescription drugs in Canada.

On the back of our Arrowroot can, Montserrat Lime-Fruit Juice and Cordial is advertised, manufactured by the same company and sold by “Druggists, Grocers and Department Stores.”  According to the text on the can, both arrowroot and lime juice were grown on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, an island that was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 or, according to our can, 1498.

Montserrat is apparently a paradise but even paradise has its problems. First, the Spanish claimed it. Then the British ‘acquired’ it in 1632 and it was settled by Irish refugees fleeing prosecution for their religion becoming known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean.  During the American Revolutionary War, it was captured by France and then returned to Britain as part of the treaty of Paris. From 1871 to 1958 Montserrat was administered as part of the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands, becoming a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. In 1979, producer George Martin’s AIR Studios, Montserrat opened and the island attracted world-famous musicians who came to record in the peace and quiet and lush tropical surroundings of Montserrat.  In 1989, Hurricane Hugo destroyed 90% of the structures on Montserrat and the island was recovering when, in 1997, a long dormant volcano erupted and destroyed the capitol and major port.  The inhabitable part of the island is still lush and beautiful but its main industry is exporting aggregate.  Imports include practically everything that is for sale on the island and its operating budget is obtained primary from Britain—about £25 million per year.

But back to Arrowroot.  There are recipes on the Internet for the use of Arrowroot, including arrowroot biscuits.  I learned that arrowroot is used for making sensitized paper used in photography for positive prints. It is plain or non-glossy, and is coated with a weak solution of arrowroot in water, with sodium, chloride, and a trace of citric acid.  And while researching papermaking, I discovered a completely unrelated fact:

 In 1844, both Canadian inventor Charles Fenerty and German inventor F.G. Keller had invented the machine and process for pulping wood for the use in papermaking.

Zam-Buk: A healing antiseptic ointment

I thought that Zam-Buk might be boring.  I vaguely remember a tin of it at home when I was a child although I don’t remember it being used.   It was just there.  According to the script on the tin it is used “for cuts, bruises, scratches, burns, scalds, athlete’s foot, piles, ulcers, eczema, sores, sprains, pimples, chilblains, cold sores, chafed skin and insect bites.”  It probably works too.  There are several formulas for Zam-Buk but they all contain camphor, eucalyptus oil and thyme oil all of which are somewhat antimicrobial and both camphor and eucalyptus have analgesic properties. Most contain beeswax.  Some formulas contain rosin, petrolatum and sassafras.

The origins of Zam-Buk can be traced back to 1903. It first appeared on Rugby and Football fields in Australia and New Zealand. When a player would get injured first aid officers would race across the field to tend the injured player, they would quickly apply the zam buk to the injured area. Zam-Buk acted as an antiseptic thus cleansing the wound and eliminating the chances of the wound becoming infected.

The 'Zam-Buk' name found its way into rugby league, and other sports, by the St Johns ambulance-men who carried it in their kit-bags to treat players on the field and sidelines. The advertising cry of "Here Comes Zam-Buk" referred to the product, but within barely a few years of its introduction, 'Zam-Buk' came to mean the ambulance-men themselves.

There are all sorts of testimonials for Zam-buk on the Internet and several sources suggested the name came from the name of a South African town.  I couldn’t find this town in my atlas although I did find “Zambué in Mozambique.  I love the story of a soldier in India who was suffering from ‘prickly heat and ‘crutch’ rot”.  He got no relief from medications prescribed by the medicos but another soldier told him about Zam-Buk and that cleared it right up.

Our Zam-Buk tin has the same stylized product label that I saw in pictures on the Internet although some of the other decoration differed slightly.  Ours was manufactures by C. E. Fulford Ltd. Leeds 2. England.  I found a note that manufacturing there was discontinued in 1998.  It is available from several sources on the Internet.

Rose and Co. Apothecary in Leeds says that they use the original formula for Zam-Buk. This is, apparently, a relatively new enterprise specializing in Vintage cosmetics and Victorian packaging. Mother and daughter, Patrician and Caroline Rose bought an old druggists shop, became fascinated with everything vintage and started producing their own Rose Petal Salve.  They branched out to other products plus dainty lingerie.

I love the juxtaposition of tough, sweaty footballers with delicate, feminine ladies both slathering on the Zam-Buk!

Piso's—For Coughs due to Colds

Piso’s—For Coughs due to Colds

This medication was first manufactured by Hazeltine & Co in 1864 apparently started out labeled as a remedy for consumption although it was really only ever a cough remedy and the jury is still out on that.  One source says “Piso's was essentially a pretty good cough and cold syrup” and another source says “. Piso's Cure was poisonous and caused many deaths, especially in children. One of the main ingredients was chloroform, which can cause death or permanent damage to your liver and kidneys”.

Our bottle has an intact label that indicates chloroform at 5/8 minim per maximum dose.  The maximum recommended dose for adults is 1 teaspoonful every 2 or 3 hours as required.  This sent me looking for the definition of a minim.

1. Abbr. M. or min. A unit of fluid measure, as:

a. In the United States, ¹/₆₀ of a fluid dram (0.0616 milliliters).

b. In Great Britain, ¹/₂₀ of a scruple (0.0592 milliliters).

I think that works out to .064 teaspoons of chloroform in a 24-hour day for an adult.  That doesn’t sound like a lot and apparently this medication also contained Cannabis Indica (marijuana), Morphine, Opium and alcohol.

Our label gives no other ingredients besides the Chloroform and that was commonly used as a preservative for oral liquid pharmaceutical preparations. As a preservative, it is included in most products at a final concentration of 0.25 per cent v/v.

[There’s another measurement—fluid drams, scruples, minims, teaspoons, v/v. I’m beginning to be grateful for teaspoons.]

Our bottle gives directions, in two different places, to shake the bottle.  They obviously don’t want any ingredients to settle out.

Our bottle’s label says it is prepared by “The Piso Company” with the new package adopted in 1915.  This is well after the passing, in the United States, of The Pure Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906 that provided federal inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products and poisonous patent medicines.[1]” It probably means that a lot of ingredients were changed. Even the name had been changed although the embossed name Piso’s on the sides of the bottle remained.  Apparently, this feature makes the bottles quite collectable because they can be identified even without the label.

There is a wonderful article written by Jack Sullivan that can be downloaded in PDF form called Piso’s Trio:  One Step Ahead of the Law.

http://www.fohbc.com/PDF_Files/PisoTrior_JSullivan.pdf

Leonard Ear Oil

Leonard Ear Oil is the first patent medicine in the collection that I found that was condemned as useless by a medical authority.

 In 1925, DR. ARTHUR J. CRAMP (Director of the Bureau of Investigation, American Medical Association) condemned Leonard Ear Oil and eardrum as useless quackery and commented, “The fact that manufacturers of such useless products succeed in a financial way is an interesting commentary on the low level of human intelligence that exists in certain classes of our population.” 

The insert in the box with the oil states, “while not claim is made that every case will be helped, it has been successful in bringing relief to many troubled with conditions of this kind”.  Conditions of this kind refer to “chronic catarrhal conditions…that interferes with the drainage and ventilation of the nasal passages, mucous accumulating and blocking the Eustachian tube”.

Directions for use involve putting a small amount of the oil (ear oil?) in the nostrils and rubbing it on the neck behind the ears.  I guess this makes sense because the ingredients are camphor, oil of eucalyptus, spirits of ammonia, (mixed with highest grade of mineral oil), all of which will certainly clear your sinuses.  The insert also suggests treating earache with heat and wax build-up with hydrogen peroxide not Leonard’s Ear Oil but says that the Ear oil could be tried for rheumatic or other pains by rubbing it into the affected part!

Leonard’s Invisible Ear Drum looks completely bogus. I am including the part of the insert that describes it.  Judge for yourself.

The A. O. Leonard Co. seems to have been somewhat successful for at least a couple of decades.  The box states that it had successful sales since 1907 and it was still advertising in 1929.  The company seems to have originated in New York but did have a Canadian distributor in Toronto—Maltby Brothers, Limited.  The company is no longer indexed on the Internet.

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.