Winter Sniffles Got You Feeling Down?

Like many cold-weather dwellers, I suffer from my fair share of sniffles, coughs, and colds during the  winter season. While desperately searching the local pharmacy for a wonder drug, I wondered what exciting cures from yesteryear lived in our Apothecary Shop. Here are some of my findings:

Dr. J. H. Moore Air Medicator & Injector

This clear glass vaporizer, or "Air Medicator & Injector," was patented in 1884 by Dr. J. H. Moore of Cincinnati. The globe-shaped center is topped with two smaller glass globes. A hand-compressed air pump (similar to a perfume atomizer ball) attaches to one of these small globes. When the ball is compressed, it forces medicated air from the large globe through the other small globe --the patient then inhales medicated air through a tube attached to the second small globe.  According to an advertisement from Unity, Volume 15, published by Harvard University Press in 1885, the medicator "forces or pumps Medicated Air into the most remote passages of the head or lungs." The Air Medicator was advertised as "sensible, practical, scientific and certain." Even weak lungs could benefit from the Air Medicator and Injector!

Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer

The lamp-like Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer "charges the atmosphere" with medicinal inhalant that combats bacteria. On the box, Vapo-Cresolene explains the Germ Theory of Diseases: "It is now an admitted fact that all Zymotic Diseases, as Scarlet, Typhoid, and Typhus Fevers, Whooping Cough, Catarrh, Asthma, Croup, Measles, Diptheria, and Hay Fever are generated by the agency of bacteria and other low forms of life." According to its label, this gold-painted iron stand with alcohol lamp disperses medicinal vapors that could cure you of all your maladies.

Blosser's Cigarettes

Marketed "for the Temporary Relief of the Paroxysms of Asthma and for the Relief of Discomforts of Minor Nasal and Bronchial Catarrhal Conditions associated with Head Colds," Blosser's Cigarettes are another example of an early medicinal cure for seasonal ailments. These cigarettes "soothe the mucous membranes of the Nasal and Bronchial Tracts" and "loosen the phlegm in the Nose and Throat," making "Breathing Easier."


Make sure to take a look at some of the other interesting pharmaceutical items on your next visit to the Apothecary Shop during the 2012 season!