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Small boxes of old American patent medicine
for women's diseases,
headache, stomach illness, menstruation, and
birth control
Harry
Finley created the images.
The "patent" medicine you see here
usually bear a trademark, not a patent
- just the first of many white lies
associated with this medication, many
or all of which originated in the 19th
century, when both doctoring and
medicine were at best loosely
regulated. Until the beginning of the
20th century similar boxes and bottles
often contained narcotics that would
be banned or tightly controlled today,
or, like Wampole's
suppositories, featured the
explosive picric acid. Or coal
tar-based chemicals, which were the
first linked to cancer.
But an interested and knowledgeable
reader writes,
"With regard to the picric acid
acid suppositories and the other
patent meds involving douching or
suppositories, they were likely
intended to be spermicidal.
Lowering the pH below 3.5 WILL
successfully kill sperm (though not
reliably or safely enough to be a
method recommended nowadays), and a
lot of the acidic vaginal products
of the 19th and early 20th centuries
were sold for that purpose, even
though the Comstock laws prevented
them from advertising themselves as
such (according to a cool book I
read called 'Abortion and
Contraception in 19th Century
America').
"The patent medicine folks would
package ANYTHING they thought might
be acidic enough to work - hence the
explosive, toxic, and corrosive
agents that got sold to women for
their 'personal daintiness' to kill
'germs,' or as an 'inhibitory
antiseptic,' as Dr. Pierre's
suppositories are described." [See
also sponges
sold for reasons other than
spermicidal effect in the same era
although probably used to prevent
conception.]
The American advertising industry
cut its teeth on patent medicine - for
example, this trade
card for Lydia Pinkham's
Vegetable Compound.
Many of these products are for
douching. Read
why you normally should not douche.
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Dr. Pierre's
Boro-Pheno-Form suppositories
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Many of these medicines
contain acid, increasing the natural
acidity of the vagina. Acid helps
prevent dangerous organisms from
thriving, like those that cause
vaginitis. Naturally occurring
Döderlein bacteria in the vagina
make lactic acid (and it's in the
ingredients on the box, above),
helping keep it healthy. Menstruation
decreases the acidity of the vagina,
making it more susceptible to certain
harmful organisms. But as a reader
pointed out, the main use for these
suppositories might have been to kill sperm,
which sufficiently strong acid can do.
Boric
acid is a "chemical substance
with mild antiseptic, antifungal, and
antiviral properties," according to
www.vitacost.com.
Oxyquinoline
sulfate is made from coal tar
and "The manufacturer claims: it is
externally used as a powerful
nontoxic, noncaustic antiseptic and
for use in treatment of gynecological
infections (meritritis, vaginitis) as
it restores the vaginal acid balance .
. . . These claims are not currently
supported by FDA classification . . .
. There are no currently approved OTC
uses for oxyquinoline sulfate, all
formerly listed uses skin protectant
or antifungal are classed as category
II and not generally recognized as
safe and effective or misbranded."
(from
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NationalList/TAPReviews/Hydroxyquinoline.pdf.)
(Coal
tar was the first chemical associated
with cancer, in 1775, among chimney
sweeps in London.) Salicylic acid:
"The major use of salicylic acid is in
the preparation of its ester
derivatives; since it contains both a
hydroxyl (-OH) and a carboxyl (-CO2H)
group, it can react with either an
acid or an alcohol" (from
http://www.bartleby.com).
Http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/drugs_view/1,1524,399,00.html
writes that Methenamine
kills bacteria in the urinary tract by
forming ammonia and formaldehyde. Sodium
phenolsulfonate "Has been
used in tonsillitis and as an
intestinal antiseptic; has no
antiseptic properties," states
(cryptically)
http://www.biology-online.org. As a
phenol I believe it's based on coal
tar. Lactic
acid: "Lactic acid is
produced commercially for use in
pharmaceuticals and foods, in leather
tanning and textile dyeing, and in
making plastics, solvents, inks, and
lacquers" (from
http://www.bartleby.com) and is also
present in the vagina, helping to keep
it acid and healthy. Chlorthymol,
according to the German site
http://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/,
is an antiseptic and fungicide - and I
believe it is also based on coal tar.
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The box measures 2 1/8" x
1 5/8" x 1" (5.5 x 4 x 2.54 cm). |
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The black material is
heavy and shiny; the two end pieces
(above) look like stickers. As you see
in the pictures, the material bulges
out, forming an irregular outline.
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© 2005 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on this
Web site in any manner
or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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