"Krause's Headache Capsules" mgftd. by Norman Lichty Mfg. Co. Des Moines, Iowa.

Eye baths, color glass.

English black marble tobacco jars.

Men's Health jars with lid.

French clinical thermometer.

Porcelain Ointment, cream and salve jars.

Stuffed baby alligator.

Large perfume show jar.

Carboys with wicker covers.

"Jaundice Bitters" Patent Medicines.

Packages of Patent Medicines.

Packages of Universal Night Light.

Assorted druggist spoons and scoop.

Large Tin Herb-Contains with paper labels.

Brown glass jars used-Naphthaline by Edwin Baker pharmacist, Shelburne, Mass.

Transcript of letter from The Quabbin Book House re: acquisition of Hollis Apothecary Shop drugstore items [need better copy to transcribe from] 

The sale and manufacture of patent (or popular) medicines rose sharply in America during the mid-1800s. Although many of these concoctions contained remedies familiar in the traditional healing arts, they were widely regarded as "scientific" medicines. Cures for pain caused by the "stress of modern civilization" were touted for men, while women were advised to take daily doses for "sick headaches," female complaint," and "the weakness." Daily dosing with patent medicines became common.

Alcohol was a common ingredient in patent medicines in the 1800s; often it was the major ingredient. One company advertised that tired housewives who drank "only two glasses each day" would find a new "sparkle in the eye and bloom on the cheek." Since content labeling was not required, the sparkling, blooming users did not know the product was 120 proof. In some liquids designed to soothe infants' pains and complaints, the alcohol content was as high as fifty percent.

Opium and its derivatives, such as codeine, also found their way into the home medicine cabinet. Late in the century the problem of addiction to these home remedies became a focus of widespread concern.

[Taken from "Pain and its Relief" (exhibition catalogue) by Nancy Knight, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983].