The Sears Drug Catalog of 1902
The FDA? What's that?!  Granted, nowadays, it seems like it exists only to slap the big okey-doke on nearly any chemical that passes its desk, but at one time it actually did mean to help and protect people...and before it existed, drug companies could kick out toxins without paying a filing fee...then came Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican who wanted to break up monopolies and establish parks and conservation sites and...wow..that was actually in the 20th century?
Anyway...
Richard Sears even got into the game at one point, offering a catalogue of goodies to die for to treat everything you could imagine, and often for less than a dollar.  What he couldn't repackage under his own name, he'd sell at a 20% discount.  Arsenic could clear up your complexion, morphine could cure your tuberculosis, and marijuana could treat your headache...and the French Specific--ooo la  la!  Of course you were never told what the ingredients were...that would be cheating...and there was no FDA...
Also available as a Print!
...this particular catalogue fell into the possession of Uncle Stan and almost as immediately fell apart.  The toll of years, overheated attics, and some determined mice had become apparent.  Going page by page, the images were scanned and repieced into this reprint, which nicely captures the spirit of a day long gone and we hope may never reappear.  Now in its fourth printing, 98 pages of fun bathroom reading...and fits nicely next to your copy of the Farmer's Almanac.... $8.50

The Animating Apothecary
PO Box 1325
Battle Creek, MI 49016
email:  jimmiddleton@juno.com

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