Oct 19, 2014

Vin Mariani, the Bordeaux wine with coca leaves

 Litography by Jules Chéret, 1894

 The ethanol in the wine extracted the cocaine from the coca leave, altering the drink's effect. The Vin Mariani contained 6 mg of cocaine per fluid ounce, (0.028 l) but the exported drink contained 7.2 mg per ounce to compete with the similar drinks in the United States.


 Some famous people and royalties liked the Mariani wine, Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Saint Pius X, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, Thomas Edison and Ulysses S. Grant, among others.

Pope Leo XIII used to carry a bottle with him all the time.
He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.


This patent medicine was created by a French chemist, Angelo Mariani in 1863 and was the most famous Coca wine of it's time.

Opium for Asthma

40% alcohol plus 3 grams of opium per tablet
Used as an analgesic and as a remedy for asthma, coughs and pneumonia

This National Vaporizer Vapor-OL (opium) Treatment no. 6 for asthma may have provided a unique method of essentially “smoking” opium. The volatile liquid was placed in a pan that was heated by a small kerosene lamp. Other substances were also used in these early (c.1890) vaporizers, but this mixture probably ensured plenty of visitors for the spasmodically affected.

 Vapo-cresolene lamps were marketed primarily to vaporize creosol-based products for the relief of head and chest congestion. However, they were also used with other products such as the opium-based asthma medicine shown above.


This advertisement is for Glyco-Heroin which was manufactured by the Martin H. Smith Company (New York).  Heroin was widely used not only as an analgesic but also as a remedy for asthma, coughs, and pneumonia. Mixing heroin with glycerin (and often adding sugar or spices) made the bitter-tasting opiate more palatable for oral consumption. (From International Medical Magazine, January, 1902.)


These Heroin tablets manufactured by The Fraser Tablet Company were marketed for the relief of asthma.


Well
It didn't cure you... but you didn't care!