Photo of a bottle from the Museum of American History,
Zero indication of what's actually in it lol
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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Vintage and Retro Ads, Promos, Fliers, Etc.
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Not opiates. Fucking lame ass cough syrup.
-- My great grandfather in 1928 and me in 2008
Yeah... I wonder if it might've said on the back of the bottle? I don't see it on the front or the ad.
The reason I wonder about the back is, this was 1920's, and in the USA, the legal requirement to disclose the ingredients of medicines was passed in 1906 under Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was all about pure food and drugs.
Normally I think of the 1800's or early 19-aughts as the era when ingredients were a total mystery.
https://fdanj.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/fdnj10759
It had belladonna in it. And camphor, and menthol. and sugar. and alcohol.
I was under the impression that this describes the fake one, since this is report of a “misbranding” of Aspironal.
Ah that may be. I didn’t see that - and wondered where the alcohol was in the breakdown.
Wait though! It may have had some of the same ingredients though, including belladonna!
There’s a Facebook post I found from nearly ten years ago that lists a few things.
- up to 15% alcohol
- sodium salicylate, which is what aspirin is derived from (hence the name)
- Cascara (laxative herb)
- a small amount of mydriatic alkaloids, probably from belladonna
- Menthol
What utter rubbish! Nothing is better than whisky for colds and 'flu.
Everyone is doing it.
Well, if everyone is doing it . . .
I guess prohibition didn’t apply if it was a medicine
It did not, doctors were actually allowed to prescribe alcohol.
Yep, there wasn't really a choice about that. Alcohol is a solvent necessary for making extracts and stuff, so eliminating that entire class of ingredients would've severely restricted what sorts of medicines could be made.
Despite what it says on the label, I'd bet it had opiates in it. No one was going to check anyway.