Stovarsol – Arsenic Treatment for Syphilis
From SPECIA Laboratories – 1930–1950
Antique glass bottle
Label: DANGEROUS
Warning the pharmacist that it must be stored separately from other substances in the toxic substances cabinet, the infamous ‘poison cabinet’.
It comes from the former cellar-laboratory of a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not been moved from the shelves since the late 1950s. The cellar had served as a medical analysis laboratory and a laboratory for the pharmacy’s compounded preparations from 1900 until around 1950.
EMPTY
Description
Stovarsol – Arsenic Treatment for Syphilis
From SPECIA Laboratories – 1930–1950
Antique glass bottle
Label: DANGEROUS
Warning the pharmacist that it must be stored separately from other substances in the toxic substances cabinet, the infamous ‘poison cabinet’.
Stovarsol is not just an ordinary remedy. It is an arsenic-based medicine used to treat syphilis.
This was its primary and historical use. Before the discovery and widespread use of penicillin after the Second World War, arsenic derivatives were the only effective weapon against syphilis.
Stovarsol also had the advantage of being administered orally, in tablet form, unlike the older mercury-based injectable treatments.
The arsenic contained in Stovarsol caused very severe and toxic side effects for the patient in the event of prolonged treatment, as the body has great difficulty eliminating arsenic.
But faced with syphilis, which inevitably led to dementia, paralysis and death in the long term, arsenic remained the patient’s only chance of survival.
As soon as penicillin became widely available after 1945, these curative poisons were abandoned. It comes from the former cellar-laboratory of a Parisian pharmacy.
It comes from the former cellar-laboratory of a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not been moved from the shelves since the late 1950s. The cellar had served as a medical analysis laboratory and a laboratory for the pharmacy’s compounded preparations from 1900 until around 1950.
Height of the bottle: 7cm with cap
Period: circa 1930s–1950s
EMPTY
