Description

Sydenham's Laudanum - Opium tincture

Antique pharmacy bottle 

Labels: SEPARATE and POISON label with skulls with crossed bones

Which means that this bottle had to be kept apart from the others because it was very dangerous and deadly - POISON

Laboratory reserve amber glass bottle from the early 20th century, coming from the network of hospitals and pharmacies of the General Administration of Public Assistance in Paris.

The bottle is distinguished by a hazard warning system of remarkable density: an official bright red label, the storage banner "TO SEPARATE" and a macabre cartridge flanked by two skulls framing the word "Poison".

It contained one of the most famous opiate preparations in the history of medicine: Sydenham’s Laudanum

Laudanum is a highly addictive alcoholic tincture of opium.

Sydenham’s laudanum is a saffron opium tincture introduced and tested by Sydenham during the dysentery epidemics of 1669-1672 in London, nicknamed "the aspirin of the 19th century".

Until the widespread use of morphine, this remedy will remain the most widely used analgesic. It is a calming opiate brew.

In England, it was customary to give a little laudanum to restless babies to make them sleep... It was commonly prescribed in Victorian homes as a painkiller and often recommended for diarrhea, cough, rheumatism, painful menstruation, heart disease, hysteria etc.

But pharmaceutical opiate preparations will move easily from therapeutic to recreational use, especially as they are available over the counter at low cost in the UK.

Opiomania affects all classes of society in England and even generates an aesthetic research that will leave a trace in the history of literature. The poets Coleridge, De Quincey, Poe and Baudelaire who call themselves "opium eaters" (opiophages), however, are rather opium drinkers.

However, in this 19th century, the rise of the addictive consumption of laudanum in popular English circles created very serious health problems.

There are no longer any commercially available forms of this dye in France.

Here, the bottle is accompanied by several warnings: this substance had to be stored separately in the Poisons Cabinet, whose key was held only by the pharmacist.

It comes from an old cellar-laboratory in a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not moved since the late 1950s on the shelves!

Height of the bottle: 19.5cm with cap

EMPTY