Apprenticing with his pharmacist father in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Robert Egbert Sumner Ward (1857 to 1936) sold laudanum as an antitussive, as an antidiarrheal, and even as an adjuvant to inhaled anesthetics. One of Ward’s more popular trade cards (left) depicted a charlatan eyeing another quack (upper right, the head of a mallard drake) while testing the edge of an amputating knife. At the charlatan’s feet are a hatchet, a saw, and scattered bottles. On the reverse of the trade card, druggist Ward advertised alcoholic tincture of opium (Laudanum) as well as variations of that product combined with extra alcohol, camphor, or sweet syrup (Bateman’s Drops, Paregoric, or Godfrey’s Cordial, respectively). Alongside all of these over-the-counter opiates, Ward advertised his culinary wares, including essences of peppermint, cinnamon, and ginger and “flavoring extracts of vanilla, lemon, &c.” By 1887 the druggist was devoting more of his time to selling baker’s supplies than to peddling opiates. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Apprenticing with his pharmacist father in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Robert Egbert Sumner Ward (1857 to 1936) sold laudanum as an antitussive, as an antidiarrheal, and even as an adjuvant to inhaled anesthetics. One of Ward’s more popular trade cards (left) depicted a charlatan eyeing another quack (upper right, the head of a mallard drake) while testing the edge of an amputating knife. At the charlatan’s feet are a hatchet, a saw, and scattered bottles. On the reverse of the trade card, druggist Ward advertised alcoholic tincture of opium (Laudanum) as well as variations of that product combined with extra alcohol, camphor, or sweet syrup (Bateman’s Drops, Paregoric, or Godfrey’s Cordial, respectively). Alongside all of these over-the-counter opiates, Ward advertised his culinary wares, including essences of peppermint, cinnamon, and ginger and “flavoring extracts of vanilla, lemon, &c.” By 1887 the druggist was devoting more of his time to selling baker’s supplies than to peddling opiates. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator and Laureate of the History of Anesthesia, Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
