Weekly documentariesTrue stories · Real sourcesAmerica, 1850–1930
The Old Medicine Cabinet
Episode No. 1 · Published November 11, 2026 Out now

What the 1890s Drugstore Sold Without a Prescription

In 1897 a farm family could order opium for ten cents from a mail-order catalog, and nothing on a baby’s syrup had to say what was inside. This is how the bottles were finally made to tell the truth.

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Cover for episode 1: Opium for babies, 1897

Chapters

  1. I.The Store With No Rules
  2. II.Ten Cents of Opium
  3. III.The Quiet Nursery
  4. IV.Cocaine for a Toothache
  5. V.A Syringe in a Leather Case
  6. VI.The Tonic That Was a Drink
  7. VII.The Label That Changed Everything

From the documents

“Laudanum” and “Paregoric: always useful, both for children and adults.” Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue No. 104 (1897), Internet Archive.
The Nursery Department: Winslow’s Soothing Syrup listed beside baby syrups and talcum powder. Sears catalog (1897), Internet Archive.
Hypodermic syringes sold by mail, in a morocco case. Sears catalog (1897), Internet Archive.
“Cocaine Toothache Drops”, Lloyd Manufacturing Co., Albany, 1885. Courtesy National Library of Medicine.

Sources

  1. Sears, Roebuck & Co., Consumers Guide, Catalogue No. 104, Spring 1897 · Internet ArchiveDrug Department prices and wording: laudanum, paregoric, Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, hypodermic syringes, the “opium and morphia habit” cure, Peruvian Wine of Coca, arsenic complexion wafers.
  2. Sears, Roebuck & Co., Catalogue No. 111, Spring 1902 · Internet ArchiveLater listings; checked for the “heroin kit” story.
  3. Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Great American Fraud (Collier’s Weekly, 1905; book 1906) · Project GutenbergPeruna, catarrh powders, “the very words are danger signals”, the 1905 Office of Indian Affairs order.
  4. American Medical Association, Nostrums and Quackery, 2nd ed., Chicago, 1912 · Internet ArchiveThe “baby-killers” chapter, the British POISON label, Habitina, reports published in the Journal of the AMA.
  5. H. C. Wood et al., The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 17th ed., 1894 · National Library of Medicine / Internet ArchiveParegoric: camphorated tincture of opium.
  6. “Cocaine Toothache Drops”, Lloyd Manufacturing Co., 1885, in Pick Your Poison · U.S. National Library of MedicineThe 1885 advertisement; cocaine as a local anesthetic; coca wine.
  7. Pure Food and Drugs Act, approved June 30, 1906 · Text of the ActThe labeling rule and the list of substances that had to be declared.
  8. Linder v. United States, 268 U.S. 5 (1925) · U.S. Supreme CourtCites the Act of December 17, 1914 (the Harrison Narcotics Act) and its registration requirement.
  9. Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup · Secondary sourceWhen morphine left the American formula (historians’ dating).

Image credits

Archive images from the Internet Archive (Sears catalogs 1897 and 1902, AMA 1912, Dispensatory 1894), the Library of Congress (no known restrictions), the Wellcome Collection (public domain) and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Each image is credited on screen when it appears.

This episode is history, not medical advice. Several remedies described here were dangerous; nothing in it should be tried at home. If you’re unwell, please talk to your doctor.