The remedy was often worse than the disease. Notoriously, many cures contained opiates and cocaine; they were often also targeted at children and babies and contained life-threatening percentages of alcohol. Colden’s Liquid Beef Tonic – advertised to treat alcoholism – was 26.5% ABV; a similar product, Parker’s Tonic, advertised as “purely vegetable”, was an eye-watering 41.6%. There is no reliable estimate of how many people – particularly children – patent remedies killed, but “lots” seems a safe bet.

The products listed are:

• Mrs Winslow’s soothing syrup - it contained “65mg of morphine per ounce”
• Pink Pills for Pale People
• Asthma cigarettes
• Hunt’s Remedy
• Dr Thomas’s Eclectric [sic(k)] Oil - “alcohol, chloroform … tinctures of opium … hemlock, and turpentine”
• Ayer’s Ague Cure
• Hamlin’s Wizard Oil - “50-70% alcohol plus ammonia and turpentine”
• Pond’s Extract
• Dr McMunn’s
• Vin Mariani - “Pope-approved cocaine wine”