Items

Title: Dr. White's Cough Drops Are the Best
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. White's Cough Drops featuring a yellow rose and berries on the left and a circular image of a snowy landscape on the right. Within the image are a small house, a fence, some rocks, and some snow-covered trees. The back lists the ailments the Cough Drops can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease), Cough, Hoarseness
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Berries, Flowers, Housing, Leaves, Nature, Rocks, Snow, Trees, Wooden Fences
ID: WH380
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Aristotle’s Masterpiece, Or The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof

Description

Published initially in 1684 and popular in both America and England for over two hundred years, this became the most widely reprinted medical book in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The contributions of the Masterpiece were not particularly scientific, but drew largely from Hippocrates, and Galen, as well as other classical and medieval writers. The source material came from two earlier books: Levinus Lemnius’s Secret Miracles of Nature, originally published in Latin in 1599, and The Complete Midwives Practice Enlarged (author unknown). Chapter headings include sections titled, “The Signs of Barrenness” “The Way of getting to a Boy or a Girl,” “How a Midwife Ought to be Qualified” and “A Word of Advice to both Sexes in the Act of Copulation.” The information this title offered on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth wasn’t particularly innovative; many seventeenth century discoveries in gynecology are absent from the text and replaced by Hippocratic pathology, or by superstition. The “Aristotle” of the title was pseudonymous, and likely evoked by the book’s author to give the tome scientific credibility. The book’s true author is unknown, though Culpepper and William Salmon, an English physician and author, are sometimes credited.

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Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Anthropometry, Early works to 1800, Medical illustration, Medicine, Printing—History, Proportion (Art), Renaissance, Wood-engraving

Title: Sapanule: Cures Neuralgia, Diptheria, Rheumatism &c.
Description: Trade card advertising Sapanule featuring a scene reminiscent of classical Chinese art. On the right side is a traditionally-dressed man with walking sticks and wooden sandals. In the left, bottom corner is a traditional Chinese fan. Beyond the man's head is a tree with creepy branches and scarce leaves. The back lists the ailments Sapanule can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Diphtheria, Eczema, Erysipelas, Neuralgia, Pneumonia, Rheumatism, Salt Rheum
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, China, Clothing And Dress—Chinese Influences, Clouds, Ethnic Costume, Fans, Grasslands, Nature, Trees
ID: WH345
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love ...
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Jayne's Expectorant, Dr. Jayne's Liniment, Dr. Jayne's Sanative Pills, and Dr. Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge featuring a young girl leaning on a sign and a young boy who is seemingly courting her with a bunch of grapes. He is holding a blue box or book and is wearing an ornate hat with a long feather in it. She is wearing a flowing dress. Behind them is a tree with foliage. The back lists the ailments the advertised medicines cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthma, Bronchitis, Cold (Disease), Cough, Helminths, Indigestion, Pleurisy, Throat—Diseases, Tuberculosis, Whooping Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Children, Children's Hats, Costume, Feathers, Gifts, Hats, Leaves, Trees
ID: WH286
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills, Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Sanative Wash featuring a coastal landscape of a house whose chimney is letting out smoke in the distance. A body of water is in the foreground, and there is a group of trees on the left-hand side. The image is framed by branches and pink and white blossoms. The back lists the benefits of the items advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Chimneys, Flowers, Nature, Smoke Plumes, Trees, Water, Water And Architecture
ID: WH186
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Greens August Flower. Boschee's German Syrup
Description: Trade card advertising Boschee's German Syrup and Green's August Flower featuring a landscape filled with men driving horse-drawn carriages; two bridges, one of which has a train going over it; and infrastructure in the background. The landscape is filled with rocks, fields, and trees. The back lists the ailments Boschee's German Syrup can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bronchitis, Cold (Disease), Indigestion, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Bridges, Carriages And Carts, Horses, Nature, Railroad Trains, Rocks, Smoke Plumes, Trails, Trees
ID: WH229
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Engravings of the Arteries

Description

This early work by the Scottish anatomist Charles Bell was composed for medical students and aimed to offer accurately and simply-rendered illustrations of the arteries. It was used as a preparatory text for surgical study and practice. The ten engravings in this volume were hand-colored, and labelled with letters corresponding to explanatory descriptions of the arteries on the opposite page. Bell was an accomplished medical illustrator; the engravings were done by Thomas Medland after Bell’s drawings. For Bell, true anatomical understanding was aided in pairing accurate drawing with thorough description. Bell believed that a variety of bodies should be used as subjects, and that the artist must choose the most typical anatomical examples to copy accurately. Bell made important inroads in determining the sensory functions of the nervous system, and was an early advocate of the idea that different parts of the brain controlled different functions; his pioneering work on the brain and cranial nerves influenced the work of other important brain researchers for decades. Chief among his achievements are his very fine medical illustrations, unsurpassed in terms of efficiency of presentation and elegance. These are very much on display in this beautiful book.

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Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Arteries, Arteries—Surgery, Atlases, Engraving, Medical illustration, Medicine, Nervous system, Surgery, Surgery—History

Title: Dr. Morses
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Morse's Compound Syrup of Yellow Dock Root featuring a young boy in what looks like formal military attire drinking out of an oversized glass. The boy is wearing a hat with a feather in it and has a horn in his belt.
Conditions Cured (LC): Headache, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Children, Children's Clothing, Children's Hats, Costume, Drinking Glasses, Feathers, Hats
ID: WH311
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Old Doctor Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges
Description: Trade card advertising Old Dr. Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges featuring a landscape with a white rat in the foreground. The rat is on its hind legs in a field of grass and red flowers. Behind it is a tree with an owl in it.
Conditions Cured (LC): Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Brick Walls, Flowers, Grasses, Grasslands, Nature, Nature, Owls, Rats, Trees
ID: WH356
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Old Doctor Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges
Description: Trade card advertising Old Dr. Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges featuring a wintry landscape. In the foreground is a rabbit standing on its hind legs. Behind it is crouching another rabbit under an overhang of grasses. A raccoon-like animal is stalking the upright rabbit from atop the mound of grasses. It is peering out at the rabbit from behind a snow-covered tree.
Conditions Cured (LC): Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Cats, Flowers, Grasses, Grasslands, Nature, Predatory Animals, Snow, Trees
ID: WH358
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Old Dr. Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges
Description: Trade card advertising Old Dr. Samuel F. Stowe's Dyspepsia Cure or Compound Medicated Lozenges featuring a young child sitting on a red pillow in a high chair. On the high chair's tray is a puppy whose foot is bleeding. The child is repairing it.
Conditions Cured (LC): Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Chairs, Children, Children's Clothing, Dogs, Infants, Puppies, Wound Healing, Wounds and Injuries
ID: WH359F
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Fasciculus medicine : similitudo complexionum & elementorum. [1500]
Description: The sixth edition of the Fasciculus, and the fifth printed in Venice, also by the brothers Gregorii in Latin. The edition uses the same blocks as the 1495 edition, with some minor modifications of the plates. The edition adds a new treatise by Rhazes on children’s diseases. This is the only edition of our five with colored plates, and is bound with Savonarola's Practica medicinae.
Subjects (LC): Medicine-Early works to 1800, Medicine, Medieval, Human anatomy-Early works to 1800, Human anatomy-Charts, diagrams, etc, Surgery-Early works to 1800, Genitourinary organs-Early works to 1800, Generative organs-Early works to 1800, Plague-Early works to 1800

Title: Fasciculus medicine ... tractans de anothomia et diversis infirmitatibus, et corporis humani...[1513]
Description: The eleventh edition of the Fasciculus, printed by Gregorio de Gregorii and featuring Latin Gothic type. The size of the printed page is much larger than in all other editions apart from 1491; as a consequence, the plates are less clipped by the binder (though the blocks themselves are abbreviated). Our copy lacks the frontispiece plate and the urinoscopic consultation plate.
Subjects (LC): Human anatomy-Atlases-Early works to 1800, Medicine-Atlases-Early works to 1800, Human anatomy-Early works to 1800, Genitourinary organs-Early works to 1800, Generative organs-Early works to 1800, Plague-Early works to 1800, Medicine-Early works to 1800, Human anatomy-Charts, diagrams, etc

Title: Cas-car-ria is made by a distinguished chemist [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Cas-car-ria featuring a young girl and a dog chasing devil-esque creatures, labeled as various ailments, into a body of water. The girl is wearing a bright pink dress and holds a switch in her hand. The dog is large and brown and white. The back quotes a piece by Lord Roscommon.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Children, Cliffs, Demonology, Devil, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Staffs (Sticks, Canes, Etc.), Trees, Water
ID: WH244
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: If you feel irritable take Cas-car-ria [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Cas-car-ria featuring a young girl with a dog running devil-esque creatures, presumably representing the ailments listed next to their bodies, into the water. The girl is wearing a bright pink dress and holds a switch in her hand. The dog is large and brown and white. The back quotes a piece by Henry Ward Beecher.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Children, Cliffs, Demonology, Devil, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Staffs (Sticks, Canes, Etc.), Trees, Water
ID: WH246
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: It pays to be well — take Cas-car-ria if sick — and save money [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Cas-car-ria featuring a young girl with a dog running devil-esque creatures, presumably representing the ailments listed next to their bodies, into the water. The girl is wearing a bright pink dress and holds a switch in her hand. The dog is large and brown and white. The back quotes a piece by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Children, Cliffs, Demonology, Devil, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Staffs (Sticks, Canes, Etc.), Trees, Water
ID: WH247
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

The byrth of Mankynde newly translated out of Laten into Englyshe

Description

The Byrth of Mankynde, published in 1540, is the oldest manual for midwives printed in the English language. It remained in use both as a guidebook for midwives and as a source for physicians in the practice of obstetrics throughout Europe for the next two hundred years. The 1540 Byrth was a translation from the Latin edition of De Partu Hominis of Eucharius Rösslin’s Rosengarten. Rösslin was charged with supervising the midwives of Frankfurt, and although this volume contains sound instruction on delivery procedures, it did not break new ground in the field of obstetrics. Instead, it makes available the teachings of the Roman physician Soranus, popularized by Moschion, author of a 6th century question – and –answer book for Roman midwives. Other influences include Galen, Hippocrates, Aetius, Magnus and others. The volume’s seventeen copper-engraved plates were among the first in England to be produced by a roller press. The first illustrates “the Womans Stwle,” or birth chair, a birth aid which had been in use at least since Soranus’ time. Sixteen additional plates depict “Byrth Figures” in various positions in utero. The babies in these images, who resemble children age three or four and not fetuses, float dreamily in light-bulb-shaped vessels.

(5) + -

Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co. (Lowell (Mass.)) (4) + -

L. Sunderland Lith. (Providence (R.I.)) (4) + -

Abbey, E. C. (Emery C.), 1832-1902 (Buffalo (N.Y.)) (3) + -

Fleming Bros. (Pittsburgh (Pa.)) (3) + -

W.H. Comstock Co. (Morristown (N.Y.)) (3) + -

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