The Kickapoo Indians Tape-Worm Secret

"Sure to Get Head, Body, and All."

This remedy was made by the Kickapoo Indians Medicine Company, but it was not invented or made by Kickapoo Indians. A 1907 list of ingredients included the following:

Santonin - powdered wormwood - stuns or kills worms
Podophyllin - dried root of American Mayapple (also useful in removing genital warts)
Sugar - to make the mess palatable?
Rice Flour - probably the base everything else mixed into
Licorice - a root - a soothing coating agent & expectorant so you can cough up the worm
Oil of Anise - another expectorant, also a diuretic & appetite stimulant
Hydragyri Subchloridum - chloride of mercury - if it doesn't kill the worm, it'll kill you.

More on Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company

Asper-Lax

Asper-lax was based in Charleston, West Virginia, and while it advertised itself as a remedy "since 1916", it was only legally able to distribute its product beginning in 1920 after some litigation with the Bayer company. Why aspirin should also contain a laxative is a mystery to me, except that Americans love their laxatives. I can't recall needing a laxative for most headaches or colds I've suffered. Alas for sufferers of the deadly influenza, Asper-Lax might give a bit of relief, but no cure. The product was promoted mainly in West Virginia but did spread to Pennsylvania and New York. You could buy shares in the company for only $10 in 1920 but I could find no info for the company after 1933, so it may have gone belly up during the Great Depression.

Nembutal and Aspirin

Did folks buy this for the aspirin or for the phenobarbital? Oh wait, this was a FREE sample.

I think William S. Burroughs mentioned "nembies" in his classic work "Junky"; musta been some mighty good stuff, because it's a controlled substance now. It's what veterinarians use to euthanize pets. You have to go to Mexico or Switzerland to buy it if you are regular folk. My, how time changes things.