Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup

Title: Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup
Description: The trade card shows a mother in bed holding her children and a newspaper advertising the product. Significant levels of morphine and alcohol were known ingredients in this product. The medicine claimed to treat teething for children. The product was popularly used among mothers. Yet the copious amounts of alcohol and morphine had the potential to induce coma, addiction, and death for infants. The product originally contained 65 milligrams of morphine before legislation and litigation reduced the amount over the next few decades. The American Medical Association labeled the product as a “baby killer.”
The product was eventually discontinued and removed from the market in the 1930s.
Identifier: 2022-JL-PMA-06
Creator: Curtis & Perkins Proprietors
Date Created: 1885
Medium: trade cards
Spatial Coverage: Maine
Subject: advertisements; mothers; children (people by age group); Alcohol; Morphine; Dentition; Drug addiction; Narcotics; Patent medicines; Drugs, Nonprescription
Rights: NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES
Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine; University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences Library
Relation: https://library.usa.edu/mrs-winslows-soothing-syrup