One bottle in my assemblage stood out in particular to me. It was a a brown bottle about 8 inches tall, ovoid with two flat sides, and had the word Ozomulsion prominently embossed onto it. “What in the world is Ozomulsion?” said a heavy eyed me as I wrapped up categorizing my bottles. Well little did I know, this little brown bottle once contained a miracle cure more powerful than snake venom! Ozomulsion was a patent medication which claimed to cure a host of ailments. The following picture is an advertizement from a turn of the 20th century New York newspaper The Argosy.
The be-all end-all miracle cure!
After finding out Ozomulsion was cod oil, I couldn’t help but think about the current fad to eat fish oil tablets, which seem to have some scientific backing. Perhaps there really is something to this Ozomulsion stuff after all. Come to think of it, I could use a cure for coughs, colds, grip (whatever that is), bronchitis, zombies, pneumonia, and everything else this mean world has to throw at me. Think that free sample bottle is still available?
I love the comment on how it provides “perfect nutrition” – I definitely see the parallel between this and modern advertisements for certain vitamins or compounds. That’s awesome that you could find the advertisement for the actual product! I wonder what type of paper the Argosy was, and if there is anything to be gained by looking at their target audience which (guessing from what we know about pharmaceuticals) is most likely the family unit. I’m curious what other kinds of products were advertised along with this, and what the circulation numbers could tell us about how this particular bottle was marketed to the masses – it would be neat to know more!