While bottle digging I still get excited to find cork top bottles with embossing. One of the more interesting bottles to find are vintage embossed medicines. Liniments are one of the types of medicine bottles that I enjoy finding. These bottles are always a nice addition to the Memory Detecting Senior Reminiscence program.
Today Ben Gay would be considered a liniment. Liniments are basically a medication that is rubbed on your body for sore and aching muscles. One of the most popular liniments pre-Ben Gay was SLOANS.
Earl Sloan was a U.S. entrepreneur who had a successful business selling his fathers horse liniment formula after the Civil War. SLOANS LINIMENT was made from capsicum and was eventually marketed for human use. He later sold his company to the Warner-Lambert which was eventually purchased by Pfizer in 2000.
Seniors may remember Sloans. This type of medicine must have been pretty popular back in the late 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s. Much of the effective medicines that we have today were not available then. Today if you have a sore back you simply take Aleve or Motrin. In 1880-1920 you had less effective medication. Many of the non-topical pain relievers were actually made with alcohol as a key ingredient.
Not only did you have less effective choices seniors had higher physically demanding jobs and lifestyles. The need for effective pain medication was high. The working lifestyle of the average man and women back in 1880-1950 era was not the same as it is today. As a whole life was harder, and pain must have been a bigger challenge.
My metal detecting finds always remind me of how living was harder back 75-100 years ago. I don’t find many chainsaws from the late 1800’s and early and mid 1900’s! However I do find plenty of axe heads as an example. Thankfully in the early stages of pain management Sloans was one choice that was available to ease those aching muscles.