Exhibition Images

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Arsenic-based medicine, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
Arsenic-trioxide tablets, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
Laudanum, Edward D. Depew & Co., about 1880-1900
Strychnine sulphate, Eli Lilly & Company, about 1910
Morphine, about 1880
Belladonna leaf extract, Sharp & Dohme Co., Baltimore, about 1925
Marsh Test Apparatus, Steel engraving, 1867
Coffin-shaped poison bottle, 19th century
Skull-and-crossbones rectangular poison bottle, 19th century
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Laudanum, Edward D. Depew & Co., about 1880-1900
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Laboratory Views

Laudanum, Edward D. Depew & Co., about 1880-1900
Laudanum, a solution of opium and alcohol, was commonly used as a painkiller and a sedative in 19th- and early 20th-century America. In large doses it could also be used as a poison, and figured in several notorious murder cases.
National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution