Pisos Cure Bottles w/ photocopy of a Pisos ad

[b.ecollects]

I'm pretty sure the amber pisos bottle is a more recent one. The green one is shorter than the amber one and the seam on the amber one goes all the way up to the top of the lip, while as the green one only goes up to halfway up the neck.

The bore on the amber bottle is smaller than the green one too.

The amber one has trade mark on it too, while the green one doesn't.

It's still to have them though

 

[CanadianBottles]

Yeah the amber one is definitely newer, it's designed to take a type of resealable bottle cap while the other would have taken a cork. I never knew that these came in amber at all, or outlasted the cork-top era.

 

[b.ecollects]

Yeah the amber one is definitely newer, it's designed to take a type of resealable bottle cap while the other would have taken a cork. I never knew that these came in amber at all, or outlasted the cork-top era.

I didn't know they came in amber either. I've seen the clear and the green ones before, but never an amber one. Apparently there's also yellow ones and aqua ones too, so I'll be looking for those soon.

 

[Wildcat wrangler]

I'm pretty sure the amber pisos bottle is a more recent one. The green one is shorter than the amber one and the seam on the amber one goes all the way up to the top of the lip, while as the green one only goes up to halfway up the neck.

The bore on the amber bottle is smaller than the green one too.

The amber one has trade mark on it too, while the green one doesn't.

It's still to have them though

I really like the amber one- never seen one like that. The green one is one of the older, as it says “cure” I have the same cure bottle and here is what I came up with while researching it:

Among the most notorious quack nostrums for consumption (tuberculosis), was “Píso’s Cure,” dating from the Civil War. It was no cure at all, and was cynically promoted by a trio of partners whom one writer terms, “a marketeer, a medic and a moneybags.”

Its marketeer was one Ezra T. Hazeltine, who named the product Píso’s (more on this presently) and the enterprise Hazeltine & Company. The medic was Dr. Macajah C. Talbott (a graduate of the Buffalo Medical School) who came up with the formula for Píso’s. And the moneybags was a wealthy businessman, Myron Waters. All three lived in Warren, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, the company had, in a few years (by 1870), expanded the making of “Píso’s Cure for Consumption” by building a factory on an island of the Allegheny River flowing by Warren (Sullivan 2007).

It has been a mystery why Hazeltine used the name Píso. As Jack Sullivan states (2007), “An ancient Roman family bore that name but its members were politicians, not physicians.” However, I offer the suggestion that the name may derive from Willem Píso (1611–1678), a famous Dutch physician and naturalist who was an expedition doctor in Brazil for the Dutch West India company (1637–1644) and who became an important founder of the field of tropical medicine (“Willem Píso” 2018).

In any event, Píso’s Cure originally contained opium—a drug regarded with revulsion because returning Civil War veterans were often addicted, having been treated with opiates for the pain of their wounds. By 1872, anticipating Congress’ ban on opium derivatives in patent medicines, Píso’s hucksters dropped those ingredients from its formula; however, they retained cannabis, chloroform, and alcohol—while not listing them on the label. Píso’s “cured” nothing, only giving the purchaser the illusion of getting better by making him feel better.

Again, in anticipation of more restrictions (which came in 1905 with passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act), Píso’s hawkers removed their complained-of phrase “for Consumption.” They shrewdly replaced it with “for Coughs and Colds” which they claimed were conditions that led to tuberculosis (Sullivan 2007). When in 1907 the FDA cautioned proprietary medicine sellers against using the word “cure,” Hazeltine & Co. changed their labels to read “Píso’s Remedy.” Piso bottles changed as well. (Of two shown from my collection in the photo, both about 51/8 inches tall, the aqua one is oldest, the emerald-green one lacking the word “Consumption.” Píso bottles are also seen in olive and amber.)

“
Stripped of its opiates and in time its alcohol and cannabis, Píso’s reign effectively ended shortly before World War II. However a pharmacist in Warren did continue to concoct small batches of a cough medicine of that name for a time. Chloroform was banned from such products in 1947, and the last vestige I have found of a Piso product was an ad of 1948 (Sullivan 2007; Fike 2006, 74, 104).”

(No wonder the entire family had that spaced out look, in those old pix! Chloroform, TOO? I bet those babies slept thru the night like good babies!) Those people knew some serious partying. Kat >^..^<

 

[b.ecollects]

I really like the amber one- never seen one like that. The green one is one of the older, as it says “cure” I have the same cure bottle and here is what I came up with while researching it:

Among the most notorious quack nostrums for consumption (tuberculosis), was “Píso’s Cure,” dating from the Civil War. It was no cure at all, and was cynically promoted by a trio of partners whom one writer terms, “a marketeer, a medic and a moneybags.”

Its marketeer was one Ezra T. Hazeltine, who named the product Píso’s (more on this presently) and the enterprise Hazeltine & Company. The medic was Dr. Macajah C. Talbott (a graduate of the Buffalo Medical School) who came up with the formula for Píso’s. And the moneybags was a wealthy businessman, Myron Waters. All three lived in Warren, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, the company had, in a few years (by 1870), expanded the making of “Píso’s Cure for Consumption” by building a factory on an island of the Allegheny River flowing by Warren (Sullivan 2007).

It has been a mystery why Hazeltine used the name Píso. As Jack Sullivan states (2007), “An ancient Roman family bore that name but its members were politicians, not physicians.” However, I offer the suggestion that the name may derive from Willem Píso (1611–1678), a famous Dutch physician and naturalist who was an expedition doctor in Brazil for the Dutch West India company (1637–1644) and who became an important founder of the field of tropical medicine (“Willem Píso” 2018).

In any event, Píso’s Cure originally contained opium—a drug regarded with revulsion because returning Civil War veterans were often addicted, having been treated with opiates for the pain of their wounds. By 1872, anticipating Congress’ ban on opium derivatives in patent medicines, Píso’s hucksters dropped those ingredients from its formula; however, they retained cannabis, chloroform, and alcohol—while not listing them on the label. Píso’s “cured” nothing, only giving the purchaser the illusion of getting better by making him feel better.

Again, in anticipation of more restrictions (which came in 1905 with passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act), Píso’s hawkers removed their complained-of phrase “for Consumption.” They shrewdly replaced it with “for Coughs and Colds” which they claimed were conditions that led to tuberculosis (Sullivan 2007). When in 1907 the FDA cautioned proprietary medicine sellers against using the word “cure,” Hazeltine & Co. changed their labels to read “Píso’s Remedy.” Piso bottles changed as well. (Of two shown from my collection in the photo, both about 51/8 inches tall, the aqua one is oldest, the emerald-green one lacking the word “Consumption.” Píso bottles are also seen in olive and amber.)

“
Stripped of its opiates and in time its alcohol and cannabis, Píso’s reign effectively ended shortly before World War II. However a pharmacist in Warren did continue to concoct small batches of a cough medicine of that name for a time. Chloroform was banned from such products in 1947, and the last vestige I have found of a Piso product was an ad of 1948 (Sullivan 2007; Fike 2006, 74, 104).”

(No wonder the entire family had that spaced out look, in those old pix! Chloroform, TOO? I bet those babies slept thru the night like good babies!) Those people knew some serious partying. Kat >^..^<

Thank you for the information! I didn't know it lasted just before World War II.