Dr Seth Arnold Medical Company produced 'Cough Killer' for
curing coughs, whooping cough, colds, pneumonia, asthma, croup,
malaria, inflammation of the stomach, and malignant fevers as well
as 'Arnold's Anti-Bilious Pills' which were supposed to cure liver
complaints, biliousness and headache.
Like many 19th-century over-the-counter medicines, a lot of its
effect was due to the fact that it contained a narcotic drug or
hallucinogen, in this case morphine, a derivative of opium. People
were unwittingly being exposed to habit-forming drugs, something
the American Medical Association started investigating about this
time. It compiled a list of dangerous 'nostrums' in May 1909,
including alcohol, opium and its derivatives, morphine and codeine,
cocaine, chloral, and cannabis. Legislation followed
eventually.
Dr Seth Arnold was a doctor and a patent medicine manufacturer
from Smithfield, Rhode Island. His other popular cures included Dr
Seth Arnold's Balsam, for cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, etc.,
Soothing and Quiet cordial, for stomach and bowel problems and
Indian Vegetable Sugar Coated Bilious Pills which were supposed to
purify the blood and cure headaches. In 1892, Dr Seth Arnold died
leaving his sons in charge of the firm, which they sold about 15
years later to Gilman Brothers of Boston, Massachusetts.