Promotional leaflet advertising 'Angier's Emulsion'
Magazine insert, 1907
Angier's Emulsion was a cough mixture made from petroleum and
hypophosphates that had been used since 1892. Manufactured by the
Angier Chemical Company Limited, based in London it also claimed to
be effective in cases of bronchitis, consumption, all lung
affections, stomach and bowel disorders, ulcers, chronic
indigestion, diarrhoea, dysentery, nervous dyspepsia and
constipation. The firm used to advertise heavily and had a
promotional magazine called 'The Angier idea' that ran from the
early 1900s through to at least 1936.
The leaflet shows a young woman in a red, fur-trimmed, hooded cape
carrying a basket and a bottle of Angier's Emulsion along a
snow-covered road. When she encounters the billboard advertising
her purchase - "It has no equal as a lung healer" - she can rest
assured she's "got the right one"!
'Cure-all' medicines were very common at the time. Whether they
actually lived up to all their claims is doubtful.