Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup (jan 1, 1849 – jan 1, 1930)

Description:

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup tells one of the most tragic stories of the Welch family. Another proprietary medicine, it was produced by Jeremiah Curtis and Benjamin Perkins from Bangor, Maine. It was advertised to tired and distressed mothers as a cure for teething pains and any other ailment: colic, common colds, dysentary, the flu. It was likely used to treat the twins, Katey and Joanna Welch, who passed away of cholera infantum in August, 1868 after being born in January. That same year, Curtis reported annual sales of over 1.5 million bottles.

However, the main and most dangerous ingredients in the syrup were alcohol and morphine, alongside sodium carbonate, spirits foeniculi, and aqua ammonia. the heavy concentration of morphine in each teaspoon was equivalent twenty drops of laudanum (the dosage for a baby under six months was no more than three drops). As an opioid, Mrs. Winslow's may have caused constipation to mitigate the diarhea from the twins' cholera. Since the bottle recommended consumption four times a day, the syrup led to high incidents of morphine addiction and withdrawal, comas, and infant deaths. However, the medicine nicknamed "baby killer" was still used even after the harmful ingredients were revealed after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. It went off the market in the 1930s.

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup encapsulates how patent medicines took advantage of vulnerable populations. Facing discrimination and prejudices as Irish immigrants, the Welches depended on patent medicines rather than medical professionals to treat illnesses.
Michael experienced four deaths of his children between 1858 and 1870, three of those from his second marriage to Bridget who was the primary caretaker and house keeper. The Mrs. Winslow's advertisements, today known for their images happy and peaceful domestic bliss contrary to the medicine's reality, would have appealed the mothers and wives who had to exert constant emotional and physical care for several ill children without medical expertise.

The second image shows a complete bottle in its packaging from the National Museum of American History.

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