Dr. Thompson's Eye Water (jan 1, 1795 – jan 1, 1909)

Description:

Dr. Thompson’s Eye Water claimed to cure ailments of the eye. It was a patent, or proprietary, medicine- neither made nor prescribed by doctors. It was first manufactured in New London, Connecticut in 1795 by Isaac Thompson before he sold the company to his son-in-law, Joseph Thompson of Troy, N.Y., in 1830. The directions for use recommend dilution with rosewater and Epsom salts to rinse the eyes four to five times a day. It was revealed that the mixture contained opium, alcohol and zinc sulfate after the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. An eye wash cup was also recovered at Yeaton-Walsh and these two items may have been used together to clean the eyes and address irritation.

Use of proprietary medicines was common across Irish immigrant communities in the United States, who found safety in the ability to self-medicate at home. Despite harmful or unsafe ingredients, these were an alternative to visiting the doctor, charity hospitals, and medical institutions where Irish would face discrimination. (Stephen Brighton, Historical Archaeology of the Irish Diaspora) Irish immigrants were subjects of racialization. One of the stereotypes of Irish immigrants included that they were both hygienically and morally unclean, threatening the health of American society through disease and Catholicism.

As a community of many working class immigrant families and tenant houses during the turn of the twentieth century, the Puddle Dock neighborhood fit the image many sanitary and immigration reformers dreaded. As the Portsmouth Herald wrote in 1899, "Puddle Dock is just as fragrant as ever." (Portsmouth Herald, July 7, 1899)

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