The Antikamnia Chemical Company Promoted Its "Cures" in the 1890s with skeleton imagery. The skeletons symbolized the pills alleged ability to ward off death. The company claimed that its pills were a "certain remedy, unattended by any danger," despite the fact that the pills contained a dangerous fever-reducing drug called acetanilide. They also forgot to leave out the fact that "excessive or prolonged use damaged the function of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying pigment of the blood, possibly leading to cyanosis, when your skin or lips turn a bluish-purple hue."
The beautifully drawn watercolor skeletons on this medicine seem all the more sinister knowing about the dangers of these pills. They were drawn by a doctor and artist named Louis Crusius (1862-1898). I like how the skeletons have flesh-covered bodies, despite their exposed skulls. This image of a happy little skeleton family is my favorite.
