Old Fashioned Remedies Using Heroin, Cocaine & Opium

Heroin was first synthesized in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, an English chemist working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, England. He had been experimenting with combining morphine with various acids. He boiled anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride over a stove for several hours and produced a more potent, acetylated form of morphine, now called diacetylmorphine. The compound was sent to F. M. Pierce of Owens College in Manchester for analysis, who reported the following to Wright:

Wright's invention, however, did not lead to any further developments, and diacetylmorphine only became popular after it was independently re-synthesized 23 years later by another chemist, Felix Hoffmann. Hoffmann, working at the Aktiengesellschaft Farbenfabriken (today: Bayer pharmaceutical company) in Elberfeld, Germany, was instructed by his supervisor Heinrich Dreser to acetylate morphine with the objective of producing codeine, a constituent of the opium poppy, similar to morphine pharmacologically but less potent and less addictive. But instead of producing codeine, the experiment produced an acetylated form of morphine that was one and a half to two times more potent than morphine itself. Bayer would name the substance "heroin", probably from the word heroisch, German for heroic, because in field studies people using the medicine felt "heroic".

From 1898 through to 1910, under the name heroin, diacetylmorphine was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that it is rapidly metabolized into morphine, and as such, heroin was essentially a quicker acting form of morphine. The company was embarrassed by this new finding and it became a historic blunder for Bayer.

Information from Wikipedia

Cocaine, morphine, and even heroin were seen as miracle cures when they were first discovered. Substances prohibited today were legally available%u2026%u2026morphine substitute and cough medicine for children! Metcalf's Coca Wine was one of a large number of cocaine-containing wines available

Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York. It was suggested that youshould take a full glass with or after every meal. Children should take half aglass.

This is what was advertised on the box.

COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS
Instantaneous Cure!
Price 15 Cents.
For sale by all Druggists.
(Registered March 1885.)
Cocaine is the new anaesthetic now used so extensively thoughout Europe and this
country by Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists.
This preparation of Toothache Drops contains Cocaine, and its wonderful properties
are fully demonstrated by the many recommendations it is daily receiving.
Take no other except Cocaine Toothache Drops.
For sale by all Druggists.
Prepared by the Lloyd Manufacturing Co., 219 Hudson Ave., Albany, N.Y.

Stickney and Poor's Pure Paragoric... (Opium and Alcohol) For new born infants to make them sleep well. 5 days old. 5 drops. 2 weeks old, 8 drops. 5 years old 25 drops. Adults 1 teaspoon full.

Sleep, baby, sleep! Zzzzzzzzz

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup was an indispensable aid to mothers and child-care workers. Containing one grain (65 mg) of morphine per fluid ounce, it effectively quieted restless infants and small children. It probably also helped mothers relax after a hard day's work.

This National Vaporizer Vapor-OL (opium) Treatment no. 6 for asthma may have provided a unique method of essentially "smoking" opium. The volatile liquid was placed in a pan that was heated by a small kerosene lamp (see below). Other substances were also used in these early (c. 1890) vaporizers, but this mixture probably ensured plenty of visitors for the spasmodically affected.