Box Vox

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August 12, 2010

Patent Medicine & the Cognitive Illusion Skull

DeathLabDeathHead
On left: E.W. Kemble’s 1906 “Death’s Laboratory” cover for Collier's National Weekly; on right: Joseph Keppler’s 1881 “Death’s-Head Doctors — Many Paths to the Grave” for Puck Magazine (via: The Ephemera Assemblyman)

Two illustrations about the dangers of patent medicine that both employed the same cognitive-illusion device.

Joseph Keppler’s illustration from 1881 (with tombstones for teeth, on right) was first. Keppler founded the muckraking and satirical Puck Magazine—(at one time headquartered in The Puck Building.)

25 years later E.W. Kemble did his “Death’s Laboratory’ illustration (with bottles for teeth, on left) for Collier’s National Weekly. Beginning in 1905 Collier’s published “The Great American Fraud”—a series of articles by Samuel Hopkins Adams that exposed the dangers that unregulated patent medicines posed to public health. These and other muckraking articles of the time led to the passing of the “Pure Food and Drug Act” of 1906 and the creation of the FDA.

DeathsLabDeathHeadDetails

(Another patent-medicine-related Collier’s cover, after the fold…)

Colliers-DangerDrugsCover

(via: AuthenticHistory.com)

See also: Radioactive Packaging

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

No Responses to “Patent Medicine & the Cognitive Illusion Skull”

  1. Bob says:
    September 9, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Hi Randy
    very interesting article and photos indeed, Actually i was looking for some photos of this antique rodenticide.by the way do you know any patent related to this product? I know this much that the active ingredient of ratnip was white phosphorus,but i need some additional info of manufacturing processes and… any info would be godsend, from you. Thanks