Shanti Seth
On May 8th the Ladybugs and I dug up this relatively large piece of iridescent glass. Though it was hard to see when it was all covered in dirt, upon further inspection we could clearly see that it said “THOMAS CTRIC O”.
It stumped us for a moment, but I eventually deduced that it was an old bottle of Thomas Eclectric Oil, which was very popular in this area for its supposed healing properties. I was very excited when we dug this up because I absolutely love vintage medicine bottles.
Dr. Thomas’ Eclectric Oil was used as a snake oil remedy for: toothache, earache, backache, lameness, cough, hoarseness, colds, sore throat, burns, and deafness. The oil was sold from the mid 1840s (though the rights and formula were acquired by the Canadian drug firm Northrop & Lyman, manufactured, and sold on a large scale in Canada in 1871) into the early twentieth century. Its name, which is most likely a portmanteau of “eclectic” and “electric”, due to the idea that electricity could heal you. Though it was advertised as a cure-all, it contained a heavy amount of turpentine and camphor oil. Something I found interesting about the Eclectric Oil was its advertising. I remember on the first day, Kate actually told us that we might find Dr. Thomas Ecectric oil and showed us an old advertisement for it.
I decided to look up the ingredients for the oil, simply because their advertisements promised so much. Turns out the oil is mostly made from turpentine and camphor oil (which is found in many bands of vapor rub) as well as other natural ingredients such as thyme and pine tar oil. With these ingredients, the oil could perhaps help with respiratory congestion, soothe sore muscles and joints, and combat fungal or bacterial growth (though most health professionals will tell you to not put these ingredients directly on the skin without diluting them first), it most certainly could not do everything that the advertising would lead you to believe.
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