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Arsenic-based medicine, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
Arsenic-trioxide tablets, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
Laudanum, Edward D. Depew & Co., about 1880-1900
Strychnine sulphate, Eli Lilly & Company, about 1910
Morphine, about 1880
Belladonna leaf extract, Sharp & Dohme Co., Baltimore, about 1925
Marsh Test Apparatus, Steel engraving, 1867
Coffin-shaped poison bottle, 19th century
Skull-and-crossbones rectangular poison bottle, 19th century
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Arsenic-trioxide tablets, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
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Arsenic-trioxide tablets, Wm. R. Warner & Co., about 1900
Arsenic trioxide, a toxic substance employed in goldmining and other industrial processes, was also used as a medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries (it is still used today to treat leukemia and other diseases). Bottles that featured raised ridges, skulls and crossbones, and the embossed word "poison" were designed so that people could distinguish poisons from other medicines, even in the dark.
National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution