🏅Chichester’s English Pennyroyal Pill Box / Tin🏅

“Worth their weight in gold” FUN FACT: The red, black, and gold tin box pictured & the above ad was the product of Chichester Chemical Company of Philadelphia: Diamond Brand Pills. Nowhere on the box is any indication of what the pills were expected to remedy. Each box was secured with a blue ribbon as if to keep a secret. While the ad says nothing regarding the therapeutic uses of the remedy, the public to a large extent knew and purchased it as an emmenagogue (a laxative that brings on menstruation) intended to halt the normal continuation of a pregnancy. Pennyroyal tea is an old herbal remedy used for seasickness, headaches, coughs and colds and was sometimes reputed—along with tansy and certain other herbs—to be an abortifacient. PENNYROYAL OIL IS POISONOUS!! In 1906 the Food and Drug Act enacted by congress was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws (leading to the creation of the FDA.) in the following year, the company also dropped the word “pennyroyal” from its packaging and advertisements along with a full redesign of the tin now reading “NEW STYLE ADOPTED” along with any suggest of its therapeutic use. This is from around the turn of the last century—think about that for a moment. Melon melting