In the 1890s The Antikamnia Chemical Company Used Skeletons To Sell Its Killer Cures

Using memento mori to sell medical treatments designed to hold off death was the idea of the Antikamnia Chemical Company, which featured skeletons employed in various professions in adverts for its drugs.

h/t: flashbak

The illustrations, watercolour “skeleton sketches”, were created by Louis Crusius (1862-1898), a doctor and artist based in the city.

As the skeletons advised, the pills were a “certain remedy, unattended by any danger”. Pop enough of them and you’d be free of worries and pain, because you’d be dead. They contained acetanilide, a synthetic organic compound introduced in therapy in 1886 as a fever-reducing drug. However, excessive or prolonged use damaged the function of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying pigment of the blood, possibly leading to cyanosis, when your skin or lips turn a bluish-purple hue.

The end was nigh. In 1930, the company was bought up by Block Drug Company in 1930.