OLD 1888 medicine BOTTLE STRANGE THING STILL INSIDE

[bizzyditch]

found this old bottle in garage it is a SANTAL DE-MEDI bottle from paris on the net this bottle is dated 1888. now it has some strange thing in it looks like a bone or something that calcified petrafied . i got a bad feeling about it. clear bottle with a iredesent purple tint to it the cork is still in it looks like it was broken off so you cant open it. i have pictures of it. please tell me if this is dangerous.

 

[osgood]

Cant get a better image of the "bone"? Have someone with medical or anatomical training look at it. Id sure want to rule out human bone. ick, CO

 

[GoGoGopher]

It is one of then real to life alien skull in a bottle!!! Priceless...Seriously though.,..that just gives me the willies...

HH,

 

[bizzyditch]

THATS ABOUT AS GOOD OF A PIC I CAN GET OF WHATS INSIDE

 

[Bell]

I would assume it is the solidified contents of whatever the bottle originaly held. I have seen that before with old bottles. So if its a poison bottle, its poison.

 

[deanosaur1972]

I think the clue is the name on the bottle - specifically SANTAL.

This is the oil taken from Sandalwood, it used to be an old medicine. Used to be a very sought many moons ago (and valuable at that time too) - origins in southern India.

In its oil form its a pale yellowish or yellow, somewhat thick liquid, having a peculiar, strongly aromatic odor, and a pungent, spicy taste. It could well just a piece of sandalwood wood or oil that has solidified.

It is used to treat gonorrhoea (and also a few other ailments), that's the reason why it used to be sought after and expensive!!

 

[utahshovelhead]

it is another cork. I have found other bottles with corks inside. If you pushed your cork in to far then how else do you close the lid?,...you put another cork in.

 

[taz42o]

Are you sure of your spelling.? Maybe Santal de Midy.?

quote:
Santal de Midy was imported from Paris, and even though the name suggests it could be a perfume, it was not. The bottle actually contained capsules used in treating bladder, liver and venereal problems. It took a week long date with a microfiche machine for me to find this interesting tidbit out. And from here it was all downhill. After doing a survey of the NWMP disease statistics for the years 1875-1915, I discovered that bladder and liver problems were virtually non-existent. But, venereal disease ran rampant through the fort; and syphilis was the king of them all. In A Chronicle of the Canadian West one doctor writes: "during the winter of 1874 and 1875 there was very little sickness in the troops and I cannot say that those who were sick suffered from any particular disease more than another except towards the spring the troops got pretty well inoculated with syphilis and several cases of gonorrhoea." Syphilis is a nasty disease. It can change your skeletal structure and turn your bones to mush. Any incidences of broken bones in the fort took an abnormally long time to heal. If you live long enough after contracting the disease it will eventually destroy your brain.

So, how does a little clear Santal de Midy bottle fit into all of this? The government official in charge of the public purse strings, Commissioner Herchmer, felt that the public shouldn't be paying for the indiscretions of the troops in Calgary. He ordered the men to take deductions in pay to compensate for their medical costs if they were sick with an STD. This naturally forced the men to hide their condition and seek unprofessional remedies. Santal de Midy was one of these unprofessional remedies. It came to Calgary from the Midy pharmacy in Paris via New York. In that tiny little bottle is a good example of a cure being worse than the disease. The ingredients have been likened to poison and mercury was the most prominent poison. The men suffered terribly from their treatments.