Search the collections

On display

This item is on display at Melbourne Museum

Summary:: This glass medicine bottle was excavated at Casselden Place in 2003. It was manufactured by W. E. Woods Ltd. and was machine made. It contained "Wood's Great Peppermint Cure" which was used for the relief o coughs and colds.

Health and hygiene.
'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. This is a difficult maxim to follow when 'there is not one bath in sixty', when sewerage gathers in cesspits and open drainage channels line the streets.But the residents of Little Lon did practice personal hygiene. Archaeologists have uncovered toothbrushes and toothpaste pots, scent bottles, soap dishes, combs and hairbrushes.
Clean teeth and neat hair did not guarantee good health however. Doctors were expensive, so ordinary people had to rely on medicines like Holloway's Ointment and Hall's Vegetable Pain Conqueror as well as Chinese herbal remedies. Children were dosed weekly with the laxative castor oil, to keep their bowels regular.

Discipline:	Archaeology - Historical
Dimensions:	54.0 mm (Height), 48.0 mm (Width), 51 mm (Diameter)

Tagged with:	bottles, u624, u 6 2 3
Themes this item is part of:	Little Lon, Little Lon Collection
On Display at:	Melbourne Museum
Primary Classification:	HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Secondary Classification:	(To Be Classified)
Tertiary Classification:	(to be classified)
Activity:	DOMESTIC
Specific Activity:	MEDICAL
Lot Area Unit:	33B/2/632
Inscriptions:	Inscription on side: WOOD S/ GREAT PEPPERMINT CURE/ FOR COUGHS & COLDS
Manufacturer:	Wood