# Dr. Navin's Embrocation and Bad~Em Salz?



## crystinej (Mar 16, 2011)

Hello all...I have two bottles that we have had in our family for some time.  One is Dr. Navin's EMBROCATION from Lockport, NY.  It has a label on the front and back and is apparently the swiss army knife for ailments as it is good for "cuts, Burns, Inflamation, Coughts, Colds, Diarrhea, Colic, Dysentery, Headache, Toothache, Neuralgia, Rheumatic Pains"  The anterior label is in English and the posterior label is in German.  It has an "M" makers mark.

 The other bottle is round and also has a label "Bad~Em Salz from Philadelphia, PA.  The makers mark is simply "Bad EM Salz"Does anyone have any information on these two items?  The year perhaps?

 Thanks!


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## surfaceone (Mar 17, 2011)

Hello Christine,

 Welcome to A-BN. Howscome you're not treating us with some photographs? Do please take some good photos of the labels and all the swell details of these bottles. The images will help us to tell you more.

 Bad Em Salz seemed to have some regulatory issues in the wake of the Pure Food & Drug Act.

 "Bad-Ex Salz (formerly Bad-Em Salz). A saline laxative connected in no way with the famous Ems baths, hence the change of name. Contains 13% common salt, 42% Glauber's salt, 36% baking soda and 9% cream of tartar." From New Haven Department of Health, October 1916.

 "Why, if a nostrum was as sure and swift at curing as its maker kept asserting, did not regular physicians quickly adopt it? Because doctors -- at least some of them -- did not want to cure people. They got more profit from keeping the patient sick. "Most doctors prescribe BAD-EM SALZ," its manufacturer told the public, "but some of them don't. One doctor, more honest than the rest, explained it this way: 'BAD-EM SALZ? Yes, I used to prescribe it a great deal, but I stopped. 'Why? Simply because the patients didn't come back to me. If I had kept on they would all have been taking BAD-EM SALZ and getting well without my assistance!'" [11]

 Thus many regular physicians, as the quacks would have it, were deliberately selfish in opposing patent medicines. Others were enmeshed in the tangled coils of their stodgy profession, practicing by rote what they had learned, unable to detect a new idea when they saw one. Hence they were blind to the one dazzling new discovery that was destined to end forever the pain and suffering of disease." From.

 "Bad Em Salz" was made by American Laboratories Co., Philadelphia. That's who the US Attorney went after in 1914 for "Misbranding" & other violations of the Sherley Amendment of the 1906 Food & Drugs Act.


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## JOETHECROW (Mar 17, 2011)

Welcome to the forum as well! I'd love to see a picture too, especially the Navin's being it's from Lockport. It sounds like they may have come from the same household originally, Since one has a very German sounding name, and the other has the dual language label...? Just a thought. Also are the bottles any tint of color, or are they clear glass?  Do you happen to know how they came to be in your family? Interesting.


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 18, 2011)

Welcome to the forum.
 An M mark may be Maryland Glass 1907-70's. German and English isn't that unusual on a bottle. A picture would be a great help. If you don't have a camera then could you add a little more to the description? Color, shape, type if closure etc..


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## crystinej (Mar 23, 2011)

What a wealth of information!  Thanks, I will take some photos and post...they are pretty sweet


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