Travellers' steel medicine chest containing 11 medicines

Small glass bottle of opium tablets with tin screw top from a small steel medicine chest. 70 mm x 20 mm x 25 mm, 38g. Labels on the chest reveal it was created for travellers to tropic areas. White paper label with black type face reads, ' POISON/ Burroughs, Wellcome & Co/ 'Tabloids'/ of compressed/ OPIUM 1/2 gr./ Directions.- One or two 'tab/ loids' may be swallowed with a/ little water as a sedative, or for / the relief of pain./ Snowhill Buildings, London, E.C.' The term tabloid' medicines in compressed and measured doses was invented by Sir Henry Wellcome as early as 1884.

Small glass bottle of compressed Dover's powder tablets with tin screw top from a small steel medicine chest. 70 mm x 20 mm x 25 mm, 30g. Labels on the chest reveal it was created for travellers to tropic areas. White paper label with black type face reads, ' Burroughs, Wellcome & Co/ 'Tabloids'/ of compressed/Dover Powder/5 gr./ Pulv. Ipecac. Co.)/ Directions.- 1 to 3 'tabloids'/ may be taken with a little water on/ retiring, to break up a cold, or an as-/astringent and anodyne in dysentery/ persistant diarrhoea or cholera, and/ for the relief of pain./ Snowhill Buildings, London, E.C.' The word 'poison' is stamped over the label in red. The term tabloid' medicines in compressed and measured doses was invented by Sir Henry Wellcome as early as 1884. Dover powder's key ingredient opium led it to be used as a cure for cholera, diarrheoa and the common cold. The mixture is usually comprised of opium, ipecac. and potassium sulphate. It was commonly used through the 1960s.

Small glass bottle of compressed lead and opium tablets with tin screw top from a small steel medicine chest. 70 mm x 20 mm x 25 mm, 28g. Labels on the chest reveal it was created for travellers to tropic areas. White paper label with black type face reads, ' Burroughs, Wellcome & Co/ 'Tabloids'/ LEAD AND OPIUM./ Anodyne and astringent./ In obstinante diarrhoea or dysen-/tary , one every six hours./ Snowhill Buildings, London, E.C.' The word 'poison' is stamped over the label in red. The term tabloid' medicines in compressed and measured doses was invented by Sir Henry Wellcome as early as 1884.