{"product_id":"vintage-cocillana-morphine-pharmacy-label-covington-ky-treasures","title":"Vintage 1940s-1950s Cocillana Morphine Cough Syrup Label 💊 Morwessel Drugs Covington KY","description":"\u003ch2\u003eMorphine in a Cough Syrup? 💊 Vintage 1940s-1950s Cocillana Cough Syrup Label, Morwessel Drugs, Covington KY\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2 1\/2\" x 2\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l7PCH1vTbt8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e💊 \u003cstrong\u003eYour corner druggist once put a morphine derivative in a cough bottle, printed the word on the label, and had a boy run it to your door.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is that label — an original, unused \u003cstrong\u003eSyrup Cocillana Comp.\u003c\/strong\u003e dispensing label from \u003cstrong\u003eMorwessel Drugs\u003c\/strong\u003e of Covington, Kentucky, listing ethyl morphine hydrochloride in the same plain type as the dosing instructions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🧾 Details\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApprox. \u003cstrong\u003e2 1\/2\" x 2\"\u003c\/strong\u003e ~\u003cbr\u003e\nOriginal pharmacy dispensing label, black letterpress on cream stock, blank on the reverse\u003cbr\u003e\nNew old stock — never applied to a bottle\u003cbr\u003e\nThe label carries the store name, a named telephone exchange, the words \u003cem\u003eDELIVERY SERVICE\u003c\/em\u003e, and the corner the shop stood on in Covington, Kentucky\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔤 What it says, word for word\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSYRUP COCILLANA COMP. — Each Fluid Ounce Contains: Ethyl Morphinehydrochloride (Morphine Deriv.) ¼ Gr. Warning: May be habit forming. Alcohol 6%. Tincture Euphorbia Pilulifera, Syrup Wild Lettuce, Tincture Cocillana, Syrup Squill Comp., Cascarin (Bitterless) and Menthol. DOSE—Adults, 1 teaspoonful repeated as directed by physician. Important—Persistent coughs may indicate the presence of a serious condition. Do not use this preparation when the cough has persisted for 10 days without securing competent advice. DISTRIBUTED BY ___ NET CONTENTS ___ FL. OZS.\u003c\/em\u003e Beneath a rule: \u003cstrong\u003eMORWESSEL Drugs\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eHEMLOCK 3631\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eDELIVERY SERVICE\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003e6TH AND RUSSELL, COVINGTON, KY.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📅 The label dates itself twice\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo lines on this sheet do the dating, and neither is a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Warning: May be habit forming.”\u003c\/strong\u003e That exact phrase is not a druggist’s turn of speech — it is statutory. The \u003cstrong\u003eFederal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938\u003c\/strong\u003e required the label of any drug containing a listed habit-forming substance to carry the words \u003cem\u003e“Warning—May be habit forming.”\u003c\/em\u003e Its presence here puts the printing at \u003cstrong\u003e1938 or later\u003c\/strong\u003e, full stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHEMLOCK 3631.\u003c\/strong\u003e A named telephone exchange with a four-figure number belongs to the era before all-number calling, and \u003cstrong\u003eCovington did not get rotary dial service until around 1951\u003c\/strong\u003e. Between the federal warning below and the telephone above, the window closes on the \u003cstrong\u003e1940s\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blank \u003cem\u003eNET CONTENTS ___ FL. OZS.\u003c\/em\u003e fits the same period: the 1938 Act made the net quantity declaration compulsory, and a dispensing label left the figure open for the pharmacist to fill by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌿 What was actually in the bottle\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCocillana\u003c\/strong\u003e is the dried bark of \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGuarea rusbyi\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, a tree of Bolivia and the eastern Andes also called guapi or huapi bark. It reached Western medicine in the \u003cstrong\u003e1880s\u003c\/strong\u003e through the botanist \u003cstrong\u003eHenry H. Rusby\u003c\/strong\u003e, collecting medicinal plants on an Amazon expedition; he suspected an alkaloid in it, and to this day the active principle has never been pinned down. It worked as a powerful expectorant — similar in action to ipecac but more stimulating to the bronchial passages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAround it, a genuinely sophisticated botanical stack for its day: \u003cstrong\u003eeuphorbia pilulifera\u003c\/strong\u003e, a traditional bronchial herb; \u003cstrong\u003ewild lettuce\u003c\/strong\u003e, a mild sedative with a long folk-medicine history; \u003cstrong\u003esyrup of squill\u003c\/strong\u003e, a European expectorant drawn from the sea-onion bulb; \u003cstrong\u003ecascarin\u003c\/strong\u003e in its bitterless form; and \u003cstrong\u003ementhol\u003c\/strong\u003e for the cold sensation that tells a coughing patient something is happening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen the part modern eyes stop on. \u003cstrong\u003eEthyl morphine hydrochloride\u003c\/strong\u003e — known in older pharmacy as \u003cem\u003edionine\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003ecodethyline\u003c\/em\u003e — is a semi-synthetic opioid first made by \u003cstrong\u003eMerck in 1884\u003c\/strong\u003e, weaker than morphine itself and used chiefly to suppress the cough reflex. A quarter grain to the fluid ounce, with six per cent alcohol carrying it. It is still an approved antitussive in parts of Europe, and cocillana syrups are still where it most often lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏥 Morwessel Drugs, and three generations on one corner\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHenry Morwessel\u003c\/strong\u003e opened the pharmacy in \u003cstrong\u003e1881\u003c\/strong\u003e, in a Covington that was a dense German-Catholic river city facing Cincinnati across the Ohio — parish life, riverfront commerce, and a working-class street grid where the druggist on the corner was a fixture. The business stayed in the family for three generations in a substantial brick building with a striped awning and the Morwessel Drugs sign hung out at the corner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe third generation was \u003cstrong\u003eDonald C. Morwessel\u003c\/strong\u003e, a graduate of St. Xavier High School and the \u003cstrong\u003eCincinnati College of Pharmacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. He served as president of the \u003cstrong\u003eNorthern Kentucky Pharmacists Association\u003c\/strong\u003e, president of \u003cstrong\u003eFONDA\u003c\/strong\u003e (Friends of Notre Dame Academy), and president of the Panorama Apartments for Senior Citizens, and in \u003cstrong\u003e1961\u003c\/strong\u003e his own profession gave him the \u003cstrong\u003eA. H. Robbins Award for Community Service in Pharmacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. He died on \u003cstrong\u003e10 March 2012\u003c\/strong\u003e, aged 83.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe two words on the bottom of this label — \u003cem\u003eDELIVERY SERVICE\u003c\/em\u003e — are the whole business model in miniature. You rang the store by its exchange name, said what you needed, and it arrived. The same corner, the same family, for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e⚖️ The regulatory arc this label sits in\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eHarrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914\u003c\/strong\u003e first brought opiates under federal accounting. The \u003cstrong\u003e1938 Act\u003c\/strong\u003e added the labeling duty — the warning printed here — and required adequate directions and honest declarations. The cough-duration caution on this sheet, telling the patient not to keep dosing past ten days without competent advice, is that same period’s idea of responsibility printed in the same size as everything else. Ethylmorphine preparations were steadily squeezed out as narcotic control tightened. Everything this label represents — a neighborhood druggist compounding and dispensing an opioid syrup under his own shop name — was legal, ordinary, and on its way out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow is it dated?\u003c\/strong\u003e By the required 1938 warning wording, which puts it at 1938 or later, and by the named telephone exchange, which belongs to the years before Covington went to dial service around 1951.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDoes the 1881 make it an 1881 label?\u003c\/strong\u003e No — 1881 is the year the pharmacy was founded. Founding years are not printing dates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs it a reproduction?\u003c\/strong\u003e No. Original unused stock, letterpress-printed on period cream label paper, never applied to a bottle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs there anything in it now?\u003c\/strong\u003e No. It is a paper label only, sold for display and study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e🏡 Good for pharmacy and medical-history collections, Covington and Northern Kentucky local history, apothecary shadow boxes and framed displays, typography and letterpress collections, and teaching collections in pharmacy, pharmacology and public health.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-arsenate-lead-pharmacy-label-cure-syphilis-auburn-ne-skull-crossbones\"\u003eAntique 1910s Arsenate of Lead Pharmacy Label ☠️ Glen’s Drug Store Auburn NE\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/1910s-antique-formalin-pharmacy-label-aka-formaldehyde-cure-throat\"\u003eAntique 1910s Formalin Pharmacy Label 🧪 AKA Formaldehyde to cure your throat?\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-brier-rose-maple-syrup-label-st-albans-vt-1930s-1940s\"\u003eAntique 1930s - 1940s Brier Rose Maple Syrup Label 🍁 Green Mountain Packing Co, St. Albans, VT\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41466370326760,"sku":"VAG-7196962619624","price":9.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3417848147_7p2u.jpg?v=1785355494","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cocillana-morphine-pharmacy-label-covington-ky-treasures","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}