Dr Seth Arnold Medical Company produced 'Cough Killer' for curing coughs; whooping cough; colds; pneumonia; asthma; croup; malaria; inflammation of the stomach; and malignant fevers as well as 'Arnold's Anti-Bilious Pills' which were supposed to cure liver complaints; biliousness and headache.

Like many 19th-century over-the-counter medicines; a lot of its effect was due to the fact that it contained a narcotic drug or hallucinogen; in this case morphine; a derivative of opium. People were unwittingly being exposed to habit-forming drugs; something the American Medical Association started investigating about this time. It compiled a list of dangerous 'nostrums' in May 1909; including alcohol; opium and its derivatives; morphine and codeine; cocaine; chloral; and cannabis. Legislation followed eventually.

Dr Seth Arnold was a doctor and a patent medicine manufacturer from Smithfield; Rhode Island. His other popular cures included Dr Seth Arnold's Balsam; for cholera; dysentery; diarrhoea; etc.; Soothing and Quiet cordial; for stomach and bowel problems and Indian Vegetable Sugar Coated Bilious Pills which were supposed to purify the blood and cure headaches. In 1892; Dr Seth Arnold died leaving his sons in charge of the firm; which they sold about 15 years later to Gilman Brothers of Boston; Massachusetts. Pictures From History