Two ounces of coca extract, a gallon of port and two of sherry. Stand forty-eight hours, filter.
Fluid extract of coca, 2 ounces; port wine, 1 gallon; sherry wine, 2 gallons; powdered orris-root, 2 ounces. Color to suit. Let it stand 48 hours, then filter. The finished product should measure 3 gallons.
The American Soda Book of Receipts and Suggestions, 1905, 1905. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Fluid extract of coca is an alcoholic extract of the coca leaf, and its active constituent is cocaine. Two pharmacy-strength ounces go into three gallons, which is then sold by the glass.
The wine is not incidental. Cocaine and alcohol together form cocaethylene in the body, which lasts longer than cocaine alone and is harder on the heart. Nobody in 1906 knew that; they just knew the combination worked.
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Read the original page →“Equal parts of gum opium, gum camphor, and spirits of turpentine, dissolved in spirits.” For stomach pain. Taken by mouth.
The House-Keeper's Guide and Indian Doctor · 1851
Dilute battery acid, orange syrup, two gallons of water. “Entirely harmless, even if taken in considerable quantities.”
The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906
“Provide leaden moulds… oiled with oil of sweet almonds.” Boiling candy syrup goes straight into the lead. The sweets are for children.
Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts · 1867