Huxtins

Reference number: H2540
Status: for sale
Size in inches: 2 and 7/8 tall.
Condition: Good.
Price: $66.00
Comments: This Canadian asthma remedy tin dates from around 1915 and the instructions printed on the tin are in French and English. The tin was designed to be used as a match safe when empty, as it has a striker surface on the bottom.
The active ingredients are listed as “Stramonium” and “Lobelia”. The former was produced from the leaves and seeds of “Datura stramonium” sometimes better known by the common names hells bells, mad hatter, crazy tea or the Jamestown weed. The drug was used to relax the smooth muscle of the bronchial tubes, here it was mixed with lobelia; sometimes with cannabis, and the powder mixture was burnt in an open dish and the fumes inhaled. The hallucinogenic drug is now banned by the “FDA”. It has been used in many cultures down the centuries as a mystical sacrament, including the native Americans, the Sadhus of Hinduism and the Magyar spiritual leaders. The British soldiers at Jamestown were secretly drugged with it while suppressing the “Bacon’s Rebellion” in 1676 and it was reported that they had a great time for eleven days!
This tin is now empty.