Dalby's Carminative

Dalby's Carminative, leftmost bottle.

Dalby's Carminative was a medicinal product formula originally made by James Dalby of London, England, in the late 1770s. The formula claimed to aid “infants afflicted with wind, watery gripes, fluxes and other disorders of the stomach and bowels”. Ingredients included opium. The product was being sold in the United States by at least 1804.

As listed in The Lancet, a recipe consists of;

• Tincture of opium - four drachms and a half
• Tincture of assafoetida - two drachms and a half
• Oil of carraways - three scruples
• Oil of peppermint - six scruples
• Tincture of castor - six drachms and a half
• Rectified spirits of wine - six drachms

Put two drachms into each bottle, with magnesia - one drachm, and fill up with simple syrup and a little rectified wine.

References

• Dalby's Carminative and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, both pontiled at Antique Medicine Bottles Dr Cannon's Medicine Chest
• The Dublin Journal of Medical Science. Original from Harvard University: Hodges and Smith. 1843. p. 418.