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Story: Drugs

Advertisement for a patent medicine

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Advertisement for a patent medicine

This poster advertised a patent medicine made by a Dunedin Chemist, Loasby's, in the 1890s. The medicine claimed to cure nervousness, exhaustion, indigestion, constipation and a sluggish liver. Such patent medicines were widespread in colonial New Zealand, and usually they included opium as one of their ingredients, and sometimes cannabis.

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Toitū Otago Settlers Museum

Reference: 1981/106/1

Permission of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Drugs – Colonial drug-taking, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/39557/advertisement-for-a-patent-medicine (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 3 December 2012.