Ayer's Sarsaparilla purifies the blood, stimulates the vital functions, restores and preserves health, and infuses new life and vigor throughout the whole system / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.

Colour trade card issued by Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co. of Lowell, Massachusetts, probably in the 1880s. A popular way of advertising, they were printed up by the hundreds and handed out in various public places. This one advertises Ayer's Sarsaparilla which claimed to cure scrofula, mercurial and blood disorders, erysipelas, salt rheum, tetter, scald head, ringworm, sores, boils, humors, pimples, ulcers, tumors, blood poisoning, mercury poisoning, liver complaints, female weaknesses (menstrual disorders), rheumatism, neuralgia, jaundice, dyspepsia, emaciation and general debility. Yes. All of them. This type of 'cure-all' medicine was very common at the time. Whether it actually lived up to its claims is highly doubtful. It was made from sarsaparilla root, stillingia, mandrake, yellow dock, iodides of potassium and iron. The card shows a woman in a blue dress reclining in a cushioned chair (presumably an invalid) in a garden setting, talking to another in a pink and white dress with a bottle of the sarsaparilla on the table between them. Two children play with a brown dog at their feet.