Colored trade cards were a common way of advertising goods and services at the beginning of the twentieth century. The one pictured here advertises Burdock’s Blood Bitters, an herbal extract sold as a cure for constipation. Burdock’s was one of many “patent medicines”—liquids and syrups sold with extravagant claims as remedies for everything from colic to cancer. They often contained cocaine, morphine or digitalis (a heart stimulant). Burdock’s was one of the patent medicines referred to as “Temperance drinks,” because it was promoted by the Temperance movement, which advocated the abolition of alcoholic beverages. Patent medicine use reached its peak at the turn of the century, when the Census reported that Americans spent $59 million dollars annually on these ‘remedies.’ The industry was dealt a serious blow in 1905 when Collier’s Weekly published an exposé on patent medicines called “The Great American Fraud.” The article was partially responsible for the passage of the 1905 Pure Food and Drug Act.  Burdock’s Blood Bitters was analyzed by staff of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in 1915, who discovered that while medically useless, it doubtless made its users feel better, at least momentarily: it was roughly 20 percent alcohol.