Trademarked in 1889, Emerson’s Bromo-Seltzer claimed to cure all headaches as well as brain fatigue, nausea, sleeplessness, nervousness, stomach ailments, and alcohol hangovers. The 1906 passage of the Food and Drug Administration required a listing of all ingredients. Acetanilide, a toxin and likely carcinogen, was listed in the ingredients for Bromo-Seltzer. But there is no evidence that Emerson’s changed the formula. In fact, a 1938 article of the Journal of the AMA, highlighted the toxicity and extreme psychosis associated with this ingredient. Bromo-Seltzer was finally taken off the market in the 1970s.
And the song inspired by it:
