The Antikamnia Chemical Company

After beginning his working life as a printer's apprentice, Louis Crucius (or Crusius) completed the necessary requirements to graduate as a pharmacist in 1882 and a doctor in 1890 in St Louis, Missouri. While he was studying he worked in a pharmacy and made humorous sketches that were placed in the window of the store. A collection of these drawings was published in 1893 ('Funny Bones'). He lectured in histology and anatomy and eventually came to be a Professor of Anatomy but died in 1898 from kidney tumours.

Although he gave most of his drawings away, Crucius sold a number of them to the Antikamnia ('opposed to pain') Chemical Company which had been established in St Louis in 1890. They produced antikamnia medicines containing the coal tar derivative, acetanilid, an anti-fever drug with pain relieving properties somewhat related to paracetamol, but which would be later shown to be a toxic compound not to mention addictive. Antikamnia was mixed with substances like codeine and quinine to enhance the pain relieving effects.

30 of the Crucius 'dance of death'-inspired drawings were used to make 5 years worth of Antikamnia Chemical Company calendars - between 1897 and 1901. They had a fairly aggressive marketing campaign in which the calendars (aimed at the medical fraternity) as well as postcards and sample packs were distributed to doctors in the United States and overseas.

• The Louise M Darling Biomedical Library at UCLA have a complete set of the 1900 Antikamnia Chemical Company calendar (which is the same as the 2007 one) in both english and french in large jpeg and pdf files. [link updated Dec. '08]
• The American Journal of Roentgenology AJR:182, 1984: 'Medicine in American Art: The Diagnosis' by Stefan Schatzki. This is a short article and source for the Jan/Feb 1897 image.
• Physician's Antikamnia Sample Pocket Kit c1900 image source.
• The revenue stamp image comes from here, which has a little more information about the company.
• Antikamnia tablets.
• Sept/Oct 1897 calendar image source.
• Advertisement.
• 'Funny bone: A book of mirth. For doctors, druggists, dentists, medical students, and others. Containing funny jokes, good stories, dialogues, conundrums, ludicrous things, ditties' by Louis Crucius [Woodward and Tiernan printers]. (unavailable)
• Acetanilide.
• The Antikamnia Chemical Company were eventually prosecuted for failing to disclose the source of the active ingredient on their packaging: U. S. v. ANTIKAMNIA CHEMICAL CO., 231 U.S. 654 (1914).
• (Despite any evidence to the contrary, I am very busy and posting will likely be sparse for the next couple of weeks. Or I will ignore responsibilities and keep posting.)
• Update: Ok, I got a bit confused - UCLA have both full 1899 and 1900 calendars. They are usually sold off as single pages so a complete calendar is very rare.
  

Before the Deluge

"The observer who glances over a rich and fertile plain, watered by rivers and streams which have, during a long series of ages, pursued the same uniform and tranquil course; the traveller who contemplates the walls and monuments of a great city, the first founding of which is lost in the night of ages, testifying, apparently, to the unchangeableness of things and places; the naturalist who examines a mountain or other locality, and finds the hills and valleys and other accidents of the soil in the very spot and condition in which they are described by history and tradition - none of these observers would at first suspect that any serious change had ever occurred to disturb the surface of the globe. Nevertheless, the earth has not always presented the calm aspect of stability which it now exhibits; it has had its convulsions, and its physical revolutions, whose story we are about to trace."

'The Earth in a gaseous state circulating in space'

'Ideal Landscape of the Silurian Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Devonian Period'

'Ideal view of marine life in the Carboniferous Period'

'Ideal view of a marshy forest in the Coal Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Permian Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Muschelkalk Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Saliferous or Keuper Period'

'Ideal Scene of the Lias Period with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus'

'Ideal Landscape of the Liassic Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Lower Oolite Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Middle Oolite Period'

'Ideal Scene of the Lower Cretaceous Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Cretaceous Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Eocene Period'

'Ideal Landscape of the Pliocene Period'

'Skeleton of the Mammoth in the St. Petersburg Museum'

'Ideal View of the Quaternary Epoch -- Europe'

'Deluge of the North of Europe'

'Appearance of Man'

"The object of "The World before the Deluge" is to trace the progressive steps by which the earth has reached its present state, from that condition of chaos when it "was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the the deep," and to describe the various convulsions and transformations through which it has successively passed."

'The World Before the Deluge' by Louis Figuier (1872 revision of the 1862 text) is online at 19th century science.

****UPDATE: A full (and better quality) 1863 edition of this book has now been uploaded by Strasbourg Digital Library.

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I've been more than a little busy this week. In other news...

• The Library of Congress have a blog.
• Brian Sawyer (Craftzine, Makezine) has a blog - bookbinding and craft.
• The only thing I've seen at the British Library's 'Sacred' online gallery is an exquisite Ethiopian bible in the Turn the Pages section (I haven't quite worked out yet what exactly is 'new' here).
• 'Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean' contains >600 artefacts from 14 countries in 18 exhibition sites, assembled by 90 curators from the productive output of 1200 years. (multiple languages) For each exhibition site, click the 'more information' and any other links around to find everything available. (first appearances are a little deceptive).
• Revolutionary Players is another vast site I've hardly looked at "focusing on the history of the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands in Britain between the years 1700 and 1830." [via]

Royal Navy Sketchbooks

POW Sketchbook

"A bound sketchbook containing a series of 36 pencil and watercolour sketches drawn by Commander Mervyn Scott Lindslay whilst a prisoner of the Japanese at North Point Camp in Hong Kong from 1942 to 1945. The sketches include views from the camp, of the interior and exterior of huts, the galley, scullery, inmates' footwear, wood cutting parties, the barber's shop, furniture, portraits of Lindslay and other inmates, and designs for a house that Lindslay hopes to build after his release."

849 Squadron HQ Vol. 2. 1964 by PAF Grant.

There are no specific notes for this sketchbook - something of a satirical
tradition for this naval aviation squadron formed in 1942.

"Sketches from notebooks kept by Petty Officer Wren Margaret Field. They were completed whilst she was attending various Women's Royal Naval Service aircraft maintenance training courses. The courses were held at HMS Fledgling, a WRNS training establishment located near Eccleshall in 1943 and at HMS Kestrel, a Royal Naval Air Station located near Worthy Down, Winchester in 1945."


Sea Your History is a new British archive documenting the history of the Royal Navy in the 20th century. It is an evolving project but already there's a lot of interesting material, particularly in the Image Gallery (including a number of journals, sketchbooks - obviously, and cartoon/satire books; and of course photographs). The site is what I might describe as 'fair' to negotiate. [via]



"The crossing the Arctic Circle certificate of Chief Petty Officer Betram Lagard. He received it whilst serving as part of an Arctic convoy onboard HMS Fitzroy, on 23rd October 1944. He was now entitled to be called a Loyal Member of the Most Ancient Order of the Bluenose." [from the 'Crossing the Line' section]

Tyukanov Revisited

'Fish-Island', 1991

'The Moon', 2006

'Musicians', 1985

'New Stomatology', 1996
[The perfect ex libris for any dentist]

'Nemesis of A Durer', 1997

'Pawns', 1985

'Project Grasshopper', 2006

'Alchemist', 1986

'Baba-Yaga', 2005
[Russian fairy tale]

'Hommage a Hendrik Avercamp', 1988

'Flying Bottle', 2005

All images © Sergey Tyukanov.

I posted about this Russian artist about 18 months ago, when reaching the sites carrying his etchings, drawings, paintings and ex libris prints was a very time consuming process. But Sergey wrote to advise that he has a new slick site with high resolution images available. I love the retro fantasy folk whimsy.