Category 3: Personal Objects➔Personal Gear➔Personal Assistive Objects➔Bottle, Smelling
Artifact
Accession Number:
89-2-1Date
1910Description
A small green glass bottle of smelling salts.The brand is Dr. Mackenzies.Back in the Victorian age women were seen as the weaker sex so they made it even more so. They would faint frequently at the slightest thing. To get them back on their feet they would have a bottle of smelling salts put under their nose.
Smelling salts were not your normal table salt but ammonia carbonate, alcohol %35,water, stronger ammonia, and free ammonia 15%.
For a long time because of their effect they were considered medicinal substance but today we know that is no longer the case.