Medicine
During the nineteenth century, people had a wide range of medicine or drugs available. Unfortunately, not all of them were cures, and some were even poisons! This bottle, Renne's Magic Oil, was a pain-killer, such as aspirin or ibuprofen are today. It was still sold in 1935, so it may have actually worked.Parasites
Intestinal parasites have been part of human health, or ill-health, for tens of thousands of years.
Roundworm and whipworm are along for the ride and living in the intestines of the nineteenth-century residents of Rome.Toothbrushes
Just like today, people in the nineteenth century used toothbrushes. They look quite a bit like the ones we use today, but they were made from bone. The first toothbrushes like we know them today were invented in China in about A.D. 1600; the first European-made toothbrush was produced in 1780.