Psychine (patent medicine)

Psychine (si-keen) was a patent medicine, manufactured and sold by T. A. Slocum Co. (New York) and T.A. Slocum Chemical Co. (Toronto, Ontario). It was advertised as a curative for consumption (tuberculosis) and other maladies of the throat and lungs, as well as a digestive aid, promising to "cleanse the Stomach" (as a stomachic) and provide benefit to the function of the liver and kidneys (as an overall tonic).

Trade
The trademark for Psychine, as a "remedy for throat and lung diseases," was registered by Parker R. Whitcomb and Theodore H. Sayre in 1890; while "Psychine, Pharmaceutical Preparation for Consumption and All Disorders of the Throat, Lungs, and Heart" was registered in 1907 to T. A. Slocum Co., which continued to renew the trademark at least into the late 1940s.

Composition
The formula for Psychine was reported by Samuel Hopkins Adams to be 16% alcohol with a non-specific quantity of strychnine in 1906, while a later study by the North Dakota Agricultural College in 1916 found it to contain 8.40% alcohol by volume, and reported nearly 96% of the additives were glycerine, sugar, and ash, the remaining quantity being cochineal (colouring), emodin (aloes), and acetates.