vintage newspaper ad of the day: what's auto-intoxication?

Vintage Ad: What's Auto-Intoxication?

Buffalo Enquirer, December 24, 1920.

A few questions:

1) Why is the "prominent physician" unnamed?

2) Are these "fruited" cereals, which contain figs, dates, raisins, and either whole wheat or oats, an early American adaptation of muesli? 

3) Is this man suffering the shakes because he ate too much system-clogging meat, or is he suffering not from auto-intoxication (a discredited 19th century theory on gut health) but intoxication stemming from drinking some bad bathtub gin during the early days of prohibition in the United States?

Despite the promise of better health from a cheap bowl of cereal, United Cereal Mills went out of business within a year of this ad's publication. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

past pieces of toronto: knob hill farms

past pieces of toronto: the mynah bird

the smiling men of pasadena 2: the eternal smile of "uncle bill" haas