According to the information on the box, Nyal Vegetable Prescription is a combination of pure vegetable drugs reputed to exert an influence on the organs peculiar to women. Several tablespoonfuls a day are recommended for painful menstruation as well as 'Disordered Menstruation, Ovarian Neuralgia and Bearing-down Pains'. Its ingredients include 'Life Root, Black Haw and False Unicorn Squaw Vine' in a mixture 'not more than 28 Percentum of Proof Spirit'. This amount of alcohol, about the same percentage as in wine, would no doubt have contributed to the medicine's effectiveness as a 'valuable tonic and sedative'.

Text on various parts of the packaging reads: 'Nyal Company/ Sydney/ Detroit/ Windsor'; 'Made in Australia'; 'No.899. Guaranteed under the Pure Food Act, N.S.W., 1908, by Nyal Company, Sydney, No.899.'

Blurb on the packaging of this item refers to the founding of the Nyal company in 1855, and goes on to mention 'the 60 years of steady growth and progress of this business'. This would suggest that the Nyal mixture was manufactured in 1915.

The Nyal Vegetable Prescription was amongst a collection of pharmaceutical items purchased by the Museum in 1985 from a Sydney apothecary antiques collector and dealer. He in turn had obtained them from a private museum collection on York Peninsula, South Australia.

Patent medicine, 'Nyal Vegetable Prescription', bottle and contents in box with leaflet, medicinal mixture/ glass/ paper, Nyal Company, Sydney, Australia, c.1915.

This is a clear glass bottle almost full of dark liquid, with a cork stopper. It carries a yellow label printed in brown. The box in which it comes is printed in the same yellow and brown.

According to the information on the box, Nyal Vegetable Prescription is 'a valuable tonic and sedative' which contains 'ingredients which are reputed to exert an influence on the organs peculiar to women'.

The label on the bottle reads in part: 'Nyal/ Trade Mark Registered/ Vegetable Prescription/ Â?/ A purely Vegetable Compound for the treatment of diseases peculiar to women/ A valuable combination of drugs recommended for Disordered Menstruation, Ovarian Neuralgia, "Bearing-down Pains", etc.' Dosage instructions are given.

Made: 1910 - 1920

85/698-4

1910 - 1920

245 mm

87 mm

53 mm