Swiss pills and serendipity
When I bought my home in France I acquired among other bric-à-brac a wedd
ing photograph of an unknown French woman unmistakably photographed several decades ago. For years on end I had moved it about in our house until I really had to decide either to reuse the frame and discard the picture or to throw it all in the rubbish bin. I chose the first possibility and so did not have to worry about the picture any more. So I opened its back and chanced upon a metal-like plate strengthening the picture. Unexpectedly, the plate showed a picture of its own on the other side. It turned out to be an advertising metal plate of the firm H & Co. Its logo, inspired by the Swiss flag, bears the product name (Pilules Suisses – Swiss pills) as well as more detailed specification of the effects of the recommended product (Dépuratives Toniques Laxatives – blood purifying laxative tonic). At the time (whenever?) the stuff was sold for 1.50 French Francs.
The picture is downright idyllic. Friendly mountains marking a valley containing a mountain lake, a small farm with cattle at pasture, and – what truly captured my attention – at the front on the left an attractive woman accompanied by two children. This picture of a Hellenized woman and children deserves the attention of the readers of Litteratura Serpentium for a snake is seen coiling around one of the arms of the woman. Moreover, the woman is giving the snake something to drink from a bowl in her left hand. She is feeding her pet snake while one of the children offers her a bouquet, possibly, of herbs. The other child also carries a similar posy in one hand – as it happens holding it on the spot where classical pictures may show an olive leaf or branch for decency –while it stirs a bowl on a tripod with a stick in its other hand. A promising text in overblown language completes the billboard.
The women-with-snake picture promptly evoked several memories. I remembered noting a similar beauty at close quarters, in the Casa Pilatos (House of Pilate) in Sevilla, Spain, of all places. In a side-room of the patio gallery stands a woman figure, also with a snake in her arms. The serpent coils around her right arm with its head resting in her left hand. The National Archaeological Museum of Athens even contains a plethora of similar figures. It does not seem too bold to expect the woman on the advertisement to be a goddess, namely one of the two daughters of the snake god Asklepios (usually Asclepius), Hygieia (also Hygiea or Hygeia) and Panakeia (usually Panacea). We recognize the first daughter’s name from our word ‘hygiene’. Naturally Hygieia is the goddess of health. Our word ‘panacea’ stems from the second daughter’s name. A panacea is kind of magic potion, so Panakeia is the goddess of medicine. The funny thing about these two sisters is that it is Hygieia who is always pictured with a snake, and not her sister Panakeia. The snake wasn’t but should rather be associated with the latter goddess, for snakes not only were of old a distinct attribute of the god-and-healer Asclepius but bitter irony, they also formed and still form an indispensable ingredient in lots of medicines. But still it is Hygieia who beguiles the tourists in the Casa Pilatos and adorns the advertisement of the Pilules Suisses, which brings us to the pills from Switzerland.
The Swiss pills promise us a lot with regard to our health, they are truly a panacea. So the question presents itself if Hygieia’s presence on the advertisement either means that she, like her father, is of importance to mankind with regard to health as such and that she has, therefore, the function to soothe the mind, or that her presence signifies that real snakes were used as ingredient for these pills. I opt for the second possibility. The pills could well be descendants of such panacea like mithridatium (mithridate) and theriac. These were magic potions known to contain parts of real snakes among the ingredients (Van der Voort 1993, 153). A concomitant argument is that to this very day snake fat can be bought in countries such as Spain. Available on markets and in apothecaries, it professes to be an efficacious remedy for ailments like those written on the accidentally discovered advertisement board.
To me it seems that neither the bouquet that one laddie offers the goddess nor the one held by the other lad are just posies. Each is probably a collection of herbs. The prescription of mithridate or theriac varies during the course of time, with herbs always an indispensable ingredient. Well, the Pilules Suisses contain herbs nonetheless (see frame). So I am probably not too far from the truth if I interpret the picture of goddess and boys as follows: The lad at right prepares a mithridate or theriac while Hygieia keeps her eye on it. De other one has gathered more herbs and shows these to Hygieia for approval before these too are to be processed.
Note, by the way, that herbs are mentioned indeed as ingredients in the accompanying text of the advertisement while parts of snakes are not. This does not need to invalidate my supposition that snake fat is processed in the Swiss pills. Snakes still instil unreal fear and aversion, so mentioning such an ingredient may be counterproductive with regard to the sale of the panacea.
Even the presence of cattle may be significant. Not only people profited from theriac for it is known, for example, that in an apothecary's in the town of Bodegraven Theriaca Diatesseron was sold far into the 20th century. Here the main customers were farmers using it for their cattle. 
Further inquiries by me into the Pilules Suisses did not produce any more results, however. The factory itself may not exist any more. Consultation of several pharmacists in Nesle, France made me none the wiser for my pains. Neighbours shown the wedding picture could not tell me who she was. If she had still been alive or if I could have talked to her descendants then I might have learned more about the origin of the advertisement. Anyway, this narrative shows that tidying mania as well as inquisitiveness may inspire the creation of figments of the imagination, like this.
The continually increasing favour of the public’s goodwill in all parts of the world with regard to the Swiss pills forms the best proof of their effectiveness. It is both the best and safest remedy against constipation, flatulence, acid indigestion, loss of appetite, headache, piles, palpitations, congestion, dizzy spells, diseases of the liver and the gallbladder, of the stomach and the bowels, and against all consequences of a troubled digestion in general. The pills are prepared from invaluable medicinal plants; they act quickly, are absolutely harmless as well as painless. Here they are for sale in all apothecaries, where an explanatory prospectus will be handed out for free.
Translation: A.A. Verveen.
English corrections: Maureen Bleeker-Turner
Further reading
Bosman-Jelgersma, H., Poeders, Pillen en Patiënten. Amsterdam, 1983.
Corner, G., ‘Mithridatium and Theriac, the most famous remedies of old medicine’, in: Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, vol. 26 (1915), pag. 222-226.
Daniëls, C.,'Ons oudste pharmaceutische wapen'. In: Pharmaceutisch Weekblad, 1911, nr. 3-4, 1-18.
Van der Voort, M., Van serpenten met venine. Jacob van Maerlant’s boek over slangen hertaald en van herpetologisch commentaar voorzien. Hilversum, 1993.
Watson, G., Theriac and Mithridatium. A Study in Therapeutics. London, 1966.
First published in Litteratura Serpentium 31, 164-168.