Pentothal Postcards
http://www.100md.com
《新英格兰医药杂志》
In the current era of e-mailed electronic snapshots, frequent intercontinental travel, and advanced pharmaceutical marketing, picture postcards from abroad bearing promotional messages for drugs might appear quaint or hokey or downright bizarre. Yet in the 1950s and 1960s, drug manufacturer Abbott Laboratories sent physicians and nurse anesthetists about 170 different postcards touting the anesthetic sodium pentothal (thiopental sodium). These postcards, now collector's items, form the basis of this enjoyable small book by anesthesiologist David C. Lai.
Copies of nearly 90 postcards, showing scenes from some 60 countries, constitute the core of the book. The messages on the postcards appear in varied handwriting, typing, and typesetting, and the cards carry stamps of their lands of origin. Repeatedly, the messages, signed "Abbott," emphasize the widespread use and established record of the product. "In vast and sparsely populated Greenland you'll find PENTOTHAL in use, as it is wherever modern medicine is practiced," begins a postcard showing native sealers. "The Taj Mahal is justly world-famed. So, too, PENTOTHAL . . . ," begins another. "Here in South Africa PENTOTHAL is probably as well known as it is in your hospital. Nearly 3000 world reports is one reason. An excellent safety record is another. Good reasons, too, for your trust," reads a third.
(Figure)
Pentothal Postcard from Kenya, 1967.
Courtesy of Mark Batty Publisher.
The design and organization of this book show thought and care. The pages are horizontal and slightly larger than a postcard. Most display the picture from a postcard on the front and the corresponding message (and stamps, postmark, and address) on the back. The postcards are organized largely by continent, with the last card showing a scene from Antarctica. The endpapers carry maps indicating by page the locations portrayed.
Eight pages of introductory text describe the advertising campaign and supply context, and comments accompany some of the postcards. These components could have benefited from further editing and proofreading. Also, some comments accompanying postcards seem random. (Why, for instance, does the author note that Leon Trotsky was killed with an ice ax in Mexico?) As for the two comments offhandedly mentioning porphyria, nonmedical readers might benefit from an explanation of its relevance to sodium pentothal.
Among the most interesting postcards are those clearly embodying aspects of their era. The text of a 1963 postcard from Berlin begins, "In this divided city . . . ," and another postcard refers to the Iron Curtain. There are no postcards from Russia or China, but there is one from Cuba. A U.S. card sent to Argentina bears postage of 2 cents, and some U.S. addresses contain local postal codes rather than ZIP Codes (introduced in 1963). One of the few postcards without a Pentothal message shows the Abbott Escorts, a tour-giving coterie of 14 young women in teal-blue suits and matching pillbox hats.
Pentothal Postcards offers pleasurable browsing and a glimpse into an era less sophisticated, technologically and otherwise, but no less creative than our own. Health professionals, travel buffs, and readers interested in marketing, collecting, and cultural history all may enjoy this book.
Barbara Gastel, M.D., M.P.H.
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
bgastel@cvm.tamu.edu(By David C. Lai. 190 pp.,)
Copies of nearly 90 postcards, showing scenes from some 60 countries, constitute the core of the book. The messages on the postcards appear in varied handwriting, typing, and typesetting, and the cards carry stamps of their lands of origin. Repeatedly, the messages, signed "Abbott," emphasize the widespread use and established record of the product. "In vast and sparsely populated Greenland you'll find PENTOTHAL in use, as it is wherever modern medicine is practiced," begins a postcard showing native sealers. "The Taj Mahal is justly world-famed. So, too, PENTOTHAL . . . ," begins another. "Here in South Africa PENTOTHAL is probably as well known as it is in your hospital. Nearly 3000 world reports is one reason. An excellent safety record is another. Good reasons, too, for your trust," reads a third.
(Figure)
Pentothal Postcard from Kenya, 1967.
Courtesy of Mark Batty Publisher.
The design and organization of this book show thought and care. The pages are horizontal and slightly larger than a postcard. Most display the picture from a postcard on the front and the corresponding message (and stamps, postmark, and address) on the back. The postcards are organized largely by continent, with the last card showing a scene from Antarctica. The endpapers carry maps indicating by page the locations portrayed.
Eight pages of introductory text describe the advertising campaign and supply context, and comments accompany some of the postcards. These components could have benefited from further editing and proofreading. Also, some comments accompanying postcards seem random. (Why, for instance, does the author note that Leon Trotsky was killed with an ice ax in Mexico?) As for the two comments offhandedly mentioning porphyria, nonmedical readers might benefit from an explanation of its relevance to sodium pentothal.
Among the most interesting postcards are those clearly embodying aspects of their era. The text of a 1963 postcard from Berlin begins, "In this divided city . . . ," and another postcard refers to the Iron Curtain. There are no postcards from Russia or China, but there is one from Cuba. A U.S. card sent to Argentina bears postage of 2 cents, and some U.S. addresses contain local postal codes rather than ZIP Codes (introduced in 1963). One of the few postcards without a Pentothal message shows the Abbott Escorts, a tour-giving coterie of 14 young women in teal-blue suits and matching pillbox hats.
Pentothal Postcards offers pleasurable browsing and a glimpse into an era less sophisticated, technologically and otherwise, but no less creative than our own. Health professionals, travel buffs, and readers interested in marketing, collecting, and cultural history all may enjoy this book.
Barbara Gastel, M.D., M.P.H.
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
bgastel@cvm.tamu.edu(By David C. Lai. 190 pp.,)