Mary Lincoln's presence at Abraham's death-bed

[BettyO]

Edward “Eddie” Lincoln was three and a half when he became sick with an illness that lasted fifty-two days. Both Mary and Lincoln nursed their son with the accepted treatments of the day, including Wistor’s Balsam of Wild-cherry, an opium-based cough suppressant. The inadequate medicine was not enough to save Eddie who died of pulmonary tuberculosis on February 1, 1850.

Here is an 1844 label for the infamous opium cough syrup - touted to "cure" tuberculosis....

   

   

The descriptive image is from a later date (circa 1870s) but it probably still professed the same "cure".... LOVE these old labels -