Trade card from the early 1880s advertising ficus carica, found in a scrapbook compiled by George and Fanny Glessner. The card depicts a flamingo and a pelican standing on the bank of the Nile River, with the quote “I advise you to try ficus carica we have used it on the Nile for the last three thousand years.” The back side of the card likely advertised a drug store, but as the card is pasted into the scrapbook, that side is not accessible.
Ficus carica was one of the many wonder remedies of the day, an advertisement in the Chicago Tribune for December 11, 1881 noting:
”Physicians have at last found what they have long sought for - a remedy without drugs for constipation - they prescribe “ficus carica,” or condensed figs. Sold by druggists.”