Caf-Fee-No Button. From the collection of Lon Ellis.

This is a pocket mirror out of my collection showing an English bulldog with an apparent headache. This advertisement was created by the Caf-fee-no Drug and Advertising Company from Baltimore Maryland. The Paint, Oil, and Drug Review magazine printed in Chicago in April of 1900 said that the Caf-fee-no Drug and Advertising Company was incorporated in this year and were to be a manufacturer of medicines. 

Note that this company claims that their Caf-fee-no product “cures” headaches. 

The first federal law regulating food and drugs, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 signed by President Roosevelt was a ‘truth in labeling’ law which imposed a number of things onto manufacturers of drug companies like this one. One change was that these companies had to stop making false claims about their patent medicines. This included making the claim that their medicine “cures” anything.