Listerine Floor Cleaner Gonorrhea

According to the 2005 book freakonomics listerine was invented as a surgical antiseptic later sold as a floor cleaner and gonorrhea cure.

Listerine floor cleaner gonorrhea.

While used today primarily as a mouthwash for oral health and hygiene it has been sold as a surgical disinfectant a cure for dandruff a floor cleaner a hair tonic a deodorant and as a beneficial remedy for diseases ranging from diphtheria and dysentery to small pox and gonorrhea. Joseph lawrence asserted that it could fight gonorrhea and also clean floors. Listerine mouthwash is a cheap easy to use and effective agent that inhibits gonorrhea growth and requires further careful consideration and study wrote the researchers. But it wasn t a runaway success until the 1920s when it was pitched as a solution for chronic halitosis a then obscure medical term for bad breath.

Listerine now a product of pfizer inc is a common household item known for its antiseptic properties. When listerine was concocted in 1879 inventor dr. To increase sales they began marketing it as a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea. Listerine for instance was invented in the nineteenth century as powerful surgical antiseptic.

That brought company revenues to about 115k but marketers had another idea in the 1920s. In 1879 listerine was named after him. It was originally developed as a surgical antiseptic but that s a pretty small market. In all that time there have been no published studies of the claim.