Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
An unopened glass ampoule containing 100 milligrams of procaine hydrochloride crystals. The ampoule has a broader cap than the familiar format of glass ampoule. The ampule is labelled with green text applied directly to the glass. The neck of the ampoule has fine engravings to facilitate breakage.
Crystals adhere to the inside of the ampoule.
Note that this ampoule is similar to the Novocain ampoules catalogued as 2025.sk.63. However this example uses a taller ampoule with more detailed label text that is oriented differently. The others lack engravings to facilitate breakage. These examples are likely related, possibly from the same Windsor, Ontario plant.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.62
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Glass, Procaine Hydrochloride
Green printing on the surface of the ampoule reads as follows:
“100 mg. // NOVOCAIN// T.M. Reg.// BRAND OF PROCAINE HCl U.S.P//
CRYSTALS// Winthrop LABORATORIES// of Canada Ltd. // WINDSOR ONTARIO”
Height = 7.5, Width = 1,5, Length = 1.5,.
Novocain is a brand name for procaine. It is administered as a local anesthetic, typically by injection. In its hydrochloride salt form, it is dissolved in distilled water to a specific concentration (typically between 1 to 10 percent) and injected into the area of the body requiring anesthesia. It works by blocking sodium conduction thereby inhibiting nerve transmission.
Beginning around the middle of the 20th century, Novocain was gradually supplanted by faster acting and more powerful local anesthetics.
Condition: The ampoule is unused and undamaged.
Associated Instruments:
Winthrop Laborotories of Canada Ltd., Windsor, Ontario.
Date of Manufacture: c. 1924 – 1958.
Provenance:
University of Windsor. Leddy Library. Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive. “Sterling Drug Manufacturing 1019 Elliott Street West, April 1957” (Archival Photo).
Winthrop Laborotories of Canada Ltd., does not appear in Statistics Canada’s digitized Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medicines. However, Winthrop was established during the First Word War by the American company Sterling Drug.
This medicine was likely manufactured by the Sterling Products Plant (later Sterling Drug Mfg. Ltd.), which was located on Elliot St. W., Windsor, Ontario between 1924 and 1958, when the plant was moved to Aurora, Ontario. (See University of Windsor, Archival Photo).