single mid-nineteenth century privy dug diminutive light blue aqua medicine bottle manufactured for perry davis located in providence, rhode island. the slim body has a long neck and applied rounded double ring finish. cleanly struck on the recessed front is the name "davis" inside a plate, and vertically along the side "painkiller", also in a plate. the base contains a crude open-pontiled scar. perry davis was born in dartmouth in 1791 to an impoverished family. he became a devout baptist, and ambitious entrepreneur. after a failed business venture and the great panic of 1837, in which businesses and banks folded, he moved his family to taunton, now $4500 in debt. in 1840, davis became very sick and was in great pain. in his words, "i searched the globe in my imagination, selected the best ingredients and directed as i believe by the hand of providence compounded these medicines so that the narcotic influence of one might be balanced by the other. i commenced using my new discovered medicine with no other hope than handing me gently to the grave.” he not only survived, but got better. after moving his family again to fall river, davis patented four or five inventions but found no backers. an enormous fire consumed 20 acres of fall river in 1843 and davis’s home was obliterated. by the grace of charitable contributions, the davis family relocated to providence, rhode island with only the clothes on their backs, a wagon, and a charred harness. at this point perry davis started to make and sell the pain killer that once saved him from death. while experimenting with the pain killer’s formula with his wife and daughter, davis’s face was terribly burned when a can of alcohol exploded. like many of his time, he had no faith in doctors, and he again used his homemade medicine to recover; he was back at work two weeks later. in the mid-nineteenth century people were not inclined to spend money on quack doctors, and there was no regulation of medicines, but a salesman with a good pitch could convince them to reach into their pockets to buy a product that could alleviate pain. thus davis parked himself near the gates of the 1843 state fairs in pawtucket and taunton. his bottles of perry davis’ pain killer began to sell, and he soon opened a factory on pond street in providence. the pain killer's ingredients were potent, containing a formula of vegetable extracts, camphor, ethyl alcohol, and opiates. davis trademarked the name “pain killer” and never divulged the formula for his product. during the civil war, it was given not only to soldiers but horses. among testimonial to the product was samuel clemens (mark twain), who said, “those who could run away did. those who could not drenched themselves in cholera preventatives and my mother chose perry davis’s pain killer for me.” davis was a portrait of humility and business acumen, giving free samples to baptist missionaries going overseas, and to various causes as his success grew. he donated $36,000 to a new baptist church in 1850, and when he died in providence in 1862, he was mourned by throngs of poor people he’d helped during his lifetime.