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"Protection Against Influenza" ad from The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This advertisement claims that the use of Germifume could prevent you from contracting influenza and was placed in the Greenfield, Massachusetts newspaper at the height of the influenza epidemic of 1918. It claims that the Board of Health wants you to use it and that you should invest 35 cents for your health. You used Germifume by spraying it onto a handkerchief and holding the handkerchief over your nose when out in public places. Since the influenza epidemic killed 45,000 people in Massachusetts, it is doubtful that this product was very effective, or its use and distribution would have been very widespread by public health officials.

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