Strangely, although the earliest representation of a moustache was, as we found out only yesterday, from Egypt, the word "moustache" derives from Greek, of the Hellenistic period, around 300 B.C.
There is lots of debate about this though, as the word it comes from, which is anglicised to "mullon", actually means only lip, and not the hair that rides above it. Even the next development of that word, which was "mustax", and certainly provides the sound of our word most admirably, again only means lip, though it is more specific, and only refers to the upper lip, with again no mention of any hairiness.
We do know that Ancient Greeks wore moustaches though, as is displayed on our card, and that they were seen as a sign of strength, virility, and wisdom. That was why they were mostly associated with soldiers, and with scholars. They were also left alone, unless the wearer was in mourning, in which case they were removed, to show that he was not at full strength, and unable to conduct business. This also seems to be where the idea of punishing prisoners and wrong-doers by forcing them to shave their beards came from, which ostensibly weakened their strength.
When the Romans came through Europe, all this changed, as they were clean shaven, and devoted much time and effort to keeping so. Indeed, the fashion was to have as little body hair as possible. So when a boy started growing a beard it was a major event, not because he could wear the beard, but because it would have to be removed, a cause for huge parties, and a celebratory "first shave". For this would use special decorative razors, of copper and iron, which were rather like the planes we use to shave wood, and any hairs that escaped this device were rubbed away with a pumice stone.
By the way, Julius Caesar seems to have been quite addicted to shaving, he did it more than once a day, whether he needed to or not, and he also enjoyed having his beard plucked out, with tweezers.
The man in the middle of our card, Hippocrates, was born on the island of Kos around 460 B.C. and he would have been well known to the issuers of our card, for he was a physician, who to this day is referred to as the Father of Medicine, and who introduced so many things to the science that we still use today - clinical studies, tests and trials, the treatment and diagnosis of diseases, the idea of internal medicine, or surgery, the study of the brain, and of the bones. And to this day all doctors celebrate him when they take the Hippocratic Oath, which he actually wrote, rather than it just being named in his honour.
Strangely, then, that he does not appear on that many early cards. His "rookie" card is generally regarded only to have come in 1908, as part of Stollwerck`s "Die Weisen und ihre grossten Schuler", or wise men and their greatest students. Then there is reportedly nothing, until 1958, when he appears of Liebig`s "Savants Celebres de L`Antiquite", more wise men, but this time of antiquity. Then he disappears, until almost the beginning of the twenty first century, or so we are led to believe, as our card today is definitely from the mid twentieth century, if not earlier.
This is an unusual item, a "Carte de Pesee" - meaning card of weights, and look, there is a column printed, into which you filled in the date and your weight. This is a far different system than our weight cards, which only recorded a one time weight and expected you to keep it safe until your next trip to the weighing machine, and then to compare it.
As far as "Aspirine Usines du Rhone", that all started with a German chemist called Felix Hoffman, who discovered the drug aspirin in 1897. By 1899 it was on the market. Then in 1908 it was launched in France, under the brand name "Rhodine", by the Societe Chimique des Usines du Rhone, whose name also appears on this card, top left of the reverse. In fact they issued many hundreds, if not thousands, of cards, with a picture on one side and the text and weight recording section on the reverse.
The Societe Chimique des Usines du Rhone actually has a longer story than Felix Hoffman`s, for they can be traced back to 1801, and a dyer and cotton weaver, from Switzerland, called Samuel Debar. He died in 1856 and left the business to his nephew, Marc Gilliard, and his accountant, Jean-Marie Cartier.
They would eventually buy up another company, also a dyer, called Renard Freres, who had developed the first organic artificial dyes, including red, which had so far proved impossible to reproduce with any stability. I have to say that I do wonder if the name of the firm refers not to brothers, but to the red, because Renard is French for fox, an animal of reddish hue. Gilliard and Carter may have bought out the company, and the patents, but they also gained a partner, a man called Monnet, who was a very skilful dyer, and possibly even the creator of that elusive red. With him aboard, they certainly soon made a name for themselves regarding the quality of their dyes, and for a range of new colours, a green of almost turquoise hue, a violet, and a deep dark blue which they called Paris Blue but we know today as Prussian Blue.
In 1895 they had become so famous that they became a public limited company, at which point they decided to change the name of the company, from their names to Societe Chimique des Usines de Rhone. That means the Chemical Company of the Rhone Factories, which is a bit of a mouthful, and they must have thought that too, for it was often abbreviated to the acronym S.C.U.R.
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