It's exciting enough when archaeological digs produce finds like old bottles. Once in a while, there's that super-rare find of a bottle that still has something in it.
That's both exciting and potentially dangerous, and the zone in which we find University of Idaho archaeologist Mark S. Warner and his colleague, the chemist Ray von Wandruszka. They examine the contents of old bottles, from the time when people used things like arsenic and mercury as medicines (eek).
In the latest edition of Underground History, Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology's Chelsea Rose visits with Warner and von Wandruszka about the things they find in the old bottles. Bring a strong stomach.