This is an ad from a 1922 edition of the Jamestown Alert I stumbled across recently. It is for some over-the-counter medicines available from White Drug here in Jamestown, ND. 

There are some old jokes, call them groaners rather than funny, which play on the idea that a laxative is a good cold medicine because it will make you afraid to sneeze or cough. 

Evidently that was an actual cure back almost a century ago.