Tarrant's Seltzer Aperient, Cure for Constipation. Visual motif: a woman, with her left hand to her head, is standing next to a table; in the background is a bed at the foot of which is an open trunk. Caption: "Oh this headache! How foolish I was to travel without Tarrant's Seltzer Aperient." Laxatives (purgatives, aperients) are foods, compounds or drugs taken to loosen the stool, most often taken to treat constipation. Were used extensively in pre-modern medicine to treat a wide range of conditions for which they are now generally regarded as ineffective in modern evidence based medicine. Patent medicines are compounds promoted and sold as medical cures that do not work as promoted. "Patent medicine" is a misnomer since in most cases, although products might be trademarked, they are not patented. The promotion of patent medicines was one of the first major products highlighted by the advertising industry, and many advertising and sales techniques were pioneered by patent medicine promoters.