When the first English packaged medicine, patented or unpatented, came
to the New World, cannot be told. Some 17th-century prospective
colonist, setting forth to face the hazards of life in Jamestown or
Baltimore or Boston, must have packed a box of Anderson's Scots Pills
or a bottle of Daffy's Elixir to bring along, but no record to
substantiate such an incident has been encountered. It would seem that
the use of English packaged remedies in America was most infrequent
before 1700. Samuel Lee, answering questions posed from England in 1690
about the status of medicine and pharmacy in Massachusetts, mentions no
patent medicines.[25] Neither does the 1698 account book of the Salem
apothecary, Bartholomew Brown.[26]
[25] George L. Kittredge, "Letters to Samuel Lee and Samuel
Sewall relating to New England and the Indians," _Colonial
Society of Massachusetts, Transactions_, 1913, vol. 14, pp.
142-186.
[26] Bartholomew Brown, Apothecary day book, Salem [1698];
manuscript original preserved in the Library of the Essex
Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.
[Illustration: Figure 4.--PATRICK ANDERSON, M.D., from a box of
Anderson's Scots Pills. From Wootton's _Chronicles of pharmacy_,
London, 1910. (_Smithsonian photo 44286-C._)]
In the _Boston News-Letter_ for October 4, 1708, Nicholas Boone, at the
Sign of the Bible, near the corner, of School-House-Lane, advertised
for sale: "DAFFY'S Elixir Salutis, very good, at four shillings and
sixpence _per_ half pint Bottle." This may well be the first printed
reference in America to an English patent medicine, and it certainly is
the first newspaper advertisement for a nostrum. Preceding the
_News-Letter_ in colonial America, there had been only one paper, the
_Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic_.[27] This journal had
lasted but a single issue. Then its printer had returned to England,
where he took up the career of a patent medicine promoter, vending "the
only Angelical Pills against all Vapours, Hysterick Fits." The
_News-Letter_ had begun with the issue of April 27, 1704, about 4 years
before Boone's advertisement for Daffy's remedy made its appearance,
but during that time, only one advertisement for anything at all in the
medical field had appeared, and that was for a home-remedy book, _The
English physician_, by Nicholas Culpeper, Doctor of Physick.[28] This
volume was also for sale at Boone's shop.
[27] Frank L. Mott, _American journalism_, New York, 1941, pp.
9-10.
[28] _Boston News-Letter_, Boston, February 9, 1708.
Patent-medicine advertising in the _News-Letter_ prior to 1750 was
infrequent. Apothecary Zabdiel Boylston, who a decade later was to earn
a role of esteem in medical history by introducing the inoculation for
smallpox, announced in 1711 that he would sell "the true Lockyers
Pills."[29] This was an unpatented remedy first concocted half a
century earlier by a "licensed physitian" in London. The next year
Boylston repeated this appeal,[30] and in the same advertisement listed
other wares of the same type. He had two varieties, Golden and Plain,
of the Spirit of Scurvy-Grass; he had "The Bitter Stomach Drops," worm
potions for children; and a wonderful multipurpose nostrum, "the Royal
Honey Water, an Excellent Perfume, good against Deafness, and to Make
Hair grow...." The antecedents of this regal liquid are unknown.
Boylston also announced for sale "The Best [Daffy's] Elixir Salutis in
Bottles, or by the Ounce." This is a provocative listing. It may mean
merely that the apothecary would break a bottle to sell a dose of the
Elixir, which was often the custom. But it also may suggest that
Boylston was making the Elixir himself, or was having it prepared by a
journeyman. This latter interpretation would place Boylston well at the
head of a long parade of American imitators of the old English patent
medicines.
[29] _Ibid._, March 12, 1711.
[30] _Ibid._, March 24, 1712.
Other such shipments of the packaged English remedies may have come to
New England on the latest ships from London during the next several
decades, but they got scant play in the advertising columns of the
small 4-page _Boston News-Letter_. Another reference to "Doctor Anthony
Daffey's Original Elixer Salutis" occurs in 1720.[31] Ten years later,
Stoughton's Drops were announced for sale "by Public Vendue," along
with feather beds, looking glasses, and leather breeches.[32] Nearly a
decade more was to pass before Bateman's Pectoral Drops showed up in
the midst of another general list, including cheese, and shoes, and
stays.[33] Not until 1748 did an advertisement appear in which several
of the old English nostrums rubbed shoulders with each other.[34] Then
Silvester Gardiner, at the Sign of the Unicorn and Mortar, asserted
that "by appointment of the Patentee" he was enabled to sell "Genuine
British Oyl, _Bateman's_ Pectoral Drops, and _Hooper's_ Female Pills,
and the True _Lockyer's_ Pills."
[31] _Ibid._, November 14, 1720.
[32] _Ibid._, March 12, 1730.
[33] _Ibid._, January 4, 1739.
[34] _Ibid._, November 14, 1748.
Although nearly a century old, Anderson's Scots Pills were not cited
for sale in the pages of the _Boston News-Letter_ until August 23,
1750, two months after the much more recent Turlington's Balsam of Life
first put in its appearance.[35] During the same year, the British
confusion over British Oil was reflected in America. Boden's and
Darby's variety preceded the Betton brand into the _News-Letter_ pages
by a fortnight.[36] It was the latter, however, which was to win the
day in Boston, for almost all subsequent advertising specified the
Betton Oil. Godfrey's Cordial was first mentioned in 1761.[37] Thus, of
the ten old English patent medicines which are the focus of the present
study, eight had been advertised in the _Boston News-Letter_. The other
two, Steer's Opodeldoc and Dalby's Carminative, did not reach the
market before this colonial journal fell prey to the heightening
tensions of early 1776.
[35] _Ibid._, June 7, 1750.
[36] _Ibid._, May 24, 1750.
[37] _Ibid._, December 31, 1761.
By the 1750's, the names of several old English nostrums were appearing
fairly frequently in the advertising of colonial apothecaries, not only
in Boston but in other colonial towns. In Williamsburg, for example, a
steady increase occurs in the number of references and the length of
the lists of the English patent medicines advertised in the _Virginia
Gazette_ from their first mention into the early 1760's.[38] This
journal--which later had competing issues by different editors--was
launched in 1736, and the next year George Gilmer advised customers
that, in addition to "all manner of Chymical and Galenical Medicines,"
he could furnish, at his old shop near the Governor's, "Bateman's
Drops, Squires Elixir, Anderson's Pills."[39] The other remedies
appeared in due time, Stoughton's and Daffy's Elixirs in 1745,
Turlington's Balsam in 1746, Godfrey's Cordial in 1751, Hooper's Pills
in 1752, and Betton's British Oil in 1770.
[38] Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff, _Virginia Gazette
index, 1736-1780_, Williamsburg, 1950, 2 vols.
[39] _Virginia Gazette_, Williamsburg, May 27, 1737.
A spot check of newspapers in Philadelphia and New York reveals a
pattern quite similar. Residents of the middle colonies, like those to
the north and the south, could buy the basic English brands, and it was
during the 1750's that the notices of freshly-arrived supplies ceased
to be rare in advertising columns and became a frequent occurrence.
Thomas Preston, for example, announced to residents of Philadelphia in
1768 that he had just received a supply of Anderson's, Hooper's,
Bateman's, Betton's, Daffy's, Stoughton's, Turlington's, and Godfrey's
remedies.[40] Not only were these medicines for sale at apothecary
shops, but they were sold by postmasters, goldsmiths, grocers, hair
dressers, tailors, printers, booksellers, cork cutters, the post-rider
between Philadelphia and Williamsburg, and by many colonial American
physicians.
[40] _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Philadelphia, December 1, 1768.
It is a matter for comment that American newspaper advertising of the
English packaged medicines was singularly drab. In the mother country,
the proprietors or their heirs were faced with vigorous competition. It
behooved them to sharpen up their adjectives and reach for their
vitriol. In America the apothecary or merchant had no proprietary
interest in any of the different brands of the imported medicines which
were sold. Moreover, there was probably no great surplus of supply over
demand in America as in Britain, so the task of selling the stock on
hand was less difficult and required less vigorous promotion. Also,
advertising space in the few American weeklies was more at a premium
than in the more frequent and numerous English journals. With rare
exceptions, therefore, the old English patent medicines were merely
mentioned by name in American advertising. Seldom did one receive the
individual attention accorded by Samuel Emlen to Godfrey's Cordial in
Benjamin Franklin's _Pennsylvania Gazette_ for June 26, 1732. The ad
ran like this:
"Dr. Godfrey's General Cordial. So universally approved of for the
Cholick, and all Manners cf Pains in the Bowels, Fluxes, Fevers,
Small-Pox, Measles, Rheumatism, Coughs, Colds, and Restlessness in
Men, Women, and Children; and particularly for several Ailments
incident to Child-bearing Women, and Relief of young Children in
breeding their Teeth."
[Illustration: Figure 5.--PAMPHLET, DATED 1731, ON BEHALF OF BATEMAN'S
PECTORAL DROPS. It was published by John Peter Zenger in New York.
Original preserved in the New York Academy of Medicine Library.
(_Smithsonian photo 44286-D._)]
Emlen's venturesomeness may have lain in the fact that he was not only
a retailer, but also an agent for the British manufacturer, for he
cited the names of those who sold Godfrey's Cordial in nearby towns.
Even at that, this appeal, consisting merely of a list of illnesses,
lacked the cleverness of contemporary English nostrum advertising. In
the whole span of the _Boston News-Letter_, beginning in 1704, it was
not until 1763 that a bookstore pulled out the stops with half a column
of lively prose in behalf of Dr. Hill's four unpatented nostrums.[41]
It seems a safe assumption that not only the medicines but the verbiage
were imported from London, where Dr. Hill had been at work endeavoring
to restore a Greek secret which "converts a Glass of Water into the
Nature and Quality of Asses Milk, with the Balsamick Addition...."
[41] _Boston News-Letter_, Boston, November 24, 1763.
The infrequency of extended fanciful promotion in behalf of the old
English nostrums in American newspaper advertising may have been
compensated for to some degree in broadside and pamphlet. A critic of
the medical scene in New York in the early 1750's asserted that
physicians used patent medicines which they learned about from "London
quack bills." This doctor complained, these were often their only
reading matter.[42] Such a judgment may be too severe. Certainly it is
difficult to validate today. Such pamphlets and broadsides do appear in
American archival collections. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
contains a 2-page Turlington broadside,[43] while the Folger
Shakespeare Library in Washington has an earlier 46-page Turlington
pamphlet with testimonials reaching out toward America.[44] One such
certificate came from "a sailor before the mast, on board the ship
Britannia in the New York trade," and another cited a woman living in
Philadelphia who gave thanks for the cure of her dropsy.
[42] James J. Walsh, _History of the Medical Society of the State
of New York_, New York, 1907.
[43] Robert Turlington, "Turlington's Balsam of Life," 1755-1757.
A later reprint of this same circular is preserved in the Warshaw
Collection of Business Americana.
[44] _Turlington's Balsam of Life_ (see footnote 15).
A broadside in the Warshaw Collection touting Bateman's Drops noted
that "extraordinary demands have been made for Maryland, New-York,
Jamaica, etc. where their virtues have been truely experienced with the
greatest satisfaction."[45] That such promotional items are extremely
rare does not mean they were not abundant in the mid-18th century, for
this type of printed matter, then as now, was likely to be looked at
and thrown away. A certain amount of nostrum literature was undoubtedly
imported from Britain. For example, in 1753 apothecary James Carter of
Williamsburg ordered from England "3 Quire Stoughton's Directions"
along with "1/2 Groce Stoughton Vials."[46] These broadsides or
circulars served a twofold purpose. Not only did they promote the
medicine, but they actually served as the labels for the bottles. Early
packages of these patent medicines which have been discovered indicate
that paper labels were seldom applied to the glass bottles; instead,
the bottle was tightly wrapped and sealed in one of these broadsides.
[45] "Dr. Bateman's Drops" (see footnote 7).
[46] James Carter, Apothecary account book, Williamsburg
[1752-1773]. Manuscript original preserved at Colonial
Williamsburg, Virginia.
American imprints seeking to promote the English patent medicines were
certainly rare. The most significant example may be found in the
Library of the New York Academy of Medicine.[47] In 1731 James Wallace,
a New York merchant, became American agent for the sale of Dr.
Bateman's Pectoral Drops. To help him with his new venture, Wallace
took a copy of the London promotional pamphlet to a New York printer to
be reproduced. The printer was John Peter Zenger, not yet an editor and
three years away from the events which were to link his name
inextricably with the concept of the freedom of the press. This 1731
pamphlet may well have been the earliest work on any medical theme to
be printed in New York.[48]
[47] _A short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral
Drops_ (see footnote 6).
[48] Gertrude L. Annan, "Printing and medicine," _Bulletin of the
Medical Library Association_, March 1940, vol. 28, p. 155.
Now and then a physician might frown on his fellows for reading such
literature and prescribing such remedies, but he was in a minority.
Colonial doctors, by and large, had no qualms about employing the
packaged medicines. It was a doctor who first advertised Anderson's
Pills and Bateman's Drops in Williamsburg;[49] it was another,
migrating from England to the Virginia frontier, who founded a town and
dosed those who came to dwell therein with Bateman's Drops,
Turlington's Balsam, and other patent medicines.[50]
[49] Wyndham B. Blanton, _Medicine in Virginia in the eighteenth
century_, Richmond, Virginia, 1931, pp. 33-34.
[50] Maurice Bear Gordon, _Aesculapius comes to the colonies_,
Ventnor, New Jersey, 1949, p. 39.