The above 13 packages and 4 cases of medicines are ship'd on Board
the Sloop Called the Two Brothers Saml West Master. On Account and
[illegible word] of Mr. Oliver Smith of Boston Apothecary and to
him consigned. The cases are unmarked being ship'd at Night. Error
Excepted Jon. Waldo.
[65] Jonathon Waldo, Apothecary account book, Salem,
Massachusetts [1770-1790]. Manuscript original preserved in
the Library of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.
[Illustration: Figure 8.--DALBY'S CARMINATIVE, two sides of a bottle
from the McKearin collection, Hoosick Falls, New York. (_Smithsonian
photo 44287-C._)]
The sloop was undoubtedly one of the small coastal type ships employed
by the colonists, and the British blockade required such ominous
precautions as "unmarked cases" and "ship'd by Night."
Such random assortments of prewar importations could hardly have met
the American demand for the old English patent medicines created by a
half century of use. Doubtless many embattled farmers had to confront
their ailments without the accustomed English-made remedies. However,
as early as the 1750's, at least two of the English patent medicines,
Daffy's and Stoughton's Elixirs, were being compounded in the
colonies and packaged in empty bottles shipped from England.
Apothecary Carter of Williamsburg ordered sizable quantities of empty
"Stoughton Vials" from 1752 through 1770, and occasionally ordered
empty Daffy's bottles.[66] In 1774 apothecary Waldo of Salem noted
the receipt from England of "1 Groce Stoughton Phials" and "1 Groce
Daffy's Do."[67] Joseph Stansbury, who sold china and glass in
Philadelphia, advertised "Daffy's Elixir Bottles" a week after the
Declaration of Independence.[68] Stoughton's and Daffy's Elixirs,
therefore, were being compounded by the American apothecaries during
the Revolutionary War. Formulas for both preparations were official
in the London and Edinburgh pharmacopoeias, as well as in unofficial
formularies like Quincy's _Pharmacopoeias officinalis extemporanea_
of 1765. All these publications were used widely by American
physicians and apothecaries.
[66] Carter, _op. cit._ (footnote 46).
[67] Waldo, _op. cit._ (footnote 65).
[68] _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Philadelphia, July 11, 1776.
It is not known how extensively, during the struggle for independence,
this custom was adopted for English patent medicines other than Daffy's
and Stoughton's. However, imitation of English patent medicines in
America was to increase, and it contributed to the chaos that beset the
nostrum field when the war was over and the original articles from
England were once more available. And they were bought. An
advertisement at a time when the fighting was over and peace
negotiations were still under way indicated that the Baltimore post
office had half a dozen of the familiar English remedies for sale.[69]
Two years later a New York store turned to tortured rhyme to convey the
same message:[70]
Medicines approv'd by royal charter,
James, Godfry, Anderson, Court-plaster,
With Keyser's, Hooper's Lockyer's Pills,
And Honey Balsam Doctor Hill's;
Bateman and Daffy, Jesuits drops,
And all the Tinctures of the shops,
As Stoughton, Turlington and Grenough,
Pure British Oil and Haerlem Ditto....
[69] _Maryland Journal and Baltimore Gazette_, Baltimore, October
29, 1782.
[70] _New York Packet and the American Advertiser_, New York,
October 11, 1784.
Later in the decade, the Salem apothecary, Jonathon Waldo, made a list
of "An assortment [of patent medicines] Usually Called For." The
imported brand of Turlington's Balsam, Waldo stated, was "very dear" at
36 shillings a dozen, adding that his "own" was worth but 15 shillings
for the same quantity. The English original of another nostrum, Essence
of Peppermint, he listed at 18 shillings a dozen, his own at a mere
10/6.[71] Despite the price differential, importations continued. A
Beverly, Massachusetts, druggist, Robert Rantoul, in 1799 ordered from
London filled boxes and bottles of Anderson's Pills, Bateman's Drops,
Steer's Opodeldoc, and Turlington's Balsam, along with the empty vials
in which to put British Oil and Essence of Peppermint.[72] For decades
thereafter the catalogs of wholesale drug firms continued to specify
two grades of various patent medicines for sale, termed "English" and
"American," "true" and "common," or "genuine" and "imitation."[73] This
had not been the case in patent medicine listings of 18th-century
catalogs.[74]
[71] Waldo, _op. cit._ (footnote 65).
[72] Robert Rantoul, Apothecary daybooks, 3 vols., Beverly,
Massachusetts [1796-1812]. Manuscript originals preserved in the
Beverly Historical Society. Also see Robert W. Lovett, "Squire
Rantoul and his drug store," _Bulletin of the Business Historical
Society_, June 1951, vol. 25, pp. 99-114.
[73] Joel and Jotham Post, _A catalogue of drugs, medicines &
chemicals, sold wholesale & retail, by Joel and Jotham Post,
druggists, corner of Wall and William-Streets_, New York, 1804;
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, _Catalogue of the materia
medica and of the pharmaceutical preparations, with the uniform
prices of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy_, Boston, 1828;
George W. Carpenter, _Essays on some of the most important
articles of the materia medica ... to which is added a catalogue
of medicines, surgical instruments, etc._, Philadelphia, 1834.
[74] John Dunlap, _Catalogus medicinarum et pharmacorum_,
Philadelphia, 1771; John Day, _Catalogue of drugs, chymical and
galenical preparations, shop furniture, patent medicines, and
surgical instruments sold by John Day and Company, druggists and
chymists in second-street_, Philadelphia, 1771; George
Griffenhagen, "The Day-Dunlap 1771 pharmaceutical catalog,"
_American Journal of Pharmacy_, September 1955, vol. 127, pp.
296-302; also _The New York Physician and American Medicine_, May
1956, vol. 46, pp. 42-44; Smith and Bartlett, _Catalogue of drugs
and medicines, instruments and utensils, dyestuffs, groceries,
and painters' colours, imported, prepared, and sold, by Smith and
Bartlett, at their druggists store and apothecaries shop_,
Boston, 1795.
[Illustration: Figure 9.--GODFREY'S CORDIAL, 19th-century bottles from
the Samuel Aker, David and George Kass collection, Albany, New York.
(_Smithsonian photo 44201-C._)]
In buying Anderson's and Bateman's remedies from London in 1799, Robert
Rantoul of Massachusetts specified that they be secured from Dicey. It
will be remembered that 60 years earlier William Dicey, John Cluer, and
Robert Raikes were the group of entrepreneurs who had aided Benjamin
Okell in patenting the pectoral drops bearing Bateman's name. Then and
throughout the century, this concern continued to operate a warehouse
in the Bow Churchyard, Cheapside, London. In 1721, it was known as the
"Printing-house and Picture Warehouse" of John Cluer, printer,[75] but
by 1790, it was simply the "Medicinal Warehouse" of Bow Churchyard,
Cheapside. This address lay in the center of the London area whence
came nearly all of the British goods exported to America.[76] It had
been the location of many merchants who had migrated to New England in
the 17th century, and these newcomers had done business with their
erstwhile associates who did not leave home. Thus were started trade
channels which continued to run. The Bow Churchyard Warehouse may have
been the major exporter of English patent medicines to colonial
America, although others of importance were located in the same London
region, in particular Robert Turlington of Lombard Street and Francis
Newbery of St. Paul's Churchyard. The significance of the fact that
there were key suppliers of patent medicines for the American market
lies in the selection process which resulted. Out of the several
hundred patent medicines which 18th-century Britain had available,
Americans dosed themselves with that score or more which the major
exporters shipped to colonial ports.
[75] _London Mercury_, London, August 19-26, 1721.
[76] Bernard Bailyn, _The New England merchants in the
seventeenth century_, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1955, pp. 35-36.
Not only did the Bow Churchyard Warehouse firm have Bateman's Drops. It
will be remembered that in 1721 they advertised that they were
preparing Daffy's Elixir. In 1743, they and Newbery were made exclusive
vendors of Hooper's Pills.[77] By 1750, the firm was also marketing
British Oil, Anderson's Pills, and Stoughton's Elixir.[78] Turlington
in 1755 was selling not only his Balsam of Life, but was also vending
Daffy's Elixir, Godfrey's Cordial, and Stoughton's Elixir.[79] After
the tension of the Townshend Acts, it was the Bow Churchyard Warehouse
which supplied a Boston apothecary with a large supply of nostrums,
including all the eight patent medicines then in existence of the ten
with which this discussion is primarily concerned.[80] On November 29,
1770, the _Virginia Gazette_ (edited by Purdie and Dixon) reported a
shipment, including Bateman's, Hooper's, Betton's, Anderson's, and
Godfrey's remedies, just received "from Dr. Bateman's original
wholesale warehouse in London" (the Bow Churchyard Warehouse). When
Dalby's Carminative and Steer's Opodeldoc came on the market in the
1780's, it was Francis Newbery who had them for sale. Both the Newbery
and Dicey (Bow Churchyard Warehouse) firms continued to operate in the
post-Revolutionary years. Thus, it was no accident but rather vigorous
commercial promotion over the decades, that resulted in the most
popular items on the Dicey and Newbery lists appearing in the
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy pamphlet published in 1824. And
although the same old firms continued to export the same old medicines
to the new United States, the back of the business was broken. The
imitation spurred by wartime necessity became the post-war pattern.
[77] _Daily Advertiser_, London, September 23, 1743.
[78] "Dr. Bateman's Drops" (see footnote 7).
[79] Turlington, _op. cit._ (footnote 15).
[80] _Massachusetts Gazette_, Boston, December 21, 1769.
The key recipes were to be found in formula books. Beginning in the
1790's, even American editions of John Wesley's _Primitive physic_
included formulas for Daffy's, Turlington's, and Stoughton's remedies
which the founder of Methodism had introduced into English editions of
this guidebook to health shortly before his death.[81]
[81] John Wesley, _Primitive physic_, 21st ed., London, 1785;
_ibid._, 22nd ed., London, 1788; _ibid._, 16th Amer. ed.,
Trenton, 1788; _ibid._, 22nd Amer. ed., Philadelphia, 1791;
George Dock, "The 'primitive physic' of Rev. John Wesley,"
_Journal of the American Medical Association_, February 20, 1915,
vol. 64, pp. 629-638.
The homemade versions, as Jonathon Waldo had recorded (see p. 171),
were about half as costly. The state of affairs at the turn of the new
century is illustrated in the surviving business papers of the Beverly
druggist, Robert Rantoul. In 1799 he had imported the British Oil and
Essence of Peppermint bottles. In 1802 he reordered the latter,
specifying that they should not have molded in the glass the words "by
the Kings Patent." Rantoul wrote a formula for this nostrum in his
formula book, and from it he filled 66 bottles in December 1801 and 202
bottles in June 1803. About the same time he began making and bottling
Turlington's Balsam, ordering bottles of two sizes from London. His
formula book contains these entries: "Jany 4th, 1804 filled 54 small
turlingtons with 37 oz. Balsam," and "Jany 20th, 1804 filled 144 small
turlingtons with 90-1/4 oz. Balsam and 9 Large Bottles with 8-1/4
oz."[82]
[82] Rantoul, _op. cit._ (footnote 72).
Two decades later the imitation of the English proprietaries was even
bigger business. In 1821 William A. Brewer became apprenticed to a
druggist in Boston. A number of the old English brands, he recalled,
were still imported and sold at the time. But his apprenticeship years
were heavily encumbered with duties involving the American versions.
"Many, very many, days were spent," Brewer remembered, "in compounding
these imitations, cleaning the vials, fitting, corking, labelling,
stamping with fac-similes of the English Government stamp, and in
wrapping them, with ... little regard to the originator's rights, or
that of their heirs...." The British nostrums chiefly imitated in this
Boston shop were Steer's, Bateman's, Godfrey's, Dalby's, Betton's, and
Stoughton's. The last was a major seller. The store loft was mostly
filled with orange peel and gentian, and the laboratory had "a heavy
oaken press, fastened to the wall with iron clamps and bolts, which was
used in pressing out 'Stoughton's Bitters,' of which we usually
prepared a hogshead full at one time." A large quantity was needed. In
those days, Brewer asserted, "almost everybody indulged in Stoughton's
elixir as morning bitters." [83]
[83] William A. Brewer, "Reminiscences of an old pharmacist."
_Pharmaceutical Record_, August 1, 1884, vol. 4, p. 326.
[Illustration: Figure 10.--GODFREY'S CORDIAL, early 20th century
bottles manufactured in the U.S.A. (_U.S. National Museum cat. Nos.
M-6989, and M-6990; Smithsonian photo 44287 B._)]
Other drugstores certainly followed the practice of Brewer's employer,
in cleaning up and refilling bottles that had previously been drained
of their old English medicines. The chief source of bottles to hold the
American imitations, however, was the same as that to which Waldo and
Rantoul had turned, English glass factories. It was not so easy for
Americans to fabricate the vials as it was for them to compound the
mixtures to fill them. In the years before the War of 1812, the British
glass industry maintained a virtual monopoly of the specially-shaped
bottles for Bateman's, Turlington's, and the other British remedies.
When in the 1820's the first titan of made-in-America nostrums, Thomas
W. Dyott of Philadelphia, appeared upon the scene, this venturesome
entrepreneur decided to make bottles not only for his own assorted
remedies but also for the popular English brands. In time he succeeded
in improving the quality of American bottle glass and in drastically
reducing prices. The standard cost for most of the old English vials
under the British monopoly had been $5.50 a gross. By the early 1830's
Dyott had cut the price to under two dollars.[84]
[84] _Democratic Press_, Philadelphia, July 1 and October 28,
1824; Thomas W. Dyott, _An exposition of the system of moral and
mental abor, established at the glass factory of Dyottsville_,
Philadelphia, 1833; and Joseph D. Weeks, "Reports on the
manufacture of glass," _Report of the manufactures of the United
States at the tenth census_, Washington, D. C, 1883.
[Illustration: Figure 11.--AN ORIGINAL PACKAGE OF HOOPER'S PILLS, from
the Samuel Aker, David and George Kass collection, Albany, New York.
(_Smithsonian photo_ 44201.)]
Other American glass manufactories followed suit. For example, in 1835
the Free Will Glass Manufactory was making "Godfrey's Cordial,"
"Turlington's Balsam," and "Opodeldoc Bitters bottles."[85] An 1848
broadside entitled "The Glassblowers' List of Prices of Druggist's
Ware," a broadside preserved at the Smithsonian Institution, includes
listings for Turlington's Balsam, Godfrey's Cordial, Dalby's and Small
and Large Opodeldoc bottles, among many other American patent medicine
bottles.
[85] Van Rensscalar, _op. cit._, (footnote 53), p. 151.
In the daybook of the Beverly, Massachusetts, apothecary,[86] were
inscribed for Turlington's Balsam, three separate formulas, each
markedly different from the others. A Philadelphia medical journal in
1811 contained a complaint that Americans were using calomel in the
preparation of Anderson's Scots Pills, and that this practice was a
deviation both from the original formula and from the different but
still all-vegetable formula by which the pills were being made in
England.[87] Various books were published revealing the "true"
formulas, in conflicting versions.[88]
[86] Rantoul, _op. cit._ (footnote 72).
[87] _Philadelphia Medical Museum_, new ser., vol. 1, p. 130,
1811.
[88] _Formulae selectae; or a collection of prescriptions of
eminent physicians, and the most celebrated patent medicines_,
New York, 1818; John Ayrton Paris, _Pharmacologia; or the history
of medicinal substances, with a view to establish the art of
prescribing and of composing extemporaneous formulae upon fixed
and scientific principles_, New York, 1822.