Old English Patent Medicines in America Part 3

On September 29, 1774, John Boyd's "medicinal store" in Baltimore followed the time-honored custom of advertising in the _Maryland Gazette_ a fresh supply of medicines newly at hand from England. To this intelligence was added a warning. Since nonimportation agreements by colonial merchants were imminent, which bade fair to make goods hard to get, customers would be wise to make their purchases before the supply became exhausted. Boyd's prediction was sound. The Boston Tea Party of the previous December had evoked from Parliament a handful of repressive measures, the Intolerable Acts, and at the time of Boyd's advertis.e.m.e.nt, the first Continental Congress in session was soon to declare that all imports from Great Britain should be halted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 7.--BOTTLES OF BRITISH OIL, 19th and early 20th century, from the Samuel Aker, David and George Ka.s.s collection, Albany, New York. (_Smithsonian photo 44201-B._)]

This Baltimore scare advertising may well have been heeded by Boyd's customers, for trade with the mother country had been interrupted before; in the wake of the Townshend Acts in 1767, when Parliament had placed import duties on various products, including tea, American merchants in various cities had entered into nonimportation agreements.

Certainly, there was a decided decrease in the Boston advertising of patent medicines received from London. With respect to imports of any kind, it became necessary to explain, and one merchant noted that his goods were "the Remains of a Consignment receiv'd before the Non-Importation Agreement took place."[61] When Parliament yielded to the financial pressure and abolished all the taxes but the one on tea, nonimportation collapsed. This fact is reflected in an advertis.e.m.e.nt listing nearly a score of patent medicines, including the remedies of Turlington, Bateman, the Bettons, Anderson, Hooper, G.o.dfrey, Daffy, and Stoughton, as "Just come to Hand and Warranted Genuine" on Captain Dane's s.h.i.+p, "directly from the Original Warehouse kept by DICEY and OKELL in Bow Street, London."[62]

[61] _Ma.s.sachusetts Gazette_, Boston, December 21, 1769.

[62] _Ibid._, April 25, 1771.

The days of such ample importations, however, were doomed, as commerce fell prey to the growing revolutionary agitation. The last medical advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Ma.s.sachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter_, before its demise the following February, appeared five months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[63] The apothecary at the Sign of the Unicorn was frank about the situation. He had imported fresh drugs and medicines every fall and spring up to the preceding June. He still had some on hand. Doctors and others should be advised.

[63] _Ibid._, September 7, 1775.

Implicit in the advertis.e.m.e.nt is the suggestion that the securing of new supplies under the circ.u.mstances would be highly uncertain. That pre-war stocks did hold out, sometimes well into the war years may be deduced from a Williamsburg apothecary's advertis.e.m.e.nt.[64] W. Carter took the occasion of the ending of a partners.h.i.+p with his brother to publish a sort of inventory. Along with the "syrup and ointment pots, all neatly painted and lettered," the crabs eyes and claws, the Spanish flies, he listed a dozen patent medicines, including the remedies of Anderson, Bateman, and Daffy.

[64] _Virginia Gazette_ (edited by Dixon and Nicholson), Williamsburg, June 12, 1779.

Even the British blockade failed to prevent patent medicines from being s.h.i.+pped from wholesaler to retailer. In the account book of a Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, apothecary,[65] the following entry appears:

4 cases Containing 1 Dozn Bottles G.o.dfreys Cordial 4/ 5 Dozn Do Smaller Turling Bals 18/ 8 Dozn Bettons British Oil 8/ 6-1/2 Dozn Hoopers Female Pills 10/ 4 Dozn nd 8 Boxs And. Pills 10/

SALEM APRIL 8th 1777

The above 13 packages and 4 cases of medicines are s.h.i.+p'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 s.h.i.+p'd at Night. Error Excepted Jon. Waldo.

[65] Jonathon Waldo, Apothecary account book, Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts [1770-1790]. Ma.n.u.script original preserved in the Library of the Ess.e.x Inst.i.tute, Salem, Ma.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.h.i.+ps employed by the colonists, and the British blockade required such ominous precautions as "unmarked cases" and "s.h.i.+p'd by Night."

Such random a.s.sortments 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 s.h.i.+pped from England.

Apothecary Carter of Williamsburg ordered sizable quant.i.ties 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 gla.s.s 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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, G.o.dfry, 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 a.s.sortment [of patent medicines] Usually Called For." The imported brand of Turlington's Balsam, Waldo stated, was "very dear" at 36 s.h.i.+llings a dozen, adding that his "own" was worth but 15 s.h.i.+llings for the same quant.i.ty. The English original of another nostrum, Essence of Peppermint, he listed at 18 s.h.i.+llings a dozen, his own at a mere 10/6.[71] Despite the price differential, importations continued. A Beverly, Ma.s.sachusetts, 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, Ma.s.sachusetts [1796-1812]. Ma.n.u.script 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; Ma.s.sachusetts College of Pharmacy, _Catalogue of the materia medica and of the pharmaceutical preparations, with the uniform prices of the Ma.s.sachusetts 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 9.--G.o.dFREY'S CORDIAL, 19th-century bottles from the Samuel Aker, David and George Ka.s.s collection, Albany, New York.

(_Smithsonian photo 44201-C._)]

In buying Anderson's and Bateman's remedies from London in 1799, Robert Rantoul of Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sociates 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 s.h.i.+pped to colonial ports.

[75] _London Mercury_, London, August 19-26, 1721.

[76] Bernard Bailyn, _The New England merchants in the seventeenth century_, Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, 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, G.o.dfrey'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 s.h.i.+pment, including Bateman's, Hooper's, Betton's, Anderson's, and G.o.dfrey'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] _Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sociation_, 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 gla.s.s 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 apprentices.h.i.+p years were heavily enc.u.mbered 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, G.o.dfrey'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 quant.i.ty was needed. In those days, Brewer a.s.serted, "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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 10.--G.o.dFREY'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._)]