Old English Patent Medicines in America Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 15.--TURLINGTON'S BALSAM OF LIFE bottles as pictured in a brochure dated 1755-1757, preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa. According to Turlington, the bottle was adopted in 1754 "to prevent the villainy of some persons who, buying up my empty bottles, have basely and wickedly put therein a vile spurious counterfeit sort."]

For those who persist in using the formulas of the early English patent medicines, recipes are still available. Turlington's Balsam remains as an unofficial synonym of U.S.P. Compound Tincture of Benzoin.

Concerning its efficacy, the _United States dispensatory_[126] states: "The tincture is occasionally employed internally as a stimulating expectorant in chronic bronchitis. More frequently it is used as an inhalent ... It has also been recommended in chronic dysentery ... but is of doubtful utility."

[126] _The dispensatory of the United States of America_, 25th ed., Philadelphia, 1955, p. 158.

A formula for G.o.dfrey's Cordial, under the t.i.tle of Mixture of Opium and Sa.s.safras, is still carried in the _Pharmaceutical recipe book_.[127] _Remington's practice of pharmacy_[128] retains a formula for Dalby's Carminative under the former _National formulary_ t.i.tle of Carminative Mixture.

[127] _The Pharmaceutical recipe book_, 2nd ed., American Pharmaceutical a.s.sociation, 1936, p. 121.

[128] Eric W. Martin and E. Fullerton Cook, editors, _Remington's practice of pharmacy_, 11th ed., Easton, Pennsylvania, 1956, p.

286.

In the nation of their origin, the continuing interest in the ancient proprietaries seems somewhat more lively than in America. The 1953 edition of _Pharmaceutical formulas_, published by the London journal _The Chemist and Druggist_, includes formulas for eight of the ten old patent medicines described in this study. This compendium, indeed, lists not one, but three different recipes for British Oil, and the formulas by which Dalby's Carminative may be compounded run on to a total of eight. Two lineal descendents of 18th-century firms which took the lead in exporting to America still manufacture remedies made so long ago by their predecessors. May, Roberts & Co., Ltd., of London, successors to the Newbery interests, continues to market Hooper's Female Pills, whereas W. Sutton & Co. (Druggists' Sundries), London, Ltd., of Enfield, in Middles.e.x, successors to Dicey & Co. at Bow Churchyard, currently sells Bateman's Pectoral Drops.[129]

[129] Letter from Owen H. Waller, editor of _The Chemist and Druggist_, to George Griffenhagen, January 15, 1957.

In America, however, the impact of the old English patent medicines has been largely absorbed and forgotten. During the past twenty years a revolution in medical therapy has taken place. Most of the drugs in use today were unknown a quarter of a century ago. Some of the newer drugs can really perform certain of the healing miracles claimed by their pretentious proprietors for the old English patent medicines.

A more recent import from Britain, penicillin, may prove to have an even longer life on these sh.o.r.es than did Turlington's Balsam or Bateman's Drops. Still, two hundred years is a long time. Despite the fact that these early English patent medicines are nearly forgotten by the public today, their American career is none the less worth tracing.

It reflects aspects not only of medical and pharmaceutical history, but of colonial dependence, cultural nationalism, industrial development, and popular psychology. It reveals how desperate man has been when faced with the terrors of disease, how he has purchased the packaged promises offered by the sincere but deluded as well as by the charlatan. It shows how science and law have combined to offer man some safeguards against deception in his pursuit of health.

The time seems ripe to write the epitaph of the old English patent medicines in America. That they are now a chapter of history is a token of medical progress for mankind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 16.--TURLINGTON'S BALSAM OF LIFE BOTTLE (all four sides) found in an Indian grave at Mobridge, South Dakota; now preserved in the U.S. National Museum. (_Cat. No. 32462, Archeol.; Smithsonian photo 42936-A._)]