Old English Patent Medicines in AmericaGriffenhagen, George B.
History
Old English Patent Medicines in America
Griffenhagen, George B.
Patent medicines
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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