History's medical advertisers and their remedies

Bell's Anti-Prandium

Image: Daguerreotype of the Duke of Wellington in 1844

Cashing in on the Duke of Wellington’s death in order to sell fart pills quite frankly seems a bit distasteful to me:

         VERBUM SAT.—Our Immortal Wellington
           clearly died from an attack of Indigestion. All who
suffer from Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Cardialgia, Eructations, Fla-
tulency, Torpidity of the Bowels and Liver, should take BELL’S
ANTI-PRANDIUM, or DIGESTIVE PILLS, prepared with   the
purest drugs, and the test of many years’ extensive use in private
practice. They may be depended upon as a safe, effectual, and price-
less remedy.—Sold only by Gifford and Linder, chemists, &c., 104,
Strand; and Messrs. Blake, 47, Piccadilly. Price 2s. 9d. per box. By
post for a 2d. stamp.

Source: The Daily News (London) Saturday 11 December 1852

A Fortune Built on Sand: Health Grains

In early 20th-century New York, a mailman introduced a new patent medicine called Health Grains for indigestion – but the ingredients were far from beneficial. Mrs Bertha Bertsche, a 38-year-old widow, could often be found supervising the pans on the kitchen range at her home in Glebe Avenue, Westchester Square, New York. Inside the pans, […]

Victorian asthma cigarettes: who was Dr Batty?

While browsing your local newspaper in the 1890s, an asthma-cure advertisement might distract you from tales of the latest sensational crimes. ‘Agreeable to use, certain in their effects, and harmless in their action, they may be safely smoked by ladies and children,’ ran the promotional copy. The product was Cigares de Joy, handy little cigarettes […]

Sanitized Tape Worms - a spurious 'vintage' ad

‘Eat! Eat! Eat!’ Those notorious tapeworm diet pills

Peoria, Illinois, 1912: the horror begins. A society lady, encouraged by a friend’s success with an easy new weight-loss treatment, pays $25 for ‘two rather large and suspicious-looking pills.’ Her husband sends the pills to be analysed by the Washington public health service, and before long a ‘government secret official’ appears, informing him that the […]