The Quack Doctor

 Invented in the 1850s by James Crossley Eno of Newcastle, the Fruit Salt sold like hotcakes to sailors looking for something to keep them healthy on long journeys. The product is still available today – now manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, it sells in vast quantities worldwide and is a popular ingredient in Indian cookery. It contains sodium bicarbonate, citric acid and sodium carbonate, but in 1906 the Pharmaceutische Centralhalle für Deutschland analysed it as 50% sodium bicarbonate, 15% sodium bitartrate and 35% free tartaric acid.

The advert below is rather subdued by Eno’s standards. More often than not the ads incorporated some moral and philosophical lesson and used poetry or literary quotations to enhance their message. Click on the thumbnail above for a 1897 ad, also from the Penny Illustrated Paper.

For more on the history of J C Eno and his invention, see the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

HOW TO AVOID
THE
INJURIOUS EFFECTS
OF
STIMULANTS.

The present system of living—partaking of too rich food, as pastry, saccharine, and fatty substances, alcoholic drinks, and an insufficient amount of exercise frequently deranges the liver. I would advise all bilious people, unless they are careful to keep the liver acting freely, to exercise great care in the use of alcoholic drinks, avoid sugar, and always dilute largely with water. Experience shows that sugar, pink or chemically coloured sherbet, mild ales, port wine, dark sherries, sweet champagne, liqueurs, and brandies are all very apt to disagree, while light white wine, and gin or whiskey largely diluted with soda-water, will be found the least objectionable. ENO’S “FRUIT SALT” is peculiarly adapted for any constitutional weakness of the liver; it possesses the power of reparation when digestion has been disturbed or lost, and places the invalid on the right track to health. A world of woes is avoided by those who keep and use ENO’S “FRUIT SALT”; therefore no family should ever be without it.
CAUTION.—Examine each bottle and see the Capsule is marked ENO’S “FRUIT SALT.” Without it you have been imposed on by a worthless and occasionally poisonous imitation.

SOLD BY ALL CHEMISTS

PREPARED ONLY BY
ENO’S “FRUIT SALT” WORKS.
LONDON S.E.,
BY J. C. ENO’S PATENT.

 Source: The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times ( London) Sat 22 Nov 1890

The Aperitive Vase, a cure for constipation, is somewhat coyly advertised here, but adverts from earlier in the 1840s left less to the imagination:

The apparatus is a fountain in miniature, so small that when filled it may be concealed in the pocket until it can be used conveniently; when, by an hydraulic double-action within it, the water which it contains is propelled into the bowels, and instantly procures the desired relief, as effectively as a dose of opening medicine. The Fountain may be used by the most nervous lady without the knowledge or aid of any second person. (The Era, Aug 13 1843)

 Image: Detail from Réaction. Distraction. Précipitation by Charles Philipon, 1850s. Courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.      

      T H E   U S E   O F   W A T E R  as  an  aperient  is  neither
distasteful  nor  injurious  as  opening  medicines  are:  its  operation
is instantaneous, and without the slightest  uneasiness;  consequently
it is found to be a remedy  preferable  to  every  other  for  Indigestion,
Costiveness, Bile,  &c.  But  those  who  desire  to  relieve  effectually
the stomach and bowels by  this  natural  physic,  and  to  resort  to  it
comfortably, must apply it  with  the  APERITIVE  VASE,  constructed
for invalids and ladies, and sold only at Scott and Llewelyn’s  Medical
Repository,  369,  Strand,   the  third  house  from  Exeter  Hall.  Also,
SONIFERS, by which a deaf person may magnify voices to the  pitch
at which he hears distinctly. Descriptions sent post free, on receipt of
two letter stamps.

Source: The Daily News (London) Saturday 31 January 1846

Dr Scott and a business associate, Mr Pine, revealed the extent of their medical knowledge in 1844 when a 5-year-old boy was rushed to their premises after falling into the river near Waterloo Bridge. According to the inquest report in the Medical Times (6 July 1844), Scott ‘looked at the child, and exclaimed— “Be off with you—take it to Charing Cross Hospital.”‘ The rescuers set off the for the hospital but the child died on the way.

 Now giving due force to these circumstances, said the Medical Times in reference to Scott’s advertisements, but more especially to the singular rejection of this poor child for treatment, and supposing for a moment that Dr. Scott, like thousands of others, really has no other title to doctorship but his own sovereign will, what a significant instance we have before us of the mischief of empirical pretensions.

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

S. P. Kernick had two main products – the worm lozenges advertised here and the “Vegetable Pills,” which were for headaches, bilious attacks and constipation. Although the medicines weren’t widely advertised beyond the Cardiff area, they were still going strong at the end of the 19th century.

.

                 K E R N I C K ‘ S   V E G E T A B L E
                                         WORM LOZENGES
may be  taken  by  children  of  all  ages  with  perfect safety, and are
also useful for children of delicate stomachs  and  pale  complexions.
      “SIR,—A   woman  gave  two  of  the  lozenges  for  five  mornings,
and by doing so  the  child  got  rid  of  no  less than eighty worms.—
DANIEL MORGAN, Nelson.”
       “W.  Harriss,  of  Cefncoed,  miner’s  child,  had  got  rid  of  140
worms in a week, whilst taking a box  of  your  worm  lozenges,  and
also has improved wonderfully in health since.”—JNO. PRICE, Cefn,
Merthyr.
        “A customer of mine, a short time  ago,  bought   a  box  of  your
worm  lozenges  to  try  their  effect  on  his  child,  who  was  very  ill.
The   little   boy   got  rid  of  forty  large  worms  and  so  many  small
ones that they could not reckon them.”—JAMES MEYRICK.
        From Mr.  Morgan,  Pondarran.—“Send  me  12  dozen  of  your
valuable   worm   lozenges;  they  are  curing  all  the  children  in  this
neighbourhood.”
                                       Prepared only by
               S.P. KERNICK, MANUFACTURING CHEMIST,
                              DUKE-STREET, CARDIFF.
Sold in Boxes, at 1s. 1½. and 7½., by the appointed Agents, and
most respectable Chemists and Druggists.

Source: The Western Mail (Cardiff) Monday 18 December 1871

Dr Ray Vaughn Pierce (pictured, courtesy of Project Gutenberg) was an über-quack whose laboratory in  Buffalo, NY, produced millions of dollars worth of patent remedies. As well as the Pleasant Pellets shown below, there were Dr Pierce’s Anuric Tablets, Dr Pierce’s Favorite Prescription, Dr Pierce’s Vaginal Tablets, Dr Pierce’s Extract of Smart-Weed and Dr Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery – a licorice-flavoured tonic that reportedly contained quinine, opium and alcohol and was advertised as giving men “an appetite like a cow-boy’s and the digestion of an ostrich.”

Pierce ran an opulent hotel for invalids, the first incarnation of which burnt down in 1881. The rebuilt hotel is said to have included among its guests the Sundance Kid and Etta Place in 1901.

 His company, the World’s Dispensary Medical Association, gave away freebies such as calendars and notebooks to advertise the products, and Pierce’s own book, The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English, was a vehicle for recommending his own medicines. As well as the laboratory in Buffalo, the company had a British branch at Great Russell Street, London.

Dr Pierce was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1878 and served one term. After his death in 1914 his son, Dr Valentine Mott Pierce, continued the business and Pierce products were still available as late as the 1970s.

                    Falling Off A Log.
“As  easy  as  falling   off   a  log,”  is  an
old saying.   When  it  was  first   uttered
nobody knows.   Nothing  is  easier,  un-
less   it  is  the  taking  of  a  dose  of  Dr.
Pierce’s  Pleasant   Pellets.   These   act
like  magic.   No   griping   or   drenching
follows, as is the case with  the  old  fash-
ioned   pills.   The  relief  that  follows  re-
sembles the action of Nature  in  her hap-
piest moods; the impulse given to the dor-
mant   liver  is  of  the  most salutary kind,
and is speedily manifested  by the disap-
pearance  of  all  bilious symptoms.  Sick
headache,   wind   on the  stomach,  pain
through   the   right   side   and   shoulder-
blade,  and   yellowness of  the skin  and
eyeballs    are    all   remedied   by   the
Pellets.

Source: The Daily Gazette (Xenia, Ohio) Friday 8 April 1892

Here we have an early example of the grocer’s apostrophe.

Basil Burchell was well-known not only for his Worm medicine (which was for getting rid of worms, not for making worms feel better, in case you were wondering) but also for the famous Anodyne Necklace, supposed to soothe teething babies. More about the necklace another time, but here’s the part of his advertisement relating to the vermifuge:

COUGHS, COLDS, and ASTHMA’s.
So prevalent at this Season of the Year.
THE famous PURGING SUGAR,
PLUMBS, for WORMS in CHILDREN and
GROWN PERSONS; or where there are no Worms,
no Medicine extant for a delicate fine purge, to free the
body from foul humours, can exceed, or even stand in
competition with them. The power of this Medicine is
truly astonishing; it purifies the blood, completely
cleanses the stomach, bowels and glands, and effectually
cures the Rheumatism, Agues, Intermitting Fevers,
Coughs, Colds, Asthmas, and a train of disorders too nu-
merous to insert, most of which are the offspring of a
foul stomach or obstructed perspiration.
For sickness, and pain at the stomach, want of appetite,
and shortness of breath, they are eminently serviceable. In
short, they have been found, on repeated trials, the best
and cheapest family medicine in the world.-Three dozen
for 2s. 8d. or a single packet of one dozen, 1s. 1½d. To
merchants, country dealers, and charitable persons, to give
away, 10s. per groce.
They have only the taste of fine sugar, and are as in-
nocent and easy to take as a common sugar-plumb
from the confectioner’s.

Source: The Times, Monday 25th February 1788

Note: Apostrophe in Asthmas, comma after Sugar and spelling groce are as shown.

For a detailed study of Burchell and his publicity, you can consult A Study of Eighteenth-Century Advertising Methods by Francis Doherty, a preview of which is available on Google Book Search HERE.

The sassafras tree is native to North America,  and its healing properties were valued by Native Americans long before it became an export to the Old World.

This 1848 advertisement lifts most of its text verbatim from Dr Richard Reece’s book, The Medical Guide, published in 1828. Neither Dr De La Motte nor the retailer can therefore be blamed for the fact that the sentence beginning “This aromatic quality …” makes very little sense.

SASSAFRAS CHOCOLATE.
DR. DE LA MOTTE’S NUTRITIVE, HEALTH
RESTORING, AROMATIC CHOCOLATE,
PREPARED FROM THE NUTS OF THE SAS-
SAFRAS TREE,
And sold by the Patentee, 12, Southampton Street,
Strand, London.
THIS Chocolate contains the peculiar virtues
of the Sassafras Root, which has been long held in great
estimation for its purifying and alterative properties. The aro-
matic quality (which is very grateful to the stomach) most in-
valids require for breakfast and evening repast, to promote
digestion and to a deficiency of this property in the customary
breakfast and supper, may in a great measure be attributed
the frequency of cases of indigestion generally termed bilious.
It has been found highly beneficial in correcting the state of
the digestive organs, &c., from whence arise many diseases,
such as eruptions of the skin, gout, rheumatism, and scrofula.
In cases of debility of the stomach, and a sluggish state of the
liver and intestines, occasioning flatulence, costiveness, &c.,
and in spasmodic asthma, it is much recommended.
Agent: Mr RAMSAY, Tyne Street, North Shields.

Source: The Newcastle Courant, Friday 28th January 1848.

I’ve been looking forward to this one. It’s the most disgusting advert I’ve posted so far. DO NOT read it if you are eating.

        WORMS! WORMS! WORMS!
LAFFERE’S WORM POWDERS are the
best remedy for worms; they effect a certain cure, are
tasteless, and at the same time are perfectly harmless.
As a proof of their efficacy the following case, out of many
hundreds, is inserted:—Emma Knight, aged eight years, daughter
of James and Caroline Knight, Black Torrington, voided the
extraordinary number of eighty-six large worms, some of them
over twelve inches long, after taking one dose of the above Powders.
Price, under six years of age, 6d.; under twelve, 8d.; under
eighteen, 10d.; adults, 1s. Postage, one penny extra. Send
stamps and state age, to E. H. LAFFERE, Chemist, Hatherleigh,
from whom those Powders are only to be obtained.
                                    N.B.—No Agents.

Source: Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post, Or, Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, Wednesday 21st January 1863.

Twelve-inch long worms might sound like the stuff of quack exaggeration, but sadly not. The starring role in the ad goes to Ascaris lumbricoides L. This species has haunted my dreams since the first year of university when I did a six-week parasitology “taster” course with lectures either side of Friday lunchtimes. If you desperately want to know more about what ascarids can get up to inside you, good ol’ Wikipedia is quite sufficient to give you all the info you don’t want. Click here – or, rather, don’t.

Page Woodcock’s Wind Pills were well-known throughout the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th. Born in Norwich and spending most of his life either there or in Lincoln, Woodcock (1820-1889) had a successful business as a chemist. He was a Methodist, and came under satirical fire from Punch in 1853 for placing long sermonising advertisements that concluded with a brazen plug for his Pills rather than with any spiritual consolation. This advert, however, is nice and short. 

“NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND,”—Pro-
crastination with many is the besetting sin. Every-
thing is put off till “to-morrow.” The torpid liver is unheeded
until jaundice, consumption, or abscess of the liver becomes
established. These maladies are curable if taken in time by
that fine tonic and alterative medicine, Page Woodcock’s
Wind Pills. Thousands are taking them for almost every
complaint, and are being cured. “It’s never too late to
mend.” Of all Chemists, at 1s 1½d and 2s 9d.

Source: The Glasgow Herald, Wednesday 7^th January 1880

Well, I would venture to suggest that there comes a point when it is too late, but otherwise one would be wise to heed the advice not to ignore the state of one’s liver until “to-morrow.” Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 For an example of a full-colour advertising poster for Page Woodcock’s Wind Pills, have a look at The History of Advertising Trust’s 1880s image.