The Quack Doctor

Would you buy a homeopathic remedy from this man?

Source: The Morning Times (Washington D.C.) 13 December 1896

James Monroe Munyon’s pompadour hairstyle was a familiar feature of American newspapers around the turn of the 20^th century. Having tried his hand at teaching, law, social work, publishing and song-writing, he started his Homoeopathic Home Remedy Company in the early 1890s and hit pay dirt.

In 1897, Munyon opened a London head office and a depot in Liverpool. A massive advertising campaign promised free vials of the remedies and challenged the British public to test his new system of curing disease. Perhaps Munyon anticipated lasting fame in the UK, but he couldn’t have predicted what his company would be remembered for.

There was a separate remedy for every disease. To name but a few, there were…

Munyon’s Kidney Cure, which a 1907 analysis showed to be 100% sugar.
Munyon’s Asthma Cure (sugar and alcohol)
Munyon’s Blood Cure (sugar)
Munyon’s Special Liquid Blood Cure (sugar, potassium iodide and corrosive sublimate)
Munyon’s Catarrh Cure (sodium bicarbonate, salt, borax, phenol and gum)
Munyon’s Special Catarrh Cure (sugar)
Munyon’s Grippe Remedy (sugar and arsenic)
Munyon’s Pile Ointment (a farthing’s worth of soft paraffin).

At various times these products were declared misbranded in the US because of the claims that they could cure disease, and Munyon received fines – but he carried on his business regardless. One of the slogans he used in his advertising was:

There is no punishment too great for him who deceives the sick.

While his remedies were coming under scrutiny from the BMJ and the American Medical Association, 60-year-old Munyon was busy marrying his third wife, 24-year-old actress Pauline Neff Metzger. His fortune was not an effective enough remedy for their differences, and they divorced in 1913.

Munyon had bought an island off North Palm Beach, Florida, and opened a resort there in 1903, calling his luxury hotel the Hygeia and attracting wealthy invalids. One of the attractions of the place was the ready supply of Paw Paw Tonic, a cure-all made from papaya. The place burnt down in 1917 and Munyon died a year later of an apoplexy while having lunch at the Poinciana Hotel on the mainland. His obituary in the New York Times quoted him as having said he started out with:

virtually no capital except ambition and a belief in letting folks know about it.

The company continued, and as late as the 1940s, shipments of its products were still being seized by the government and condemned. In 1944, a batch of Paw Paw Tonic was found to contain strychnine.

Above: Munyon’s Catarrh Cure. Photo credit: Michael Till. This was part of an inhaler that would originally have had a stopper with a tube insertion, allowing the patient to snort the remedy.

Munyon’s Homoeopathic Home Remedy Company has a colourful enough history of its own, but is now chiefly remembered for its other claim to fame.

The London office’s first manager was an industrious employee who had spent the past few years as a Consulting Physician in the Philadelphia and then Toronto branches, impressing Munyon with his work ethic and ability to improve sales. Unfortunately, the London manager started having problems with his wife, who was still in the US trying to become a professional singer and openly having affairs.

When she moved to London in 1900, he made some attempt to support her in her music hall career, but the stormy relationship interfered with his work. He left Munyon’s and did the rounds of various other patent medicine companies, including the Sovereign Remedy Company, his own business the Yale Tooth Specialists, and the Aural Clinic, later returning to the advertising department of his original employer.

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen eventually got the sack from Munyon’s. By then he had taken up with Ethel le Neve, his wife was still giving him trouble, and things kind of went downhill from there.

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For part 1 about Swaim’s Panacea, click here.

Woodcut commissioned by Swaim, showing Hercules battling the Hydra.

Within a few years of establishing his products, William Swaim was enjoying the benefits of endorsements from some of Philadelphia’s most eminent physicians, including Nathaniel Chapman, William Gibson, William Pott Dewees, Thomas Parke and James Mease – and he didn’t even have to make them up.

For the past ten years or so, sarsaparilla had been attracting renewed medical attention in the US as a blood purifier, so it was probably with this in mind that the doctors were well-disposed towards Swaim’s medicine. Swaim combined the sarsaparilla syrup with oil of wintergreen, giving it a pleasant taste that made it a hit with patients too. Gibson’s endorsement gives a further clue to its popularity:

I have always found it extremely efficacious, especially in secondary syphilis and mercurial disease. I have no hesitation in pronouncing it a medicine of inestimable value.

The symptoms of secondary syphilis, of course, disappear of their own accord before the disease goes into a latent phase – no wonder the Panacea and so many other treatments of the time claimed success.

In 1827 the New York Medical Society appointed a Committee on Quack Remedies, and the Philadelphia Medical Society soon did likewise. While the New York Committee acknowledged the possible benefits of the Panacea and other sarsaparilla-based syrups, the Philadelphia one was tougher, gathering numerous cases of people who had taken the medicine. The outcomes of these cases varied from no effect at all, to ‘a most violent and alarming bowel complaint’, to death. Analysis showed that the remedy contained corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride).

Later, the New York Committee released its own analysis, done at the time of the investigation but not published, which showed that they too knew all along that it was mercury - so there, Philadelphia. A new analysis in 1831 also showed the presence of arsenic, but the ingredients varied from batch to batch and it was the luck of the draw whether you got the poisons.

By this time the doctors’ enthusiasm had waned. Chapman wrote:

Nathaniel Chapman, pictured 1846

Early in the history of that article, I was induced to employ it, as well from professional as common report in favour of its efficacy, and was well pleased at the result in several cases. But! more extensive experience with it soon convinced me that I had overrated its value, and for a long period I have entirely ceased to prescribe it.

Gibson admitted that: In several cases that came under my notice, ptyalism has followed the use of it. (Excessive salivation, a symptom of mercury poisoning.) Their testimonials, however, were now out of their control and there was nothing they could do to stop Swaim continuing to use their names.

In 1836, long after the US physicians had backtracked on their endorsement of the nostrum, British journal The Medical-Chirurgical Review condemned them in true Tunbridge Wells style:

We were utterly astonished to find an impudent PANACEA bolstered up with the names and certificates of some of the first authorities, in the medical profession, of the United States!…

We are mortified and grieved, beyond measure, to find professional propriety (to give it no other name) at so low an ebb among our brethren in America! This admonition from Europe will surely rouse the faculty of the United States to some sense of the duty they owe to their brethren throughout the world.

The early success of Swaim’s Panacea inspired imitators to cash in with their own versions, and they were completely blatant about it. ‘Swayne’s Panacea’ hoped to dupe punters who weren’t paying attention, and ‘Shinn’s Panacea’ was sold with the statement: The subscriber having discovered the composition of Swaim’s celebrated Panacea, has now a supply on hand for sale.

One of the heavyweight rivals was Parker’s Renovating Vegetable Panacea, the ads of which contained fighting talk:

In justice to myself, I have been induced to reply to a false and unjustifiable attack made upon me and others by Swaim, the vender of a certain Panacea in this city.

I have been acquainted with the ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM WHICH SWAIM MANUFACTURES HIS MEDICINE FOR UPWARD OF TEN YEARS. IT WAS OBTAINED FROM MY FATHER-IN-LAW, WHO NOW RESIDES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, WHO HAS USED IT FOR THIRTY YEARS , AND PERFORMED INNUMERABLE EXTRAORDINARY CURES WITH IT.

Parker used his own version of the Hydra image, which, in a nice dig at Swaim’s battling Hercules, shows the mythical beast already defeated:

Swaim’s reply tried to turn the copy-cat ads to his advantage:

This medicine had been used for seven years before an attempt was made to imitate it; but the great demand for it, and its wonderful success, have induced a great number of persons to imitate it in various ways—upwards of fifty different mixtures have been got up in imitation of it, which is a convincing proof of it being a medicine of great value.

Although the initial fame of the medicine declined, it continued to be made throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, latterly with a different formula involving  alcohol and a huge amount of sugar.

1894 ad from the Galveston Daily News

SWAIM’S PANACEA.—This Medicine has acquired a very
extensive and established celebrity in Europe and America,
and its virtues are known and acknowledged by many of the most
respectable physicians of both countries. As an alterative, and
in various diseases, particularly in cases of inveterate corruption
of the blood descending to the second generation, it stands unri-
valled. Its safety and innocence have been fully tested, so that
it may be administered to the most tender and helpless infant.
No one, however, is advised to take it without being first con-
vinced of its efficacy and of the rectitude of the proprietor’s in-
tention. He has been induced to establish agencies in England
in consequence of the repeated and large orders for the Medicine
from various parts of the kingdom. He respectfully informs the
public that they can be supplied wholesale by EVANS, SON, and
CO., 85, Lord-street, Liverpool; EVANS and LESCHER, 4 Cripple-
gate-buildings, London; and retail by most of the respectable
Druggists in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

Source: The Liverpool Mercury, Friday 7 August 1847

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If you’re Welsh, don’t be annoyed at being left out; count yourself lucky.

Although I’ve chosen a British ad here, the medicine’s home was Philadelphia, where William Swaim settled after a career as a bookbinder in New York. A probably apocryphal tale has him finding the panacea recipe scribbled on a blank leaf of a book he was binding; another story, related in James Harvey Young’s The Toadstool Millionaires, has Swaim finding out the ingredients from a reputable physician called Dr Quackinboss. Although this sounds made up, the name (but with the spelling Quackenboss), genuinely did belong to a New York doctor in the 1820s. (And for purposes of mild amusement, here is a modern example.)

Swaim’s advertising materials included booklets endorsing his nostrum, and the following unpleasant picture appeared in these and occasionally in his ads. You might recognise it if you saw the colour version recently displayed on the Ephemera Assemblyman blog. In this one, the bottle of Panacea is more prominent, and the facial expression more grotesque, but the depiction of the legs is thankfully less gruesome for the lack of colour.

Notice that the caption says ‘The representation and her actual appearance after having been Cured by the use of Swaims Panacea.’ I think they must mean ‘The representation of…’ but anyway, AFTER is the interesting word here. This image was supposed to encourage people to buy the medicine. Just think! Take this stuff and you too could spend the rest of your life hiding in a darkened room, tragically plastering your face with yet more mercurial preparations while the looking glass mocks you with the ghostly memory of the carefree beauty you were long, long ago.

The logic behind the use of this picture is difficult to grasp – any further theories welcome in the comments, but it could be:

1. In that state, Miss Linton should actually be dead, so the very fact that she’s sitting in a chair grinning is a testament to the miraculous power of the Panacea.

2. The horror of the image would exert a strange fascination on punters and compel them to read the promotional book. This is what happened to ‘Morleigh,’ the British writer of Life in the West, (1843):

‘…fronting the title page, we have a full-length portrait of a lady, or skeleton in a ball dress, grinning horribly. If this lady is cured, thought I, it would be very advisable for her to stay at home. Faugh! the very portrait has made me ill. I threw the book aside with scorn, little thinking that in a few days hence, when the book had mysteriously disappeared, I should earnestly seek a copy, and devour the contents with as much gusto as a starving sailor would munch an old shoe.’

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To be continued…

In the next post – what was actually in Swaim’s Panacea, the proprietor’s on-off relationship with the medical profession, and how the Panacea’s success spawned blatant imitations.

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Picture courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine

“No matter what the symptoms may be,” said an early 20th-century pamphlet included with Clarke’s Blood Mixture, “the real cause of a large proportion of all diseases is bad blood.” The infallible cure featured below mainly comprised water coloured by burnt sugar, with a small amount of potassium iodide, sal volatile, chloroform, and syrup sweetener thrown in.

Clarke’s use of the quotation from Deuteronomy ch. XII came under fire in Dracula ch. XVIII, where Renfield (you know, the cove who eats flies and birds and stuff) makes reference to the phrase “For the Blood is the Life,” and goes on to say: “Though indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarised the truism to the very point of contempt.”

Image: Dwight Frye as Renfield in the 1931 film Dracula.

             ”F O R  the B L O O D is the L I F E.”—See
                             Deuteronomy, chap. xii., verse 23.
   C L A R K E’ S   W O R L D – F A M E D   B L O O D
                                      MIXTURE.
            THE GREAT BLOOD PURIFIER AND RESTORER.
  For cleansing and clearing the Blood from all Impurities, cannot be
too highly recommended.
  For Scrofula, Scurvy, Skin Diseases, and Sores of all kinds it is a never
failing and permanent cure.
                It Cures Old Sores.
                   Cures Ulcerated Sores on the Neck,
                   Cures Ulcerated Sore Legs,
                   Cures Blackheads or Pimples on the Face,
                   Cures Scurvy Sores,
                   Cures Cancerous Ulcers,
                   Cures Blood and Skin Diseases,
                   Cures Glandular Swellings,
                   Clears the Blood from all Impure Matter,
                   From whatever cause arising,
   As the Mixture is pleasant to the taste, and warranted free from any-
thing injurious to the most delicate constitution in either sex, the Pro-
prietor solicits sufferers to give it a trial to test its value.
   Thousands of Testimonials from all parts.
   Sold in Bottles, 2s. 3d. Each, and in cases containing six times the
quantity, 11s. each-sufficient to effect a permanent cure in the great
majority of long-standing cases—BY ALL CHEMISTS AND PATENT
MEDICINE VENDORS throughout the United Kingdom and the world,
or sent to any address on receipt of twenty-seven or 132 stamps by,
                  F. J. CLARKE, Chemist, High-street, Lincoln.
                       Wholesale: All Patent Medicine Houses.

Source:  The Era (London) Sunday 20 April 1873

Here’s another big-business remedy, this time originating in Canada. “Dr Williams” was a brand name, and the pills were manufactured by George T. Fulford of Brockville, Ontario. Born in 1852, Fulford went into the patent medicine business in 1886 and four years later bought the rights to the Pink Pills recipe from Dr William Jackson for $53.01. The Pills arrived in Britain by 1893, and the company had premises on Holborn Viaduct, London.

The Pink Pills included ferrous sulphate, so they would have had a geniune effect against anaemia, but they were weaker and far more expensive than the ordinary iron pills commonly prescribed by physicians.

Fulford, who was appointed to the Senate in 1900, used an “advertorial” style to promote his products. The ads, like the one below,  appeared to be news stories reporting a miracle in some distant town – the miracle always turning out to be a result of someone taking Dr Williams’ Pink Pills.

In 1905, Senator Fulford had the dubious honour of becoming the first Canadian to be killed in an automobile accident, but his company remained in business until 1989.

REMARKABLE AFFAIR IN YORKSHIRE.–The daugh-
ter of Mr.  J.  Bridges,  42,  Foljambe-road,  Eastwood
View,  Rotherham,  has  been  the  theme  of  a  well-
authenticated report in the Yorkshire papers, the facts
having been investigated, and the  lady and her parents
seen, by press representatives. Miss Bridges at seven-
teen was described by her parents as “prematurely old.”
She could  not  eat,  had  no  strength,  and  was  nearly
copper-coloured, suffering severely from palpitation of
the heart. But when seen  by  the  reporter  she  was  in
the bloom of health, eating and sleeping well and quite
free from heart-trouble, with complexion  like  the  rose
—a recovery entirely due to the now  famous  remedy,
Dr.   Williams’  Pink  Pills  for  Pale  People.    When
a    girl    is   pale,   weak,   easily   ”tired   out,”   trou-
bled   with    headache,    backache,    pain    in    the
side;   when   her  temper  is  fitful  and  her  appetite
poor—she  is  in  a  condition  of  extreme  peril, a fit
subject for the development of the most  dreaded  of
all diseases—consumption. Dr. Williams’  Pink  Pills
will assist the patient to  develop  properly  and  regu-
larly; they will enrich  the  blood,  and  danger  of  con-
sumption and premature death will be  averted.   Pru-
dent mothers will insist  upon  their  daughters  taking
Dr.  Williams’  Pink  Pills  upon  the  approach  of  the
period of womanhood and thus avoid all  chances  of
disease or early decay.   The  same  medicine  cures
rheumatism, sciatica, neuralgia, paralysis,  locomotor
ataxy, nervous headache, scrofula, chronic erysipelas,
and influenza. A specific for the female sex.
In   men   they   cure   all   cases   from   worry,   over-
work, or excesses. Sold by  Dr.  Williams’  Medicine
Company,  46,  Holborn  Viaduct,  London,  and   by
chemists, at 2s. 9d. a box, or six boxes 13s. 9d., post
free.  Only  genuine  in  pink  wrapper  with  full  name,
Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People.

Source:  The Derby Mercury, Wednesday 10 April 1895

Hood’s Sarsaparilla was big business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – you can get an idea how big from this picture of the Massachusetts laboratory. Adverts for it were everywhere, and there were also spin-off products such as calendars and cookbooks.

GOOD BLOOD
GOOD BLOOD

Is essential to health.
Every nook and corner
Of the system is
Reached by the blood, and on
Its quality and condition
The condition of
Every organ depends.
The surest way to
Have good blood
Is to take

HOOD’S SARSAPARILLA
HOOD’S SARSAPARILLA

Which by its power as a
Blood purifier
Cures Scrofula, Dyspepsia,
Rheumatism, Catarrh,
That Tired Feeling,
Loss of Appetite, etc.

GOOD BLOOD
GOOD BLOOD

From taking Hood’s Sarsaparilla
Makes strong nerves, good
Digestion, Robust health,
Good appetite,
Refreshing sleep

HOOD’S SARSAPARILLA
HOOD’S SARSAPARILLA

Is the One True Blood Purifier. Sold by all
Chemists. Small. 2s. 9d. ; large, 4s. 6d. Sent
post paid on receipt of price by C. I. Hood and
Co., Limited, 34, Snow-hill, London, E.C.

HOOD’S PILLS             are gentle; do not pain
HOOD’S PILLS             or gripe.

Source: The Bristol Times and Mercury, Saturday 27th February 1897

Advertising pamphlets stated the mixture was “carefully prepared from Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Mandrake, Dock, Pipsissewa, Juniper Berries, and other valuable vegetable remedies, in such a peculiar manner as to retain the full curative value of each ingredient used,” but analysis by the BMA, reported in Secret Remedies: What they cost and what they contain, showed that the mixture contained only  “2.0 parts of vegetable extract per 100 fluid parts.” Instead, its popularity might have been down to it being nearly 20% alcohol.

Here is a US advert from 1886:

 Thank you to the US National Library of Medicine for both images on this page.

Monteet’s Medicines weren’t among the more famous of 19th-century remedies. The proprietor, R. Hodgson, advertised them quite heavily in the Northern Echo for a few months in 1880-81, but after that they disappear. There is no way to tell whether the various mixtures were all pretty much the same, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. My favourite thing about this advert is the rather bossy tone at the beginning, and the assurance that the medicines never fail (just in case we momentarily forgot what infallible means).

                             LOOK HERE!
If you are ill, try MONTEET’S INFALLIBLE
MEDICINES; they never fail. They are not the dis-
covery of a moment, but from the well-tried prescrip-
tions of some of the most eminent physicians. They
quickly remove all dangerous and unpleasant symp-
toms, prolong life in ease and comfort, and so prevent
sudden deaths. Monteet’s Heart Mixture, 2s 6d and
5s ; Monteet’s Blood Cleaner, 2s 6d and 5s ; Monteet’s
Consumptive Drops, 1s 6d, 2s 6d, and 5s; Monteet’s
Dropsy Mixture, 1s 6d, 2s 6d, 5s, and 7s 6d ; Monteet’s Mix-
ture for Fits, 2s 6d, 5s, and 7s 6d ; Monteet’s Liver
Mixture, 1s 6d, 2s 6d, and 6s ; Monteet’s Liver Pills,
6d, 1s, and 2s; Monteet’s Aperient Pills, 6d, 1s and 2s;
Monteet’s Stomachic Pills, 1s and 2s 6d; Monteet’s
Diarrhoea Pills, 6d and 1s; Monteet’s Dyspeptic Pills,
6d, 1s, and 2s 6d ; Monteet’s Teething Powders, 6d and
1s. Full directions enclosed with each, which may be
obtained of the Sole Agent in England, Mr. R. HODG-
SON, 23, Jackson-street, Brotton, Saltburn, Yorkshire.
Handbills Free.

Source: The Northern Echo (Darlington), Wednesday 26th January 1881

Balsam of Mecca was a prized substance in Arabian medicine and cosmetics, but it was very difficult to get hold of the real thing in Europe in the 19th century. The true balsam – a resin from the shrub then known as Balsamodendron Opobalsamum (now more commonly Commiphora gileadensis) – was rare, but an inferior form could be produced by boiling the young leaves. The Vital Regenerator might have contained this second type of balsam, but was quite possibly just a mixture of turpentine and aromatic oils.

THE OLD ARABIAN REMEDY.—The
VITAL REGENERATOR.—The Cordial Balsam of
Mecca is, without doubt, the most marvellous and the most
valuable remedy ever discovered. It is prepared from the
richest balsams of the East, and is, in fact, principally com-
posed of the famous balsam of Mecca, from the home of
medical lore—Arabia. It is highly aromatic, balsamic, and
invigorating in its qualities. It is the most wonderful
blood purifier known, and produces rich wholesome blood
when all other remedies fail. For the emigrant, for the
traveller, for all who have hard work or mental fatigue, it is
the one needful remedy. By its help climate may be defied
and health preserved to the latest period of life. But it is
principally in Nervous Debility and in constitutions worn
out by self-indulgence and disease that this life-giving medi-
cine has obtained its world-wide celebrity, and which renders
it an inestimable boon to suffering and erring humanity. In
these important and serious diseases, for which medical
advice so often proves without avail, the VITAL REGENE-
RATOR is a speedy, certain, and unfailing resource. Failure
is impossible. Taken regularly and for the prescribed period
of four weeks, a cure is certain. As water quenches thirst—
as oxygen purifies the blood—so does this medicine certainly
and immediately cure all nervous disease, debility, and
exhaustion.
                  Price 11s. and 33s. a bottle.
Sole agent for Liverpool, Mr. J. Woollard, bookseller, 54,
Castle-street; London, H. R. Hartnell, chemist, 7, Tichborne-
street, Haymarket; Manchester, Mottershead and Co.,
Market-place; Hull, W. Adams, bookseller, Market-place;
Newcastle, Procter and Son, 11, Grey-street; Glasgow
Love, bookseller, 15, Nelson-street, Trongate.

Source: The Liverpool Mercury, Monday 6th January 1868