The Quack Doctor

Do You Want A Vacation?
It’s Make-Man Tablets You Need.
Fifty Cents Worth of Make-Man Tablets Often Do More For A Man or Woman Than a Three Hundred Dollar Vacation.
Do you feel played out—nervous, tired, irritable, don’t sleep good, wake up every morning with a bad taste in your mouth and a dull, hot, tired feeling in your head? Of course a vacation seems just the thing—but it cannot reach the seat of your trouble.
It’s your nerves nine times out of ten that make your back ache. It’s your nerves that give you that dull, dumb headache. Your muscles are just as strong as ever, but the nerves are off tune.
They need feeding—rest is no good for them. There is some constituent—nerve constituent—the blood lacks, and Make-Man supply it.
Men and Women who have let their nerves go so long without feeding that they are pale, listless creatures, instead of strong, lively, full of vim and energy for the day’s work, have found quick results in the use of this splendid tonic, blood purifer and nerve strengthener.
Manus Bonner, 33 W. Market St., Pittsburg, believes he has found something better than a vacation:—“Since I began to take Make-Man Tablets I feel better and stronger. I have gained five pounds in weight and otherwise feel fine.”
Man-Made Tablets will make you well. You can try a 50 cent box, free, by writing—today—to the Make-Man Tablet Co. 145 Make-Man Building, Chicago, Ill. If you are already convinced that Make-Man Tablets are what you need, you can obtain them from your druggist at 50 cents a box, with money back if not satisfied.

Source: The Pittsburgh Press 14 Sept 1910

.

.

.

.

Any woman whose cheapskate husband refused to go on holiday in favour of taking these pills would have the last laugh – the main ingredients were arsenic and strychnine.

The Make-Man tablets were an early casualty of the US Food and Drug Act. In 1910 the government seized a consignment of 360 tins, and analysis showed the presence of the poisons together with aloes, potassium sulphate, iron carbonate and iron oxide. The product was judged to be misbranded and the company was fined, but they reformulated the tablets to contain quinine and iron, and continued to promote them until at least the mid-1930s, when they were still only 50 cents a box.

From a 1920 ad:

For part 1 of this article, click here. There’s also a transcript of an 1818 Rakasiri advert here.

In 1828, a ‘nervous young man’ who had wasted more than 10l. on the Cordial Balm of Rakasiri went to a magistrate and succeeded in getting his money back. During the proceedings, the Balm’s proprietors, Charles and John Jordan, threatened to make it public that he had venereal disease, but he stuck to his guns and they backed down, claiming that they were returning the money out of respect for the man’s character and not because they were guilty.

Shortly afterwards, a well-to-do young woman, Miss May, consulted them for asthma and ended up 15l. worse off, some of which amount she had to borrow from her sister. Finding her breathing worse and the fiery medicine affecting her stomach, (as mentioned in the previous post, it was highly concentrated alcohol) she heard about the young man’s success and also asked for her money back. The Times reported in early 1829 that

To this, the “doctors” answered, that if Miss May attempted to take any such step as that young man had taken, that they would disclose the real nature of the complaint she was labouring under to her friends, which would ruin her character.

Far from being horrified into silence, Miss May said her friends knew very well she had a cough arising from asthma, and they would now also know “the threat that you have dared to utter.” She got her lawyer, Thomas Cox, on the case and went to the same magistrate who had ordered the young man’s refund. He told her to apply to the Middlesex Sessions for a bill of indictment for fraud. This was refused and the Jordans’ lawyer, Mr Adolphus, published a notice in the Morning Chronicle titled “Base and Malicious Charge of Fraud Refuted,” which referred to Miss May and Mr Cox as ‘infamous calumniators’ and said:

Who ever heard of a person making a purchase, using the article so purchased and then, forsooth, demanding their money back, much less make a charge of fraud against the tradesman so refusing? The attempted fraud was on their own side, and a gross attempt it was.

The doctors challenged Miss May and her lawyer to repeat their accusations, at which Cox wrote to them – a letter that was printed in the Chronicle – inviting them to meet him and his client before the magistrate for that very purpose. The Jordans said they would only respond if summoned by the magistrate himself, and didn’t turn up. “Was it not monstrous,” Mr Cox said,

that such imposters as these men, who were literally a pest in society, and the direct enemies of the human race, should be rolling in their carriages and wallowing in wealth, while men of high education, who had laboriously, and at great expense, studied their profession and made themselves masters of medical knowledge, were living, in many instances, in obscurity, and scarcely able to supply the means of living respectably.

The more cynical among us might be tempted to say welcome to real life, Mr Cox, but as the doctors realised that Miss May was really going to start court proceedings for libel, they got nervous. (‘Notwithstanding the anti-nervous powers of their medicine,’ commented the Monthly Gazette of Health.) They settled out of court, refunding Miss May’s money, paying her legal expenses and giving her £100 compensation. They also agreed to publish a notice in the papers saying that their previous statements were without foundation.

It would be nice to finish with the Gazette‘s conclusion:

To Miss May, for her heroic conduct, and Mr. Cox, her solicitor, for the firmness with which he conducted the proceedings, the thanks of the public are due. They have completely knocked up the Balsam of Rakasira (sic) trade, than which a more infamous traffic has not been carried on in the most barbarous country.

But we all know real life ain’t like that, and this was not the end of the Jordans’ Rakasiri racket. They continued advertising as before until 1840, when they suddenly dropped the M.D. qualification and became Messrs Jordan and Co, Surgeons, with premises in Bristol as well as London. Later in the 1840s, a medicine called Balm of Rakasiri was being sold by Messrs Henry & Co, Liverpool, with a very similar advertising style to the Jordans, and in the 1850s Messrs Lewis were the proprietors. The name finally changed to Dr. Lucas and the remedy was still burning the oesophagi of the credulous at the end of the 1860s.

Source: The Morning Chronicle, Saturday 12 December 1818. For transcript, click here.

On this site I include anything medical or surgical provided it was advertised, so not all the remedies were considered quackery in their time. Some were endorsed and prescribed by reputable doctors, and many were no worse than the orthodox medicines then available. Others, while inefficacious, were produced by honest people who believed in the power of their product and did not set out to rip people off.

The brothers Jordan, however, were a right pair of dodgy coves.

In 1816, C.J. Jordan of Cannon-street-road started placing ads saying he could cure ‘a certain disease’ without using mercury. At this point he referred to himself as a surgeon, but by 1818 he had adopted the qualification M.D. and was calling the remedy The Cordial Balm of Rakasiri, or Nature’s Infallible Restorative. His business was the East London Medical Establishment, but this might as well have been the East London Nose-Picking Establishment for all its professional credibility. With the medicine selling at 11s a bottle (33s for family size), the business was lucrative, and in August 1821 it became the Surrey and West London Medical Establishments with premises in Great Surrey Street, Blackfriars and in Berwick Street, Soho.

In early 1823, the adverts started referring to ‘Drs. C. & J. Jordan.’ The Monthly Gazette of Health, with its usual entertaining indignation, introduced the new partner as

Dr John Jordan, who, from the rank of distributer [sic] of handbills has lately been raised to the dignity of M.D. by leaping, we suppose, over a broomstick.

Balm (otherwise Balsam) of Rakasiri was, in theory, a resin from a tree species native to the Americas. It was said to have stimulant and tonic properties, and had briefly been known in Britain in the early 18th century before its limited popularity had fizzled out. The Jordans’ adverts recommended it for a variety of conditions, including consumption and scrofula, but like its inspiration, Solomon’s Balm of Gilead, the main targets were venereal disease and ‘nervous’ disorders supposedly caused by masturbation. The natural source of the resin not being available in the UK, the Jordans formulated their own version – spirit of wine (rectified ethyl alcohol) flavoured with rosemary oil and sugar.

Both The Monthly Gazette of Health and The Medical Adviser campaigned against the Jordans during the 1820s, and while these publications are far from dispassionate, they make for entertaining reading. According to the Adviser, the Jordans had started out as pencil-sellers before taking the Cannon-street-road premises and setting up their medicine business.

One would think to see these two fellows, standing at their door with their hands in their pockets, their hair powdered, their sleek countenance and suit of black, that they really were medical men; although to a discerning eye a peculiarly roguish cunning, and an expression of innate ignorance, are labels on their front…

Of the Doctors’ fancy carriage, the Adviser continued:

…we fancy their seat the back of an hypochondriac ; their foot-board a grave-stone: their wheels a compilation of human bones; their chariot-rim decked with diseased livers ; their reins the intestinal canal; their side lamps two bottles of Rakasiri; and their whip a long bill! with which the two black longtailed horses most awfully harmonize.

The Adviser – without much relevance, perhaps – also accused the Jordans of stealing a pig, then rather childishly printed their purported reply:

I wont to no what you meen by tacking my karacter as you doo you rite in your book that I mede awey with a milkmans pigg but I wood ave you to no sir that sich like slander shall not be suffered to pass. You also say that I was a pencel pedlar this I despise and say it is a ly. I never hokd pencels I only took orders for em, and even if I did it is no affere of yours I got my bred onnestly.

To the people who had fallen for the scam, however, the Balm of Rakasiri wasn’t  so funny. In part 2 of this post, we’ll see how a young woman stood up to the quacks.

At first glance I thought this showed pictures of three men, but no – it’s the same fellow, transformed from the seedy old roué on the left into a fine specimen of manly vigour,  ambitious to take on the world and all its laydees.

The perkiness of a chap’s moustache was a good indicator of virility, if patent medicine ads are to be believed (which, quite obviously, they’re not). Other remedies against “nervous debility” also showed the moustache gradually losing its droopiness, allowing one to infer the efficacy of the medicine in other areas.

.

AMBITION PILLS
FOR WEAK AND NERVOUS MEN

For a long time we have hesitated to advertise Ambition Pills, fearing that this remedy might be classed with the many fraudulent preparations in the market. A single trial will convince any sufferer that we have A POSITIVE CURE for Impotency, Sleeplessness, Enlarged Veins and Nervous Debility, which include troublesome dreams, evil forebodings, losses, despondency or aversion to society, caused by overwork or other excesses; Especially recommended in cases of long standing and where other remedies have failed. Only reputable druggists can secure agencies. For a short time only, the price will be $1.00 per box or six boxes (with guarantee) for $5.00.—Price will soon be doubled. Circular Free.
Address: Halsid Drug Co., Cleveland, O.
Sold by H. W. Mordhurst, 74 Calhoun Street, Fort Wayne, Ind.

.

Source: The Fort Wayne News (Indiana) 15 April 1896

Although no proprietor is shown in the following advertisement, the Vegetable Life Drops were one of several cures touted under the name Dr Walter De Roos. De Roos was an enigmatic character and the name was purported to be an alias for one John (or George) Robinson, who might well have bought the business in 1858 from brothers Alfred and Samuel Barker. Whether or not De Roos was ever a real person, his Compound Renal Pills were still being sold under that name in the early 20th century.

     THE MOST WONDERFUL MEDICINE IN THE WORLD!!
          CURE IN FOUR WEEKS.— THE GUTTÆ VITÆ, or,
         VEGETABLE LIFE DROPS, Protected by Royal Let-
ters Patent;  Sanctioned  by  the  Faculte  de  France,  &c., have in
numberless   instances  proved  their  superiority  over  every  other
advertised  Remedy  for  langour,  lassitude,  depression  of  spirits,
irritability,  excitement,  fear,  distaste  and   incapacity   for   society,
study or  business,  indigestion,  pains  and  palpitation  in  the  side,
giddiness,  noise  in  the  head,  &c.  This  medicine  strengthens the
vitality of the  whole  system,  gives  energy to the muscles, speedily
removes nervousness, renovates  the  impaired  powers of life, and
invigorates  the  most  shattered  constitution.  For   skin   eruptions,
sore throat,  pains  in  the  bones, and those diseases in which mer-
cury, sarsaparilla, &c.,  are  too  often  employed,  to  the  utter  ruin
of health, its surprising efficacy has only to be tested.
   Before wasting valuable  time  in  seeking  aid  from  instruments,
electricity, galvanism,  with  similar  absurdities  professing  to  set
aside medicines, by American impostors and others, whose boas-
ted “distinguished qualifications”  consist  solely  of  their  consum-
mate  impudence,  sufferers  will  do  well   to  make  fair  trial  of  a
remedy, which concocted on scientific principles cannot fail.
Price 4s. 6d. And 11s., or four times  the  latter  at  33s.  per  bottle,
through all Chemists,  or  direct  from  25,  Bedford Place, WHERE
THOUSANDS OF TESTIMONIALS MAY BE SEEN.

Source: The North Wales Chronicle, October 24 1863

For all this advert’s outrage against impostors, Walter De Roos was summoned to Uxbridge Petty Sessions in 1864 by solicitor and anti-quackery campaigner William Talley under the New Medical Act , which provided for a fine of £20 for anyone falsely claiming medical qualifications.The doctor did not turn up, but was represented by his “learned counsel” – coincidentally also called Mr Robinson – whose entertaining exchanges with Talley are documented in Extraordinary Success of the New Mode of Treatment. The prosecution failed and De Roos – or whoever he was – went on to cause further damage.

He was implicated in a suicide in 1865, when 24-year-old James Miles was found drowned in the canal at Higham, Kent, having suffered a period of depression. Among the deceased’s belongings were 30 letters and pamphlets from Dr De Roos impressing upon him that he must continue to take the doctor’s medicine – and demanding immediate payment for it. Bearing in mind De Roos’s pamphlets had titles like Private Hints on the Causes, Symptoms, and Cure of All the Secret Disorders Incident to Both Sexes and The Medical Adviser: On Certain Infirmities and Disorders of the Generative and Urinary Systems : the Premature Failure of Sexual Power, with Plain Directions for Its Perfect Restoration : Practical Observations on Marriage : Its Disqualifications, and Their Removal it is hardly surprising that the newly married young man was troubled.

Local surgeon Mr J.J. Ely said of the pamphlets: “I have no doubt whatever they would cause a great depression of spirits.”

Robert Walker obtained the King’s Royal Letters Patent for his remedy in 1755, and on his death, surgeon Joseph Wessels took it over. The drops were still around, under the name Wessel’s Jesuit Drops as late as the 1870s. In 1843, the Medical Times published a note stating that the Drops were ”a spirituous tincture of balsam of copaiba, guiacum, and oil of sassafras. They are the same as the elixir anti-venereum of Quincey.”

        CAUTION to the PUBLIC.
             By the King’s Patent.
DR. WALKER’S PATENT GENUINE
JESUITS DROPS, for which his Ma-
jesty was pleased to honour him with his roy-
al letters patents for England, Scotland, and
Ireland, and the plantations in America.—
The great success and demand that is daily
made for these never failing, genuine JESU-
ITS DROPS at 2s. 6d. each bottle; and
SPECIFIC PURGING REMEDY, at 2s.
6d. per pot, which are the most certain, cheap,
pleasant, safe, effectual, and immediate cure
ever discovered for gleets and seminal weak-
nesses both sexes are subject to, though ever so
obstinate, of ever so long continuance, and by
whatever means occasioned, and also for the
venereal disease, from its slightest to its most
malignant symptoms. Likewise, for the gra-
vel, stone in the bladder, and all scorbutic ca-
ses of ever so long a standing; several patients
being deemed incurable, have found relief, af-
ter trying all other medicines; likewise, all
nervous disorders, the gout, rheumatism, and
all disorders in the stomach.
The public may be assured that when the
surprizing and quick efficacy of these medicines
is considered, they are the cheapest remedy e-
ver yet offered to sale.— To prevent counter-
feits, each bottle and pot have J. Wessels and
Co. marked on them, in their own handwrit-
ing, and without which they are not genuine.
To be had at FRANCIS MARSHALL’s
hard-ware shop, being the third shop above
Don’s close, opposite to the Luckenbooths;

Source: The Edinburgh Advertiser, Tuesday 11th February 1772.

Notes: “surprizing” is as in original. The advert continues at great length about the other products available from Francis Marshall’s shop, including coffee mills, best hair powder, mathematical instruments and backgammon tables.

                ELECTRICITY IS LIFE.
HEALTH AND MANHOOD RESTORED 
               (WITHOUT MEDICINE.)
CURE YOURSELF by the PATENT SELF-
ADJUSTING CURATIVE AND ELECTRIC BELT.
Sufferers from Nervous debility, Painful Dreams
Mental and Physical Depression, Palpitation of the
Heart, Noises in the Head and Ears, Indecision, Im-
paired sight and memory, Indigestion, Prostration,
Lassitude, Depression of spirits, Loss of energy and
appetite, Pains in the Back and Limbs, Timidity,
Self-distrust, Dizziness, Love of solitude, Groundless
fears, &c.,
Can now cure themselves by the only “Guaranteed
Remedy” in Europe, protected by her Majesty’s great
seal. Details free for one stamp by H. JAMES,
Esq., Percy House, Bedford-square, London.
         N.B.—Medicine and fees superseded.
In proof of the efficacy herein advocated, the
Patentee will send the Remedies to be tested before
payment.
References to the leading Physicians of the day.

Source: The Hull Packet and East Riding Times, Friday 10th January 1868.

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