The Quack Doctor

Carrington’s Life Pills were made principally of capsicum, so they might well have cured your cold — if having your entire head blown off could be said to constitute a cure.

The Reverend Caleb Carrington was Vicar of Berkeley from 1799 until his death in May 1837, and his eventful incumbency included getting embroiled in a court case in which the Countess of Berkeley sought to prove that the seven children born before her marriage to the Earl were actually legitimate, owing to an earlier, secret wedding.

(Image: Capsicum frutescens, from Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy by David Culbreth, M.D. 1927. Courtesy of the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, Arizona.)

COLDS, RHEUMATISM, GOUT & INDIGESTION
LIFE PILLS, entirely vegetable, discovered by
the Rev. C. CARRINGTON, Vicar of Berkeley, one
of his Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenants, &c. for the County of
Gloucester.—To alleviate the tortures of Spasm, Gout, Rheu-
matism, Cholic, and Nervous Afflictions, with superb success
by giving fresh life and energy to the efforts of nature, is
not the only merit of CARRINGTON’S LIFE PILLS. On
the same principle they are adapted to Female Complaints,
rouse the dormant constitution, and with gentle exercise in
the open air soon spread the bloom of health on the palest
cheek. They strengthen the digestive organs and expel
wind, they cherish and prolong life in the debilitated, and
they prevent the attack of many fatal acute diseases, if re-
sorted to on the first sensation of chill, pain or lassitude. A
large portion of the human race is hurried to an untimely
grave by Inflammations, Consumptions, &c. the effect of
neglected Colds; but a recent cold is certainly cured by
these Pills, invigorating the torpid arteries of the skin, and
thereby restoring the perspiration.
Sold in Boxes, at 1s. 1½d. and 4s. 6d. each, by J. Drewry,
Derby, and all Medicine Dealers. “BARRY and SON,
BRISTOL,” is engraved in the Government Stamp.

Source: The Derby Mercury, Wednesday 4th February 1835.

The Monthly Gazette of Health, Vol. VIII, 1823, carried an indignant letter from one J.D. of Brighton to the Bishop of Gloucester, condemning the Rev. Mr. Carrington as a quack more concerned with personal gain than with the spiritual welfare of his parishioners.

“This ecclesiastical nostrum-monger,” wrote the correspondent, “surpassing the impudence of ordinary empiricisms, enlists into his service the terrors of religious guilt, and denounces as a suicide every individual, who has been cut off by sudden death, without attempting to avert the fatal blow by a box of the Life Pills!!!”

The Bishop replied that “… the advertisement in question, however grossly unbecoming the clerical character, would not be deemed punishable in the clerical court,” while other correspondents pointed out that it was the supplier, Mr Barry, who placed the adverts and profited from sales.

If Mr Carrington took his own pills, they certainly didn’t do him any harm, as he lived to the age of eighty. They were less efficacious for his financial state, however. Although his brief obituary in The Gentleman’s Magazine doesn’t mention the place of death, other records suggest it was Gloucester debtors’ prison.

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.

 Steers’s Opodeldoc seems to have been fairly reputable, but it was also easy to mix it up yourself, hence the proprietors’ attempts to convince the public of the superiority of their version. The opodeldoc (a general term for this type of liniment rather than a brand name) was made from soap, spirit of wine, camphor, rosemary oil and sometimes spirit of ammonia. The Mr. Steers referred to in the ad was – or at least claimed to be – the son of the inventor.

For CHILBLAINS, RHEUMATISMS, &c.
DR. STEERS’s OPODELDOC.———
CAUTION: The innumerable Counterfeits and Imi-
tations of this Medicine render it absolutely necessary to
guard the Public against the Impositions that are daily practised.
Various Druggists, and other designing Persons (some taking
the advantage of being of the Name of Steers, and others ven-
turing to use both Mr. Newbery’s and Mr. Steers’s Name in
their Bills), have disseminated, throughout the Town and
Country, many spurious sorts of Opodeldoc, infinitely inferior
in Quality to the real Preparation. All Purchasers therefore,
who would wish to avail themselves of the Virtues of Dr. Steers’s
genuine Opodeldoc, are requested to observe very particularly,
and as the only means to prevent their being deceived, that the
Name of F. Newbery is engraved on the Stamps which are past-
ed round the Directions on the outside of each Bottle; and as
this Distinction has been made by order of the Commissioners of
the Stamp Office, no Person can imitate it without being guilty
of Felony. The Efficacy of the Medicine is so universally ac-
knowledged in Chilblains, Rheumatisms, Bruises, Sprains, and
other external Complaints, that any particular specification of
its Virtues is unnecessary.
Sold in London, only at MR. NEWBERY’S (the only Ware-
house for Dr. James’s Powder), No. 45, in St. Paul’s-church-
yard, a few Doors from the corner of Cheapside; and at Mr.
STEERS’S Medicine Warehouse, Old Bond-street, on the left
Hand from Piccadilly, five Doors beyond Stafford-street, in
Bottles, Price 2s. each, Duty included, or Six for 10s. 6d.

Source:  The Times, Wednesday 8^th January 1794