The Quack Doctor

From The Graphic, 15 Feb 1890

There’s often something a bit fishy about patent remedies, but this one appeared before the advent of canned tuna and, for the average non-sea-going punter, the name did not have the piscatorial associations it has now. A company called Fels and Davis began promoting it in 1879, but by the following year Davis had quietly disappeared from the adverts and the business became Fels and Co.

The remedy was promoted as ‘a strictly vegetable compound’, and its trademark suggests that the vegetable in question was a prickly pear species, which produces edible fruit known as tuna. Given that The Strand is not renowned for its supply of cacti, the product wasn’t necessarily made from real tuna fruit, but it’s odd that the advertising doesn’t go all out to create an exotic background story. Instead, the unique selling point was the free dose offered to anyone who called in person at Savoy House.

From The Graphic, 11 Jan 1890

The experiences of one such caller are set out in a testimonial on an 1879 pamphlet, which is a good example of a proprietor portraying an apparently sceptical customer whose eyes are opened to the wonders of the remedy. The customer, a neuralgia sufferer called J Flynn, starts off thinking of Tuna as ‘only another remedy cracked up by quacks’, and goes to Savoy House purely out of curiosity when he happens to be in the area. After receiving his free dose, he is not convinced, so the Tuna representative gives him another, and still nothing happens. Unable to hang about any longer, J Flynn goes on his way, when the inevitable occurs:

But mark! Before I had gone less than a mile the pain entirely left me, and I have not had the slightest symptoms since, and this was after three weeks’ incessant pain, from which I could barely sleep or eat food.

Flynn goes from writing off Tuna as just another quack potion to viewing it as ‘a godsend to mankind,’ and concludes by thanking Fels and Davis for being ‘extremely kind in curing me and not charging me one halfpenny’. The technique of showing the conversion of sceptic to believer is a common one in patent medicine advertising - here, it’s elegantly combined with a reminder to the reader that there’s absolutely nothing to lose from a visit to Savoy House.

FOR Beautifying and Preserving the TEETH.—LARDNER’s superior prepared CHARCOAL, so much recommended by the Faculty for its safe and antiseptic properties, for cleaning, preserving, and making the teeth beautifully white, in boxes at 2s. and 2s. 9d. each; and Mouth Solution, for curing the scurvy, bracing the gums, preventing the tooth ach, and unpleasant breath, in bottles at 2s. 9d. and 5s. 6d. each. From the great reputation the above preparations have acquired, many imitations are daily offered for sale: the true only are signed “Edmund Lardner” on the label. It is sold wholesale and retail, corner of Albany, Piccadilly; and retail by Newbery, St. Paul’s Church-yard; Rigge, Cheapside; Vade, Cornhill; Davison and Son, Fleet-street; Bacon, Oxford-street; Bailey and Blew, Cockspur-street; and most venders of genuine medicines.

Source: The Times, 22 February 1809

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Nowadays we know that to discover the secret of teeth-whitening, you have to be a single mum, but at the turn of the 19th century it was an ordinary chemist, Edmund Lardner, who introduced this new dentifrice to the public.

Charcoal had long been known as a tooth-whitener, but more so in the East than in this country, and Lardner’s attempts to encourage British people to use it met with approval from physicians.

In 1805 his company published a 3-page pamphlet extolling charcoal’s virtues.

It possesses the desirable qualities of rendering the teeth beautifully white; destroying the fætor arising from carious teeth, which contaminates the breath; removing the scurvy from the gums, and stopping the progress of the decay of the teeth, while, at the same time, it is incapable of either chemically or mechanically injuring the enamel.

A year later, one of Lardner’s shopmen, Alexander Blake, left the company and began selling his own version of the tooth powder, still using Lardner’s name. Lardner claimed to have improved the original product and also upped his competitive game by introducing a new Concentrated Solution of Charcoal.

His enthusiastic promotion of charcoal for the teeth was perfectly acceptable. The only odd thing was that his products didn’t actually contain much of it. The Prepared Charcoal was mainly powdered chalk, with a small amount of genuine charcoal or ivory black (a pigment made from charred animal bones) to darken it. The Concentrated Solution was a spirituous infusion of roses and myrrh, and was later renamed the Mouth Solution. The Medical Observer, while broadly sympathetic to Lardner as a reputable druggist, commented

In what respect roses and myrrh resemble charcoal, we know not,

while The London Medical and Surgical Spectator saw nothing wrong with the solution itself but objected to the false name.

The products remained popular and were used by Lord Byron, who asked his friend Douglas Kinnaird to send him a supply while he was in Venice in 1818. Activated charcoal is still known today as a tooth whitener and odour neutraliser, and Korean and Japanese companies have recently introduced it in a fascinatingly unappealing toothpaste form.

The Rowlands – a father and son team - mainly produced cosmetic products. The one shown below veers more towards the medical side of things, as did their Cerelaeum elixir for headaches and vertigo. They also sold a tooth powder called Odonto, a beauty preparation named Kalydor and a hair dye called the Essence of Tyre. Their most famous product, however, was Macassar Oil for the hair, introduced to Britain in the late 18th century and still in production as late as the 1940s. The Rowlands are therefore the ones to blame for those doily antimacassars on the back of your grandma’s sofas, and for you getting told off every time you sat down too exuberantly and made them fall down.

               A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY
For The TOOTH ACHE,  and  preserving  and  beau-
                 tifying the Teeth and Gums,
Patronized by his Excellency the Duke of San Carlos,
the Spanish Ambassador, and most  of  the  Nobility,
R O W L A N D’s   A L S A N A   E X T R A C T,  or
Abyssinian Specific for the Teeth and Gums.
   This invaluable Specific has been in high estimation
for many years, and  recommended by  the  first  phy-
sicians.   Its   properties  are   truly  wonderful;  it   im-
mediately   relieves   the   most   violent  Tooth  Ache,
cleanses and beautifies  the  Teeth  and  Gums,  and
preserves them from decay; prevents decayed Teeth
giving   pain,   removes   the  Tartar  from   the  Teeth,
fastens those that are  loose,  and  makes  the  Teeth
beautifully   white  and  uniform;  cleanses  the  scurvy
from the  gums,  renders  them  firm  and  healthy,  re-
freshes   the  mouth  during  disease  after  medicine,
and imparts  a  sweetness  to  the  breath.   It  is  per-
fectly   innocent,   so   that   a  child  may  take  it,  yet
contains  those  inestimable  properties  that,  if  con-
stantly used, will render the Teeth and Gums sound,
beautiful, and free from pain, to  the  latest  period  of
life.   It  is  an  excellent  Stomachic.    Price   2s.   9d.;
4s. 6d.; and 10s. 6d. per bottle.
   Sold wholesale,  retail  and  for  exportation,  by  the
sole  Proprietors,   A.  Rowland  and  Son,  corner  of
Kirby-street,   the  first  turning  on  the   right   in   Hat-
ton  Garden,  Holborn,   London;   and,   by    appoint-
ment, by
              Messrs. HALDON and LOWNDES,
                     At the Office of this Journal,
and   Messrs.   Munday  and  Slatter,  Oxford;  James,
Reading;  Butler,  Wycombe;   Watkins,   Cirencester;
and by all Perfumers and Medicine Venders.
        None  are   genuine   without   the   signature   “A.
Rowland and Son.”

Source: Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday 13 April 1822

Image: Le Baume d’Acier by Louis Leopold Boilly. Courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.

BEAUTY, HEALTH, and a PEARLY SET
of TEETH, may be preserved to old age, by
the use of BUTLER’s VEGETABLE RESTORA-
TIVE TOOTH-POWDER, a specific for the Tooth
Ach, and its cause, the Scurvy in the Gums.
Of the Properties of this Tooth-Powder.
Its detersive property is just sufficient to clear
away those destructive particles of acid which ge-
nerally adhere to the Gums, and in the interstices of
the Teeth ; healing soreness in the former, and pro-
moting a new Enamel of pearly whiteness, where it
has been injured or corroded.
These distinguishing Characteristics of its sanative
effects and superiority have procured it the unbounded
approbation of the Queen, the Princesses, the Em-
press of Russia, the Duchesses of York, Bedford,
Gordon, Devonshire, Rutland, Lees, and most of the
English and Foreign Nobility, many of whom recom-
mend it with admiration, as a necessary appendage
to the Toilet: it imparts a firmness and beautiful
redness to the Gums–to the Breath the most de-
lectable sweetness, and if used constantly as direct-
ed, will render the Teeth firm and white, and pre-
vent the Tooth-ach from returning to those who
have been liable to its most baneful effects.
Sold by Mr. Butler, No. 4, Cheapside, corner of
St. Paul’s, London, in boxes at 2s. 9d. each, duty
included; also, by Mrs. Jones, at the Office of this
Journal, Spiers, Butler, Munday, and Slatter, Tre-
achers, and Merrick, Oxford; Mercer, Abingdon;
Norton, Henley; Marshall, Wycombe; Loggin,
Aylesbury; Beesley, Banbury; and most Medicine
Venders and Perfumers in every Town.

Source: Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday 18th Feb 1815 

 (Image from Gray’s Anatomy, 20th US Edition 1918.)

There’s a sub-species of urban myth specifically related to “the olden days,” and one of its pronouncements is that everyone before about 1950 had appallingly rotten teeth. That’s if they were lucky enough to have any teeth at all.  I have a vague memory of a primary school lesson where we learnt that those funny olden-days folk used to hold a candle up to their mouths to burn out the worms that were supposed to cause tooth-ache. No doubt this was true in certain places at certain times, but in general I take this kind of stuff with a bucketful of salt.  All those museum-exhibit skulls with reasonable sets of teeth are anomalies, right? They must have belonged to those heretics who didn’t believe the Earth was flat.

Of course there have always been people with bad teeth, and of course there were a whole lot more of them before fluoride toothpaste and regular dental check-ups  - but everyone, EVER? Even before sugar became a readily available commodity? What was the evolutionary point of teeth if they never worked?

This advert from the sugar-loving Regency period suggests that even those with the grottiest of gnashers had hope. Though frankly I still can’t accept the idea of Mr Darcy breathing rancid fumes over Lizzie.

To be had of Messrs. TREWMAN and SON, Exeter.
TO SWEETEN the BREATH, cleanse the
MOUTH, preserve and whiten the TEETH, and
cure GUM BOILS, the Preparation of NEWTON’S RES
TORATIVE TOOTH-POWDER, from the recipe of the
late SIR RICHARD JEBB, M.D. has been most success-
ful ; It is particularly recommended to be used in all cases
where the Teeth and Gums are in a bad state, where the
enamel is impaired, the Teeth very loose or partly decayed,
or the Gums spongy, sore or apt to bled ; symptoms which
proceed from Scurvy, and which this Powder will never fail
to remedy. It is a certain, safe, and speedy cure for the
Tooth ach, and and extremely efficacious in arresting the pro-
gress of disease, where fragments of unsound Teeth remain
in the head, causing violent pain, and imparting their
noxious contagion to the adjoining teeth.
    Newton’s Tooth Powder is sold by all Dealers in Me-
dicines and Perfumery throughout the Kingdom ; in
Exeter; by Messrs. Trewman and Son, Hedgeland, Evans,
Lee, Williams and Dyer, Hill, Curson, Ware, Pearse, Mus-
grave, Dymonds, and Newton; Nott, Croydon, Forward,
Teignmouth; Rogers and Williams, Honiton; Jarman,
Exmouth; Quick, and Frost, Tiverton.

Source: Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post, Or, Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, Thursday 19th January 1815.

Notes: Line 10 - ”bled” instead of “bleed” is as in original. Line 13 – Tooth ach (or, more often, tooth-ach) was a common spelling during this period.

Trewman and Son, you’ll notice, owned the newspaper as well as being the agents for this remedy. It was normal for provincial newspaper printers to be the stockists for medicines made in London.

The “late Sir Richard Jebb” was a genuine doctor appointed physician to the Prince of Wales in 1780 and, briefly, to George III in 1786. He died in 1787, so it’s rather doubtful whether he could have had any approval over the recipe of this 1815 medicine.