The Quack Doctor

Googling for info on this remedy will get you quite a few results giving some variant on:

“Dr.” Sibley, an English patent medicine seller of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, even went so far as to claim that his Reanimating Solar Tincture would, as the name implies, “restore life in the event of sudden death”.

I just added to that number by quoting good ol’ Wikipedia there, but I was quite surprised at the number of times this information is repeated across the web, because:

a.) He was called Sibly, not Sibley. It sounds nit-picky to point this out, but I think it’s important because it doesn’t take an awful lot of effort to verify it, and yet that effort is clearly too much for some. I like Wikipedia – it’s a useful resource as a starting point, but come on people – a few seconds of further investigation aren’t going to bring on, well… sudden death or anything.

b.) He did have an actual medical degree, hence no need for scare-quotes round the word “Dr.” Ebenezer Sibly appears in Officers and Graduates of University & King’s College, Aberdeen MVD-MDCCCLX as having received his MD in 1792. He probably paid for it, but so did many reputable doctors of the time. He was also a well-read and prolific writer on medicine and astrology, on which see A G Debus’ paper, Scientific Truth and occult tradition: the Medical World of Ebenezer Sibly.

So, did Dr. Sibly claim to be able to restore life? At face value, yes – the claim quoted on Wikipedia was indeed the headline used on some of his early ads in the 1790s:

RESTORATION of LIFE in CASES of SUDDEN DEATH.—For this benevolent purpose, Dr. SIBLY’s RE-ANIMATING SOLAR TINCTURE, supersedes every art and invention. In all circumstances of suicide, or sudden death, whether by blows, fits, falls, suffocation, strangulation, drowning, apoplexy, thunder and lightning, assassination, duelling, &c., immediate recourse should be had to this medicine, which will not fail to restore life, provided the organs and juices are in a fit disposition for it, which they undoubtedly are much oftener than is imagined. Let me, therefore, entreat an anxious perseverance in this sublimest of all charities—the attempt to recover perishing lives. Upon all such emergencies, Dr. Sibly will be ready to attend the meanest individual; and in the interim he begs to call the attention of all persons to this Medicine, who labour under any disorders arising from an unwholesome state of the air; whose blood has been contaminated by hot climates or scrophulous taints; whose enfeebled constitutions require immediate aid. They will find it an infallible, and almost immediate cure.
Sold, by the Doctor’s appointment, at Mr. Williams’s, perfumer to his Majesty, No. 41, Pall-mall; at Mevin’s perfumery warehouse, No. 72, New Bond-street; at the Doctor’s house, in Titchfield-street, Cavendish-square; and at the British directory-office, Ave Maria-lane, St. Paul’s price 13s the large, and 7s 6d. the small bottles, duty included.
N.B. A Treatise on the virtues and efficacy of the Medicine may be had gratis where it is sold.

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Source: The Times, Monday 4 March 1793

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Taken in isolation, the claims are amusingly far-fetched. When you consider, however, the difficulty of determining death, and the contemporary anecdotes about people waking up on the point of burial, they are not as ridiculous as they sound. The advert does clarify that the medicine will work “provided the organs and juices are in a fit disposition for it,” (i.e. still alive!) and subsequently refers to ‘perishing’ rather than ‘perished’ lives. I don’t believe for a moment that the medicine was much good, but the idea behind it is no more outlandish than that of the charitable societies that were being established to rescue people apparently dead from drowning.

Horror stories abounded about people being mistakenly buried alive, and while this issue had not yet reached the level of obsession that it did during the 19th century, it was a genuine and understandable fear for many.

An anonymous correspondent to the Gentleman’s Magazine on July 20 1790 wrote:

It cannot be too much recommended to the world not to be in a hurry to bury their friends and relations. We find that by the assiduities of the Humane Society many persons, apparently dead, have been restored to life…

In short, Mr Urban, it is greatly to be feared that many unfortunate people have actually been buried alive. No man, of the least humanity, can think of such a thing without the utmost horror. I have heard lately of such an unhappy and miserable circumstance.”

Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately) he doesn’t go on to relate the tale, but calls for legislation to ensure that bodies would not be buried until they showed visible signs of decomposition. A remedy that promised to allay such fears was onto a winner.

After Sibly’s death in 1799 or 1800, his successor, J R Saffell, did not assign the tincture any outright life-restoring properties, saying only that it had “restored multitudes, who were on the verge of the grave, to health.”  The medicine was still on sale in the 1870s.

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Image of Ebenezer Sibly courtesy of Wellcome Images.

Sir John Hill (the “Sir” came from a Swedish title) started out as an apothecary and also tried his hand at acting before becoming a prolific writer. He edited the British Magazine from 1746-50 and produced a huge variety of works including plays, advice on marriage and child-rearing (under the pen-name The Hon. Juliana-Susannah Seymour), scientific treatises and botanical books. The best-known of these was the 26-volume The Vegetable System – or, to give its full title, The Vegetable System, or, a Series of Experiments, and Observations tending to explain the Internal Structure, and the Life of Plants; their growth, and Propagation; the Number, Proportion, and Disposition of their Constituent Parts; with the True Course of their Juices; the Formation of the Embryo, the Construction of the Seed, and the Encrease from that State to Perfection.

Hill, who had a genuine medical degree, started producing patent remedies when the expense of publishing his writing began to take its toll, and the ploy worked, earning him a considerable fortune. According to Thomas Graham in Modern Domestic Medicine (1827), the ingredients of the Pectoral Balsam were balsam of tolu (a plant resin), opium, honey and spirit of wine. Quackish or not, it sounds a darn sight better than Lemsip to me.

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The Public are most seriously cautioned against
various Counterfeit Preparations of the Genuine PEC-
TORAL BALSAM of HONEY, invented by the late Sir JOHN
HILL, M.D., and now faithfully preprared from his MS. Re-
cipes, by his Relict and Executrix, the Hon. Lady HILL, at
her house in Curzon-street, Berkley-square, London.—More
than 36 years experience has confirmed the unequalled efficacy
and safety of this elegant Medicine in the immediate relief, and
gradual cure, of Coughs, Colds, Sore Throats, Hoarseness,
Difficulty of Breathing, Catarrhs, Asthma, and Consump-
tions; for it is the greatest preserver of the Lungs, and contains
all the healing, softening and soothing qualities of that salubri-
ous extract of flowers called Honey, and the essential parts of
the richest Balsams; it is restorative as Asses Milk, and never
disagrees with the stomach. A large tea-spoonful in a wine
glass of water, is a dose, converting the water into a most
pleasant balsamic liquor, to be taken morning and evening.
A common cold yields to the benign influence of this Medi-
cine in a few hours; and when resorted to before the lungs
are ulcerated, all danger of consumption is certainly prevented.
Such are the faint outlines of the merits of Sir John Hill’s Bal-
sam of Honey, a preparation of most exalted efficacy, the re-
sult of long researches into nature, by the Linnaeus of Britain;
a man who dedicated his life to Botany, and justly sought the
true means of health in the vegetable kingdom; but as the
severest human laws are unequal to the prevention of extreme
fraud by coining and forgery, so it is not to be admired that the
merits of this Medicine have induced base and avaricious men
to vend counterfeit preparations of it, preparations not merely
devoid of all efficacy, but also highly deleterious, whereby
many persons have lost their lives, and others been reduced to
the brink of the grave in a few days time.—Lady Hill desires
that all persons will take notice, that her Balsam of Honey is
only to be had at the original Patent Medicine Warehouse, No.
150, Oxford-street (opposite New Bond-street); E. Newbery,
corner of St. Paul’s; Tutt, Royal Exchange, London; and
Clarke, No. 269, Borough; in bottles, price 3s. 6d. each.—
The Genuine may be known by the Signature “H. Hill,” in
red ink on the label of each bottle.

Source: The Times, Friday 15 April 1796