The Quack Doctor

While I’m researching my posts, I find a lot of interesting ads that I put to one side to blog about one day.

But sometimes it turns out that I can’t discover much about them, or they’re so famous that there’s not a lot I can add to the info already available online, or they’re similar to something I’ve written about before. These ads just sit in my files and don’t see the light of day.

So I’ve decided to post a few of them over the next couple of weeks. If you’re the world expert on these products, have family anecdotes about them, or just feel like speculating on what they might have contained, do post a comment.

————————-

Advertisements for Crossthwaite & Co’s Occult Lozenges began to appear in British newspapers in early 1837 and the product was available until at least the 1880s. This ad is from The Weekly Chronicle on 19 April 1840.

McALISTER’S
ALL-HEALING OINTMENT
OR WORLDS SALVE
Has been an old family nurse for the past twenty years, and known all around the world as the most soothing and healing ointment in existence.
McALISTER’S ALL-HEALING OINTMENT
Never Fails to Cure.
Salt Rheum, Scrofula, Ulcers, Small Pox, Sore Nipples, Mercurial Sores, Erysipelas, Carbuncles, Corns, Bunions, and all Rheumatic Pains, &c. &c. Heals permanently Old Sores and Fresh Wounds. For Frosted Limbs, Burns, or Scalds. It has no equal in the World. Give it a trial.
Price 25 cents. Sold by all Druggists.

.

Source: Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Maine) 6 March 1867

.

——————————————————

.

The aura surrounding the figure in this ad is not just for decoration. It represents insensible perspiration (sweat that evaporates before it can build up as moisture on the skin.) James McAlister believed insensible perspiration arose from the blood and drew off all impurities therein. Illness suppressed it, and life could not be sustained without it. ‘Stop up those pores,’ he said, ‘and DEATH knocks at your door.’

The All-Healing Ointment, or World’s Salve, would promote perspiration and restore health – but that wasn’t all. As well as the list of conditions in the ad, it would cure consumption, cancer, worms, influenza, hernias and dog bites. It was an antidote to poison, would correct a tan or freckles and was even a hair restorer. Using a topical application made sense, McAlister argued, because throughout the Bible, medicine took the form of ointments and oils rather than being taken internally.

Here’s a male version of the image from the nostrum’s early days (1845):

The figure above is in rude health, with his insensible perspiration flowing freely around him – he is far more fortunate than the gentleman featured in an 1847 broadside. According to the text, the man had come to McAlister’s shop in South Street, New York City, in despair.

Few men ever presented an appearance as appalling as his. His whole body from head to foot was covered with enormous

Tumors, Swellings and Ulcerous Sores,

from whence issued streams of purulent matter, making the entire surface

ONE MASS OF PUTREFACTION.

It seemed that nothing to be found had power to reach his case,

SO TERRIBLE! SO AWFUL! WERE THESE PUTRID SORES

He came into the store, and presented himself as one of the most pitiable objects, one of the most forlorn in expression of countenance of any man, I think, I had ever seen. The first words he uttered I shall never forget, coming as they did from the depths of the poor fellows heart,
“Oh! that I was dead!”

The melodrama continues, with the customer stripping off to reveal the extent of the putrefaction and detailing the failure of various sarsaparilla syrups, mercury and other medicines to help him. McAlister tells him the All-Healing Salve will save him; at this,

His whole frame shook like a leaf—his eyes shot forth unwonted fire, and every feature of his countenance was lit up with an unearthly expression.—Hope! Yes, Immortal hope, the last friend that forsakes us, dawned upon his soul, and he caught at the facts presented to him with the desperation of a drowning man.

After eight weeks’ use of the ointment, the man returns to the shop, smooth-skinned and exhibiting the greatest signs of health and happiness.

In April 1856 McAlister entered into an agreement with wholesale druggists Barnes & Park to supply them exclusively with the salve. Five years later, however, Barnes & Park realised that McAlister had been selling large quantities of the ointment to rival druggists, including A. D. Sands, (who also promoted sarsaparilla products like those that failed to cure our scrofulous friend above.) Barnes & Park sought an injunction restraining McAlister from selling the ointment to anyone else, but details of the case show that it wasn’t a clear-cut instance of an unscrupulous quack breaking his contract.

Barnes & Park had agreed to promote the salve but had not really bothered, and sales had diminished. In 1858 the company became sole agents for Redding & Co’s Russian Salve, which was effectively a rival to the All-Healing Ointment. If he had kept to the agreement, McAlister could have seen his product sink without trace. Justice Bonney, who oversaw the hearing, decided that both sides were as bad as each other, and dismissed the case with costs.

McAlister kept the ingredients a secret, but sometimes referred to the salve as ‘Vegetable’ (as in the print above), and claimed it ‘contains no Mercury’. I don’t know whether or not he was telling the truth, but I do know that in the language of 19th-century nostrum-vendors, these were common indicators that mercury was indeed present.

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

.

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.’

.

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.

.

Picture courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine

The Aperitive Vase, a cure for constipation, is somewhat coyly advertised here, but adverts from earlier in the 1840s left less to the imagination:

The apparatus is a fountain in miniature, so small that when filled it may be concealed in the pocket until it can be used conveniently; when, by an hydraulic double-action within it, the water which it contains is propelled into the bowels, and instantly procures the desired relief, as effectively as a dose of opening medicine. The Fountain may be used by the most nervous lady without the knowledge or aid of any second person. (The Era, Aug 13 1843)

 Image: Detail from Réaction. Distraction. Précipitation by Charles Philipon, 1850s. Courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.      

      T H E   U S E   O F   W A T E R  as  an  aperient  is  neither
distasteful  nor  injurious  as  opening  medicines  are:  its  operation
is instantaneous, and without the slightest  uneasiness;  consequently
it is found to be a remedy  preferable  to  every  other  for  Indigestion,
Costiveness, Bile,  &c.  But  those  who  desire  to  relieve  effectually
the stomach and bowels by  this  natural  physic,  and  to  resort  to  it
comfortably, must apply it  with  the  APERITIVE  VASE,  constructed
for invalids and ladies, and sold only at Scott and Llewelyn’s  Medical
Repository,  369,  Strand,   the  third  house  from  Exeter  Hall.  Also,
SONIFERS, by which a deaf person may magnify voices to the  pitch
at which he hears distinctly. Descriptions sent post free, on receipt of
two letter stamps.

Source: The Daily News (London) Saturday 31 January 1846

Dr Scott and a business associate, Mr Pine, revealed the extent of their medical knowledge in 1844 when a 5-year-old boy was rushed to their premises after falling into the river near Waterloo Bridge. According to the inquest report in the Medical Times (6 July 1844), Scott ‘looked at the child, and exclaimed— “Be off with you—take it to Charing Cross Hospital.”‘ The rescuers set off the for the hospital but the child died on the way.

 Now giving due force to these circumstances, said the Medical Times in reference to Scott’s advertisements, but more especially to the singular rejection of this poor child for treatment, and supposing for a moment that Dr. Scott, like thousands of others, really has no other title to doctorship but his own sovereign will, what a significant instance we have before us of the mischief of empirical pretensions.

Apologies for the lack of background information or ironic commentary on this one, but I’m too busy celebrating the launch of my first novel. For more info on that, have a look at my website. Otherwise, today’s ad has a suitably literary (or least vaguely poetic) section.

             H A N C E ‘ S   C A N D Y,
For Coughs, Colds,  Hoarseness,  &c.,  contains
Hoarhound,   Wild   Cherry,   Slippery   Elm,   El-
ecampane, and other ingredients, amounting to
TWENTY-SEVEN.
         Cease from coughing—cure your colds—
         From your lungs remove each pain;
         Do not wait their action longer,
         If you’d peace and health regain.
   Why continue to be  afflicted  with  pains  at   the
lungs, a constant Cough, and want of sleep, when
a package of
   S. S. HANCE’S COMPOUND EXTRACT OF
                            HOARHOUND
will at once  restore  you?  A  few  packages  will
benefit you in the  way  of  cure,  when   all   other
remedies fail.                         SETH S. HANCE.
                            corner Charles and Pratt streets.
For sale in Cumberland, Md, by
                                                R. D. JOHNSON.

Source: The Cumberland Alleganian (Maryland) Friday 17 April 1846

 I don’t have much info on these lozenges, but other similar products of the time tended to be based on cayenne pepper. Later in the 19th century, cocaine also became a popular ingredient, albeit in very small amounts.

In 1844, according to the  Eclectic Magazine, Dr Stolberg “bequeathed the secret of his voice lozenge – with presents of which he was wont to secure the friendship of the first vocal artists of his day – to a gentleman of large wealth in this country.” The lozenges were still around, under the same name, at the end of the 19th century.

Image: from Almanach comique, pittoresque, drolatique, critique et charivarique pour l’année 1887 , reproduced courtesy of Old Book Illustrations

.

                      TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
       DR.   STOLBERG’S   VOICE   LOZENGE,   for   Im-
proving   the   Voice,   and   removing   all   affections   of   the   Throat,
strongly recommended to Clergymen, Singers, Actors, Public Speakers,
and all persons  subject  to  Relaxed  Throats.  The  above  Lozenge has
been before the public for three years  and  is  proved  by the most  cele-
brated artistes, who continue their constant use,  to be  the best specific
ever  invented  for  the  Voice  and  Throat;  a   trial   will   prove their un-
doubted efficacy.  Testimonials  are  published  with  each  box  from Ma-
dame Grisi,  Madame  Persiani,  Madame  Eugenie  Garcia, Signor La-
blache, &c., &c.
Wholesale   Agents,   Barclay   and   Sons,   Farringdon-street;   Sutton
and  Co.,  Bow  Churchyard;  W.  Edwards,  Newberry  and  Sons,  St.
Paul’s Churchyard;  Sanger,  Dietrichsen,  and  Hannay,  Oxford-street,
and Retail by all respectable Chemists in the Kingdom.

Source: The Daily News, Monday 30 March 1846

Another very long advert today. Thomas Clarkson was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, but his method of cure, which isn’t named in this ad, was a patent medicine by the name of Clarkson’s Specific for Bad Legs. Initially, Clarkson treated the afflicted in person, but because this often meant they had to find lodgings near his home for weeks on end, he soon began selling the remedy so that people could treat themselves. He also provided “Tonic Aperient Pills” to maintain general health.

Mr. Clarkson’s career as a General Practitioner lasted 53 years. In 1885 the Hospital Gazette and Students’ Journal reported: 

“At the last meeting of the Council, the name of Mr Thomas Clarkson, of Darley, Ripley, was struck off the roll of the College because he declined to discontinue advertising a sovereign remedy, which he professes to have discovered.”

.

Image: Physician attending to a leg wound. 18thC, exact date unknown. Carl August Grossman. Courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.

                       NO   CURE   NO   PAY
      MR.    CLARKSON,    SURGEON,    engages    to     Cure
a   Disease,   oftentimes   considered    incurable,    of   however
long  standing;  and,  to  enhance  the  value  of  the Cure,  Mr. C.
is enabled to give instructions which will make  it  a  lasting  cure.
Mr. C. guarantees not to make any charge without a perfect cure,
a convincing proof that  he can  infallibly  cure  the  Disease.  The
Disease  is  what  is called a  BAD  LEG, an old wound, mostly a
little   above   the  ancle.  Mr.  C.  could  give  fifty  cases  of  extra-
ordinary cures, after  the  most eminent Surgeons, and even Hos-
pitals  and  Infirmaries,  have  failed:  he  gives  a  few  Cases  as
references.
   1st. Miss Netherwood, of Silsden, has had a  bad  leg, and was
in despair some length of time. Mr. C. has cured her.
   2nd.   Mr.  John  Ayrton,  of   Manningham,   near  Bradford, has
been afflicted with a bad leg  or  old  ulcer  for a  long  time, trying
Surgeons,  Quacks, and  all things.—Mr. C. cured  him in a month.
   3rd.  Mr.  W.  Waterhouse, carpet   manufacturer,  of  Dewsbury,
has had a very  bad  leg  for  some  time.—Cured  in three weeks.
   4th.  Mrs.  Gill,  of   Hampsthwaite,   near  Harrogate,  has  been
sorely  afflicted  for   ten   years;   her   health  had  become  much
impaired  from  constant  pain and  irritation.  Four years ago she
was  eight  weeks in  Leeds  Infirmary  without  relief.—Mr. C. has
cured her.
   5th. Miss  Eliz.  Binns, of Felliscliffe,  near  Harrogate,  suffered
17 years. Ten years ago one Surgeon  wanted  to  cut  her leg off.
Several surgeons  and a Physician gave  partial  relief. She  was
three  times  in Leeds  Infirmary, and the  last  time was discharg-
ed incurable.—Cured in seven weeks.
   Copy of a letter received by  Mr. C. from  a Gentleman, a  Spirit
                   Merchant, at Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield.
   SIR,—You   have  earned  my   lasting  gratitude and respect for
the  wonderful  cure you have performed of my  wife,  in  5  weeks,
after enduring  pain  and  misery  for 17 or 18 years, with  a  large
wound  near  the  ancle,  and  trying   the   most   noted  surgeons
without   avail—despairing    of   relief   from   medical   aid,  until
seeing your advertisement  in the Leeds Mercury. Since the cure
she can rest at nights, and her health is now as good as  I  could
wish.  May  you  receive  the  reward   your   merit  entitles you to.
You  are at liberty  to  make  what  use  you  like  of  this  letter.   I
hope you will publish it.—I remain, Sir,
                        Yours sincerely,                        JOSEPH PARKIN.
    These, and near 100 more  that  Mr.  C.  has  cured,  have  inva-
riably   enjoyed  better  health  since  the cure than before.  Inquire.
                               All Letters must be pre-paid.
     Address—Mr.  Clarkson,  Day-house,  Darley,  Pately   Bridge.
   Mr.  C.,  being  a   duly  qualified  Practitioner, may be consulted
without  Fee  at  Mr.  Butler’s,   No.  10,   Commercial-Court,  Brig-
gate,  Leeds,  on  the  last  Tuesday  in  every Month, from  11 to  2.
   Mr. C. may also be consulted on any other Case.

Source: The Leeds Mercury, Saturday 16th March 1844

Note: The spelling ancle is used in the original.

Today’s advert is rather long. The Mr Abernethy referred to was the eminent surgeon John Abernethy (1764-1831), pictured right. He wrote about piles in his Surgical Observations (1804-06), a work that according to his biographer, George MacIlwain, was known as “the My-Book”  because “he not unfrequently recommended his patients” to read it.

Although Abernethy advised patients with a mild case of piles to “anoint the protruded parts with ointment, and carefully replace them above the gripe of the sphincter,” he did not give a recipe for any particular ointment and generally advocated a more aggressive approach to treatment. “The piles”, he wrote ”should be taken hold of by a double hook, of a breadth corresponding to the length of the pile, and when drawn upwards from the bowel, it may be removed by a pair of scissars.”

The ointment began to be advertised more than a decade after Abernethy’s death, and it seems likely that the mysterious “Proprietor” appropriated his good name to make the product sound reputable.

 .

AN EFFECTUAL CURE FOR PILES, FISTULAS, &c.
_________

ABERNETHY’S PILE OINTMENT

WHAT a painful and noxious disease is the Piles! and comparatively how few of the afflicted have been permanently cured by ordinary appeals to Medical skill! This, no doubt, arises from the use of powerful aperients too frequently administered by the Profession; indeed, strong internal medicine should always be avoided in all cases of this complaint. The Proprietor of the above Ointment, after years of acute suffering, placed himself under the treatment of that eminent surgeon, Mr. Abernethy, was by him restored to perfect health, and has enjoyed it ever since without the slightest return of the Disorder, over a period of fifteen years, during which time the same Abernethian Prescription has been the means of healing a vast number of desperate cases, both in and out of the Proprietor’s circles of friends, most of which cases had been under medical care, and some of them for a very considerable time. Abernethy’s Pile Ointment was introduced to the Public by the desire of many who had been perfectly healed by its application, and since its introduction, the fame of this ointment has spread far and wide; even the Medical Profession, always slow and unwilling to acknowledge the virtues of any medicine not prepared by themselves, do now freely and frankly admit that Abernethy’s Pile Ointment, is not not only a valuable preparation, but a never-failing remedy in every stage and variety of that appalling malady.
    Sufferers from the Piles will not repent giving the Ointment a trial. Multitudes of cases of its efficacy might be produced, if the nature of the complaint did not render those who have been cured, unwilling to publish their names.
    Sold in covered pots, at 4s. 6d., or the quantity of three 4s. 6d. pots in one for 11s., with full directions for use, by C. KING (Agent to the Proprietor), No. 34, Napier-street, Hoxton New Town, London, where also can be procured every Patent Medicine of repute, direct from the original makers, with an allowance on taking six at a time.
    *** Be sure to ask for ‘ABERNETHY’S PILE OINTMENT.’ The public are requested to be on their guard against noxious compositions, sold at low prices, and to observe that none can possibly be genuine, unless the name of KING is printed on the Government Stamp affixed to each pot, 4s. 6d., which is the lowest price the proprietor is enabled to sell it at, owing to the great expense of the ingredients.

Source: The Northern Star and National Trades’ Journal, Saturday 4th March, 1848.

Holland’s Balsam of Spruce is in the tradition of other tree resin remedies, such as Solomon’s Balm of Gilead and the Balsam of Mecca. Given that nearly 170 years later, a cure for the common cold remains as elusive as ever, this medicine would have been worth a punt – if nothing else, it was probably alcohol-based. The image of the coughing gentleman was part of the advertisement.

HOLLAND’S BAL-
SAM of SPRUCE, the newly discovered remedy
for COUGHS, COLDS, INFLUEN-
ZA, INCIPIENT ASTHMA, and
CONSUMPTION.
Medical Science is daily pro-
ducing new wonders, and
among the discoveries which
take place none are more de-
serving of public approbation,
than a remedy for those com-
plaints which in this variable climate, are so productive of
fatal consequences to the comfort and lives of the public as
Coughs and Colds.
This Extraordinary Remedy relieves the most distressing
symptoms in a few hours, and a little perseverance in its use
will, in every case, effect a permanent Cure.
Coughs and Colds, accompanied by a difficulty of breathing,
soreness and rawness of the chest, impeded expectoration, sore
throat, and feverish symptoms, will be quickly subdued, while
its use will assuredly prevent consumption from this prolific
cause.
HOLLAND’S BALSAM of SPRUCE gives immediate ease
in all Asthmatic cases, and particularly in Hoarseness, Wheez
ings and Obstructions of the Chest ; while those who have
laboured for years under the misery of a confirmed Asthma, have
been enabled by its use to enjoy the blessings of life, and to
pursue their avocations with a degree of ease and comfort they
had been strangers to for years.
Prepared by Charles Holland, and sold by his agent, T. Prout,
229, Strand, London ; and by most Medicine Venders in the
Kingdom.

Source: The Odd Fellow (London) Saturday 30th January 1841

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.