1850s advertising

The Ear-Doctor Fraud

A deaf person seeking treatment in 1850s London appears to have had plenty of options, judging by these advertisements in Reynolds’s Weekly Newspaper. The only problem was, the advertisers all belonged to the same gang – and if you knew what was in their medicine, you would not let it anywhere near your ears. Multiple […]

Paul Gage’s Tonic Antiphlegmatic Elixir

Source: The Liverpool Mercury, 30 December 1851 . Phlegm is generally white, greyish, or of a yellow colour, with streaks of black; its consistency varies from the limpidity of water to the thickness of jelly. This vivid description is from Parisian chemist Paul Gage’s Treatise on the Effect and Disorders produced by Phlegm in the […]

Dr Velpeau’s Magnetic Love Powders

WANTED! An industrious and strictly honest man in each County in the State to take orders by samples for Velpeau’s Magnetic Agents. Salary first year $800, and small commission, payable monthly. For full particulars address Dr. M. Velpeau, 422½ Broadway, N. Y., sending stamp. Source: The Sauk County Standard, (Baraboo, Wisconsin) 18 July 1855 —————————————————————————————– This […]

McMunn’s Elixir of Opium

Source: Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery (Louisville, KY), July 1855 Click here for Transcript There are no prizes for guessing what was in this. First formulated in the mid 1830s by Dr John B McMunn (or M’Munn), it became a big hit in the US once a drug company called A B Sands bought […]

Ludlam's Electric Rubber

Source: The Medical Directory for Scotland, 1853 (click to enlarge ad or see transcript below.) This product was reviewed by The London Lancet, (vol.1 1851) which heartily endorsed it as a way of creating rapid and healthy circulation of the blood on the surface after bathing. “Rubber” here means something to be used for rubbing, […]

Pure and Healthy Leeches

Pure and Healthy Leeches.—Potter and HAILEY beg to assure the Profession, Druggists, &c., that the Leeches they offer are such as can be recommended for Purity, Health, and Readiness of Biting. POTTER AND HAILEY, Importers of Leeches and Turkey Sponge, Herbalists, &c., 66, Farringdon-market, London. Source: The Medical Times and Gazette, 3 […]

Bailey's Light Spinal Stays and Invisible Crutches

Source: The Era (London) Sunday 23 October 1853 Bailey was a respectable supplier of “every description of Anatomical, Dissecting, Amputating and Post-Mortem instruments” as well as trusses, support stockings, ear trumpets, railway conveniences (male and female), water beds and chest expanders. His adverts appeared in distinguished publications such as the Lancet as well as in […]

Bell's Anti-Prandium

Image: Daguerreotype of the Duke of Wellington in 1844 Cashing in on the Duke of Wellington’s death in order to sell fart pills quite frankly seems a bit distasteful to me: VERBUM SAT.—Our Immortal Wellington clearly died from an attack of Indigestion. All who suffer from Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Cardialgia, Eructations, Fla- tulency, Torpidity of […]

Tricosian Powder, Huile de Cachmere, etc.

As someone with a “countenance of moderate pretensions,” I can see the allure of some of these products … TRICOSIAN POWDER. For rendering Red or Grey Hair and Whiskers a beautiful Black or Brown. THIS POWDER, which is a very curious dis- covery in Chemistry, will be found, upon trial, much […]

Crinilene

Image: Whiskerandos, by John Leech, 1854. Courtesy of the John Leech Sketch Archives from Punch LUXURIANT HAIR, WHISKERS, EYEBROWS, &c. THE TESTIMONIALS daily received by Miss DEAN establish the fact that CRINILENE is the only preparation that can be perfectly relied upon in producing those acknowledged orna- ments of manhood in three […]