Medicine sold regardless of effectiveness
"Proprietary medicine" redirects here. For the modern pharmaceutical concept, see
Proprietary drug
.
A
patent medicine
(sometimes called a
proprietary medicine
) is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a
trademark
and
trade name
, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders and symptoms,
[1]
[2]
[3]
as opposed to a
prescription drug
that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctor's prescription, and whose composition was openly disclosed. Many over-the-counter medicines were once ethical drugs obtainable only by prescription, and thus are not patent medicines.
[4]
: 226?231
The ingredients of patent medicines are incompletely disclosed.
Antiseptics
,
analgesics
, some
sedatives
,
laxatives
, and
antacids
, cold and
cough medicines
, and various skin preparations are included in the group.
The safety and effectiveness of patent medicines and their sale is controlled and regulated by the
Food and Drug Administration
in the United States and corresponding authorities in other countries.
[2]
[1]
[3]
The term is sometimes still used to describe
quack
remedies of unproven effectiveness and questionable safety sold especially by peddlers in past centuries, who often also called them
elixirs
, tonics, or
liniments
.
[1]
[2]
Current examples of quack remedies are sometimes called
nostrums
[5]
[6]
or
panaceas
, but easier-to-understand terms like scam cure-all, or
pseudoscience
are more common.
[7]
Patent medicines were one of the first major product categories that the
advertising
industry promoted; patent medicine promoters pioneered many advertising and sales techniques that were later used for other products.
[8]
Patent medicine advertising often marketed products as being medical panaceas (or at least a treatment for many diseases) and emphasized exotic ingredients and endorsements from purported experts or celebrities, which may or may not have been true. Patent medicine sales were increasingly constricted in the United States in the early 20th century as the
Food and Drug Administration
and
Federal Trade Commission
added ever-increasing regulations to prevent fraud, unintentional
poisoning
and deceptive advertising. Sellers of
liniments
, claimed to contain
snake oil
and falsely promoted as a cure-all, made the
snake oil salesman
a lasting symbol for a
charlatan
.
Patent medicines and advertising
[
edit
]
The phrase "patent medicine" comes from the late 17th century
[9]
marketing of medical elixirs, when those who found favour with
royalty
were issued
letters patent
authorising the use of the royal endorsement in advertising. Few if any of the nostrums were actually patented;
chemical patents
did not come into use in the United States until 1925. Furthermore, patenting one of these remedies would have meant publicly disclosing its ingredients, which most promoters sought to avoid.
Advertisement kept these patent medications in the public eye and gave the belief that no disease was beyond the cure of patent medication. "The medicine man’s key task quickly became not production but sales, the job of persuading ailing citizens to buy his particular brand from among the hundreds offered. Whether unscrupulous or self-deluded, nostrum makers set about this task with cleverness and zeal."
[10]
Instead, the compounders of such nostrums used a primitive version of
branding
to distinguish their products from the crowd of their competitors. Many extant brands from the era live on today in brands such as
Luden's
cough drops,
Lydia E. Pinkham
's vegetable compound for women,
Fletcher's Castoria
and even
Angostura bitters
, which was once marketed as a
stomachic
. Though sold at high prices, many of these products were made from cheap ingredients. Their composition was well known within the
pharmacy
trade, and druggists manufactured and sold (for a slightly lower price) medicines of almost identical composition. To protect profits, the branded medicine advertisements emphasized brand names, and urged the public to "accept no substitutes".
At least in the earliest days, the history of patent medicines is coextensive with scientific medicine. Empirical medicine, and the beginning of the application of the
scientific method
to medicine, began to yield a few orthodoxly acceptable herbal and mineral drugs for the
physician
's arsenal. These few remedies, on the other hand, were inadequate to cover the bewildering variety of
diseases
and
symptoms
. Beyond these patches of evidence-based application, people used other methods, such as
occultism
; the "
doctrine of signatures
" ? essentially, the application of
sympathetic magic
to
pharmacology
? held that nature had hidden clues to medically effective drugs in their resemblances to the human body and its parts. This led medical men to hope that, say,
walnut
shells might be good for
skull fractures
.
Homeopathy
, the notion that illness is binary and can be treated by ingredients that cause the same symptoms in healthy people, was another outgrowth of this early era of medicine. Given the state of the
pharmacopoeia
, and patients' demands for something to take, physicians began making "blunderbuss" concoctions of various drugs, proven and unproven. These concoctions were the ancestors of the several nostrums.
Touting these nostrums was one of the first major projects of the advertising industry. The marketing of nostrums under implausible claims has a long history. In
Henry Fielding
's
Tom Jones
(1749), allusion is made to the sale of medical compounds claimed to be universal
panaceas
:
As to Squire Western, he was seldom out of the sick-room, unless when he was engaged either in the field or over his bottle. Nay, he would sometimes retire hither to take his beer, and it was not without difficulty that he was prevented from forcing Jones to take his beer too: for no
quack
ever held his nostrum to be a more general panacea than he did this; which, he said, had more virtue in it than was in all the
physic
in an
apothecary
's shop.
Within the English-speaking world, patent medicines are as old as
journalism
. "Anderson's Pills" were first made in
England
in the 1630s; the recipe was allegedly learned in
Venice
by a
Scot
who claimed to be physician to
King Charles I
.
Daffy's Elixir
was invented about 1647 and remained popular in Britain and the USA until the late 19th century. The use of "letters patent" to obtain exclusive marketing rights to certain labelled formulas and their marketing fueled the circulation of early newspapers. The use of invented names began early. In 1726 a patent was also granted to the makers of
Dr Bateman's Pectoral Drops
; at least on the documents that survive, there was no Dr. Bateman. This was the enterprise of a
Benjamin Okell
and a group of promoters who owned a warehouse and a print shop to promote the product.
A number of
American
institutions owe their existence to the patent medicine industry, most notably a number of the older
almanacs
, which were originally given away as
promotional items
by patent medicine manufacturers. Perhaps the most successful industry that grew up out of the business of patent medicine advertisements, though, was founded by
William H. Gannett
in
Maine
in 1866. There were few circulating
newspapers
in Maine in that era, so Gannett founded a periodical,
Comfort
, whose chief purpose was to propose the merits of
Oxien
, a nostrum made from the fruit of the
baobab
tree, to the rural folks of Maine. Gannett's newspaper became the first publication of
Guy Gannett Communications
, which eventually owned four Maine dailies and several television stations. The family-owned firm is unrelated to the
Gannett
, which publishes
USA Today
. An early pioneer in the use of
advertising
to promote patent medicine was New York businessman
Benjamin Brandreth
, whose "Vegetable Universal Pill" eventually became one of the best-selling patent medicines in the United States.
[11]
"...A congressional committee in 1849 reported that Brandreth was the nation’s largest proprietary advertiser... Between 1862 and 1863 Brandreth’s average annual gross income surpassed $600,000..."
[12]
For fifty years Brandreth’s name was a household word in the United States.
[13]
Indeed, the Brandreth pills were so well known they received mention in Herman Melville's classic novel
Moby-Dick
.
[14]
Another publicity method ? undertaken mostly by smaller firms ? was the
medicine show
,
a traveling
circus
of sorts that offered
vaudeville
-style entertainments on a small scale, and climaxed in a pitch for some sort of cure-all nostrum. "
Muscle man
" acts were especially popular on these tours, for this enabled the
salesman
to tout the physical vigour the product supposedly offered. The showmen frequently employed
shills
, who stepped forward from the crowd to offer "unsolicited" testimonials about the benefits of the medicine.
[15]
Often, the nostrum was manufactured and bottled in the wagon in which the show travelled. The
Kickapoo
Indian Medicine Company became one of the largest and most successful medicine show operators. Their shows had an American Indian or Wild West theme, and employed many
American Indians
as spokespeople such as the
Modoc War
scout
Donald McKay
.
[16]
The "medicine show" lived on in
American folklore
and
Western movies
long after they vanished from public life.
Ingredients and their uses
[
edit
]
Supposed ingredients
[
edit
]
Many promoters desired to lend their preparations a sense of exoticism and mystery. Unlikely ingredients such as the baobab fruit in
Oxien
were a recurring theme. A famous patent medicine of the period was
Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root
; unspecified roots found in swamps had remarkable effects on the kidneys, according to its literature.
Native American themes were also useful: natives, imagined to be
noble savages
, were thought to be in tune with
nature
, and heirs to a body of traditional lore about
herbal
remedies and natural cures. One example of this approach from the period was
Kickapoo Indian Sagwa
, a product of the
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company
of
Connecticut
(completely unrelated to the real
Kickapoo
Indian tribe of
Oklahoma
), supposedly based on a Native American recipe.
[17]
This nostrum was the inspiration for
Al Capp
's "Kickapoo Joy Juice", featured in the
comic strip
, "
Li'l Abner
". Another benefit of claiming traditional native origins was that it was nearly impossible to disprove. A good example of this is the story behind
Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
, which was the mainstay of the Comstock patent medicine business. According to text on a wrapper on every box of pills, Dr. Morse was a trained medical doctor who enriched his education by travelling extensively throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe. He supposedly lived among the American Indians for three years, during which time he discovered the healing properties of various plants and roots that he eventually combined into Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. No one knows if Dr. Morse ever actually existed.
[
citation needed
]
Other promoters took an opposite tack from timeless herbal wisdom. Nearly any scientific discovery or exotic locale could inspire a key ingredient or principle in a patent medicine. Consumers were invited to invoke the power of
electromagnetism
to heal their ailments. In the nineteenth century,
electricity
and
radio
were gee-whiz scientific advances that found their way into patent medicine advertising, especially after
Luigi Galvani
showed that electricity influenced the
muscles
. Devices meant to electrify the body were sold; nostrums were compounded that purported to attract electrical energy or make the body more conductive. "Violet ray machines" were sold as rejuvenation devices, and balding men could seek solace in an "electric fez" purported to regrow hair.
Albert Abrams
was a well known practitioner of
electrical quackery
, claiming the ability to diagnose and treat diseases over long distances by radio. In 1913 the quack
John R. Brinkley
, calling himself an "Electro Medic Doctor", began injecting men with colored water as a virility cure, claiming it was "electric medicine from Germany". (Brinkley would go on to even greater infamy through transplanting goat testicles into men's scrotums as a virility treatment.)
Towards the end of the period, a number of
radioactive
medicines, containing
uranium
or
radium
, were marketed. Some of these actually contained the ingredients promised, and there were a number of tragedies among their devotees. Most notoriously,
steel
heir
Eben McBurney Byers
was a supporter of the popular radium water
Radithor
, developed by the medical
con artist
William J. A. Bailey
. Byers contracted fatal radium poisoning and had to have his jaw removed in an unsuccessful attempt to save him from bone cancer after drinking nearly 1400 bottles of Bailey's "radium water". Water irradiators were sold that promised to infuse water placed within them with
radon
, which was thought to be healthy at the time.
Actual ingredients
[
edit
]
Contrary to what is often believed, some patent medicines did, in fact, deliver the promised results, albeit with very dangerous ingredients. For example, medicines advertised as "infant soothers" contained
opium
, then a legal drug. Those advertised as "catarrh snuff" contained
cocaine
, also legal. While various herbs, touted or alluded to, were talked up in the advertising, their actual effects often came from
procaine
extracts or
grain alcohol
. Those containing opiates were at least effective in relieving pain, coughs, and diarrhea, though they could result in addiction. This hazard was sufficiently well known that many were advertised as causing none of the harmful effects of opium (though many of those so advertised actually did contain opium).
[
citation needed
]
Until the twentieth century, alcohol was the most controversial ingredient, for it was widely recognised that the "medicines" could continue to be sold for their alleged curative properties even in
prohibition
states and counties. Many of the medicines were in fact
liqueurs
of various sorts, flavoured with herbs said to have
medicinal properties
. Some examples include:
- Cannabis indica
, the low growing variants of
cannabis
with a high level of
THC
.
- Peruna
was a famous "Prohibition tonic", weighing in at around 18% grain alcohol. A nostrum known as "
Jamaican ginger
" was ordered to change its formula by Prohibition officials. To fool a chemical test some vendors added a toxic chemical,
tricresyl phosphate
, an
organophosphate
compound that produced
organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy
, a chronic nerve damage syndrome similar to that caused by certain
nerve agents
. Unwary imbibers suffered a form of
paralysis
that came to be known as
jake-leg
.
[18]
- Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King", produced Stanley's snake oil, publicly processing
rattlesnakes
at the
World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago. His liniment, when seized and tested by the federal government in 1917, was found to contain
mineral oil
, 1% fatty oil, red
pepper
,
turpentine
and
camphor
. This is not too unlike modern
capsaicin
and camphor liniments.
[
citation needed
]
- The original formulation of
Coca-Cola
used
coca
leaves, an indirect source of
cocaine
, and was marketed as an
energy rejuvenator
. Unlike most patent medicines of its era, it did not contain alcohol.
- Some herbal preparations included
laxatives
such as
senna
or
diuretics
, to give the compounds some obvious physical effects.
When journalists and physicians began focusing on the narcotic contents of the patent medicines, some of their makers began replacing the opium
tincture
laudanum
with
acetanilide
, a particularly
toxic
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug
with
analgesic
as well as
antipyretic
properties that had been introduced into medical practice under the name
Antifebrin
by A. Cahn and P. Hepp in 1886.
[19]
But this ingredient change probably killed more of the nostrum's users than the original narcotics did, since acetanilide not only alarmingly caused
cyanosis
due to
methemoglobinemia
, but was later discovered to cause
liver
and
kidney
damage.
[20]
The occasional reports of acetanilide-induced cyanosis prompted the search for less toxic aniline derivatives.
Phenacetin
was one such derivative; it was eventually withdrawn after it was found to be a
carcinogen
.
[21]
After several conflicting results over the ensuing fifty years, it was ultimately established in 1948 that acetanilide was mostly
metabolized
to
paracetamol
(known in the United States as
USAN
: acetaminophen) in the human body, and that it was this metabolite that was responsible for its analgesic and antipyretic properties.
[20]
[22]
[23]
[24]
Acetanilide is no longer used as a drug in its own right, although the success of its metabolite ? paracetamol (acetaminophen) ? is well known.
Supposed uses
[
edit
]
Patent medicines were supposedly able to cure just about everything. Nostrums were openly sold that claimed to cure or prevent
venereal diseases
,
tuberculosis
, and
cancer
.
Bonnore's Electro Magnetic Bathing Fluid
claimed to cure
cholera
,
neuralgia
,
epilepsy
,
scarlet fever
,
necrosis
,
mercurial eruptions
,
paralysis
,
hip
diseases, chronic
abscesses
, and "female complaints". William Radam's Microbe Killer, a product sold widely on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1890s and early 1900s, had the bold claim 'Cures All Diseases' prominently embossed on the front of the bottle. Ebeneezer Sibly ('Dr Sibly') in late 18th and early 19th century Britain went so far as to advertise that his Solar Tincture was able to "restore life in the event of sudden death", amongst other marvels.
Every manufacturer published long lists of
testimonials
that described their product curing all sorts of human ailments. Fortunately for both makers and users, the illnesses they claimed were cured were almost invariably self-diagnosed ? and the claims of the writers to have been healed of cancer or tuberculosis by the nostrum should be considered in this light.
The end of the patent medicine era
[
edit
]
Muckraker
journalists and other investigators began to publicize instances of
death
,
drug addiction
, and other hazards from the compounds. This took no small courage by the publishing industry that circulated these claims, since the typical newspaper of the period relied heavily on the patent medicines.
[
citation needed
]
In 1905,
Samuel Hopkins Adams
published an expose entitled "The Great American Fraud" in
Collier's Weekly
that led to the passage of the first
Pure Food and Drug Act
in 1906.
[25]
This
statute
did not ban the alcohol, narcotics, and stimulants in the medicines; it required them to be labeled as such, and curbed some of the more misleading, overstated, or
fraudulent
claims that appeared on the labels. In 1936 the statute was revised to ban them, and the United States entered a long period of ever more drastic reductions in the medications available unmediated by
physicians
and
prescriptions
.
Morris Fishbein
, editor of the
Journal of the American Medical Association
, who was active in the first half of the 20th century, based much of his career on exposing quacks and driving them out of business.
In more recent years, also, various herbal concoctions have been marketed as "
nutritional supplements
". While their advertisements are careful not to cross the line into making explicit medical claims, and often bear a
disclaimer
that asserts that the products have not been tested and are not intended to diagnose or treat any disease, they are nevertheless marketed as remedies of various sorts.
Weight loss
"while you sleep" and similar claims are frequently found on these compounds (cf.,
Calorad
,
Relacore
, etc.). Despite the ban on such claims, salesmen still occasionally (and illegally) make such claims;
Jim Bakker
, a disgraced televangelist, sells a
colloidal silver
gel that he claims will cure all
venereal diseases
[26]
and
SARS-related coronaviruses
.
[27]
One of the most notorious such elixirs, however, calls itself "
Enzyte
", widely advertised for "natural
male enhancement
" ? that is,
penis enlargement
. Despite being a compound of herbs, minerals, and
vitamins
, Enzyte formerly promoted itself under a fake
scientific name
Suffragium asotas
. Enzyte's makers translate this phrase as "better sex", but it is in fact ungrammatical
Latin
for "refuge for the dissipated".
[28]
Surviving consumer products from the patent medicine era
[
edit
]
A number of brands of consumer products that date from the patent medicine era are still on the market and available today. Their ingredients may have changed from the original formulas; the claims made for the benefits they offer have typically been seriously revised, but in general at least some of them have genuine medical uses. These brands include:
A number of patent medicines are produced in China. Among the best known of these is
Shou Wu Chih
, a black, alcoholic liquid that the makers claimed turned gray hair black.
Products no longer sold under medicinal claims
[
edit
]
Some consumer products were once marketed as patent medicines, but have been repurposed and are no longer sold for medicinal purposes. Their original ingredients may have been changed to remove drugs, as was done with
Coca-Cola
. The compound may also simply be used in a different capacity, as in the case of Angostura Bitters, now associated chiefly with
cocktails
.
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Patent medicine"
.
- ^
a
b
c
Medicine patent medicine
.
merriam-webster.com
- ^
a
b
"PATENT MEDICINE | Meaning & Definition for UK English"
. Lexico.com. Archived from
the original
on 1 May 2022
. Retrieved
24 August
2022
.
- ^
Jeffreys D (2008).
Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug
. Chemical Heritage Foundation.
ISBN
978-1-59691-816-0
.
- ^
"Definition of NOSTRUM"
. 4 June 2023.
- ^
"nostrum English Definition and Meaning"
. Lexico.com. Archived from
the original
on 8 November 2020
. Retrieved
24 August
2022
.
- ^
Bryan, Kevin (9 January 2019).
"Pseudoscience and Your Health"
.
Tempus Magazine
. Retrieved
5 August
2020
.
- ^
See Conroy (2009), pp. 138?141, for an account of
E. Virgil Neal
, patent medicine manufacturer and promoter (e.g. the tonic,
nuxated iron
, which was supposedly used by
Ty Cobb
,
Jack Dempsey
, and
Pope Benedict XV
), Madison Avenue pioneer, and mentor of
Carl R. Byoir
.
- ^
"Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection > History"
.
National Museum of American History
.
Smithsonian Institution
. Retrieved
20 September
2016
.
- ^
Young, James Harvey
. 1961.
The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 166
- ^
Atwater, Edward (2004).
An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American
. New York:
Boydell & Brewer
. p. 117.
ISBN
1-58046-098-4
.
- ^
Atwater, Edward (2004).
An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American
. New York:
Boydell & Brewer
. p. 118.
ISBN
1-58046-098-4
.
- ^
White, James Terry (1895).
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
. United States:
J.T. White
. pp.
166
.
ISBN
0-403-01271-6
.
benjamin brandreth.
- ^
Melville, Herman (1892).
Moby-Dick; Or, The White Whale
. Boston:
L.C. Page & Company
. p. 386.
ISBN
1-58729-906-2
.
moby dick.
- ^
"Wellmade Remedies"
. Retrieved
7 November
2018
.
- ^
McFarland, Jeremy Agnew (2010).
Medicine in the Old West: A History, 1850?1900
. McFarland. pp. 190?191.
ISBN
9780786456031
.
- ^
Kemp, Bill (20 March 2016).
"
'Indian' medicine shows once popular entertainment"
.
The Pantagraph
. Retrieved
11 April
2016
.
- ^
Baum, Dan; "Jake Leg",
The New Yorker
, Sept. 15, 2003: 50-57.
- ^
Cahn, A.; Hepp, P. (1886), "Das Antifebrin, ein neues Fiebermittel",
Centralbl. Klin. Med.
,
7
: 561?64
- ^
a
b
Brodie, B. B.;
Axelrod, J.
(1948), "The estimation of acetanilide and its metabolic products, aniline,
N
-acetyl
p
-aminophenol and
p
-aminophenol (free and total conjugated) in biological fluids and tissues",
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther.
,
94
(1): 22?28,
PMID
18885610
- ^
Bertolini, A.; Ferrari, A.; Ottani, A.; Guerzoni, S.; Tacchi, R.; Leone, S. (2006), "Paracetamol: new vistas of an old drug",
CNS Drug Reviews
,
12
(3?4): 250?75,
doi
:
10.1111/j.1527-3458.2006.00250.x
,
PMC
6506194
,
PMID
17227290
- ^
Lester, D.; Greenberg, L. A. (1947), "Metabolic fate of acetanilide and other aniline derivatives. II. Major metabolites of acetanilide in the blood",
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther.
,
90
(1): 68?75,
PMID
20241897
- ^
Brodie, B. B.;
Axelrod, J.
(1948),
"The fate of acetanilide in man"
(PDF)
,
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther.
,
94
(1): 29?38,
PMID
18885611
- ^
Flinn, Frederick B.; Brodie, Bernard B. (1948), "The effect on the pain threshold of
N
-acetyl
p
-aminophenol, a product derived in the body from acetanilide",
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther.
,
94
(1): 76?77,
PMID
18885618
- ^
Adams, Samuel Hopkins
(1905).
The Great American Fraud (4th ed., 1907)
. Chicago: American Medical Association
. Retrieved
30 July
2009
.
- ^
Boston, Rob (11 March 2020).
"TV Preacher Jim Bakker Is Hawking A Fake Coronavirus 'Cure.' Government Officials Are Right To Stop Him"
.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
. Retrieved
9 September
2020
.
- ^
Hogan, Bernadette (6 March 2020).
"NY AG Letitia James orders televangelist Jim Bakker to quit advertising coronavirus cure"
.
New York Post
.
- ^
"Why is this man smiling? It's not Viagra"
.
USA Today
. 17 April 2002
. Retrieved
21 May
2010
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Conroy, M.S. (2009).
The Cosmetics Baron You've Never Heard Of: E. Virgil Neal and Tokalon
, Englewood: Altus History LLC.
ISBN
0-615-27278-9
- American Medical Association, Council On Pharmacy and Chemistry (1908).
The Propaganda For Reform In Proprietary Medicines
(5th ed.). Chicago: American Medical Association Press
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- American Medical Association (1912).
Nostrums and Quackery: Articles On The Nostrum Evil and Quackery Reprinted, With Additions and Modifications From The Journal Of The American Medical Association Reprinted (2nd ed.)
. Chicago: American Medical Association Press
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- American Medical Association (1915).
Medical Mail-Order Frauds
. Chicago: American Medical Association Press
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- Armstrong, David and Elizabeth M. (1991).
The Great American Medicine Show
, New York: Prentice-Hall.
ISBN
0-13-364027-2
- Crabtre, Addison Darre (1880).
The Funny Side Of Physic: Or, Mysteries Of Medicine, Presenting The Humorous And Serious Sides of Medical Practice. An Expose of Medical Humbugs, Quacks, And Charlatans In All Ages And All Countries. Chapter III. Patent Medicines
. Hartford: The J. B. Burr Publishing Co. pp. 78?98
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- Holbrook, Stewart A. (1959).
The Golden Age of Quackery
, Boston: MacMillan & Co.
- Oleson, Charles W. (1889).
Secret Nostrums And Systems Of Medicine: A Book of Formulas (7th edition, 1896)
. Chicago: Oleson & Co., Publishers
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- Pierce, R. V. (1917).
The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser
, eighty-third edition. World's Dispensary, available from
Project Gutenberg
- The Proprietary Association (1908).
Facts Worth Knowing: Falsehoods Exposed, The Truth About Patent Medicines, Mercenary And Selfish Character of Attack On Popular Household Remedies by Yellow Journals And Doctors' Organizations
. The Proprietary Association
. Retrieved
23 August
2009
.
- Shaw, Robert B. (1972).
History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press
- "Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection,"
National Museum of American History
- Young, James Harvey (1961).
The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
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