royal power without consent of Parliament. A list of 

 patents in the medical field later published by the 

 Commissioners of Patents * includes only six issued 

 during the 17th century, four for baths and devices, 

 one for an improved method of preparing alum, and 

 one for makina; epsom salts. The first patent for a 

 compound medicine was granted in 1711, and only 

 two other proprietors preceded Benjamin Okell in 

 .seeking this particular legal form of protection and 

 promotion. 



As early as 1721, Bateman's Pectoral Drops were 

 being regularly advertised in the London Mercury. 

 The advertiseinents announced: "Dr. Bateman's 

 Pectoral drops published at the Request of several 

 Persons of Distinction from both Universities ..." 

 The Drops, priced at "1 s. a Bottle," were "Sold 

 Wholesale and Retail at the Printing-house and Pic- 

 ture Warehouse in Bow Churchyard," and likewise 

 "in most Cities and celebrated Towns in Great Brit- 

 ain." "Each Bottle Seal'd with the Boar's Head." 

 So stated the advertisement, which itself contained a 

 crude cut of this Boar's Head seal.^ Elsewhere in this 

 issue of the Mercury, we learn that John Cluer, printer, 

 was the proprietor of the Bow Churchyard Ware- 

 house. This same John Cluer, along with William 

 Dicey and Robert Raikes, were named in the 1726 

 patent as "the Persons concerned with the said In- 

 ventor," Benjamin Okell, who, with him, should 

 "enjoy the sole Benefit of the said Medicine." It was 

 this partnership which w-as to find the field of nostrum 

 promotion especially congenial and which was to play 

 an important transatlantic role. Soon after securing 

 their patent, the proprietors undertook to inform their 

 countrymen about the remedy by issuing A short 

 treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops.^ 



It was the 18th century, and the essay was in fashion. 

 The proprietors prepared a didactic introduction to 

 their treatise, phrased in long and flowery sentences, 

 in which modesty was not the governing tone. The 

 arguments ran like this: that the "Universal Good of 

 Mankind" should be the aim of "every private mem- 

 ber"; that nothing is so conducive to this general wel- 



* British Patent OfTice, Patents for inventions: aliridgements of 

 speiifiailions relating to medicine, surgery, and dentistry, 1620-1866, 

 London, 1872. 



' London Mercury, London, August 19-26, 1721. 



' A short treatise of the virtues oj Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, New 

 York, 1731. A 36-page pamplilet preserved in the Library of 

 the New York .Academy of Medicine. This is an American re- 

 print of an English original, date unl<noun. 



fare as "health"; that no hazards to health are 

 more direful than diseases such as "the Gout; the 

 Rheumatism; the Stone; the Jaundice," etc., etc.; 

 that countless men and women have succumbed to 

 such afflictions either because they received no treat- 

 ment or suffered wrong treatment at "the Hands of 

 the Learned"; that no medicine is so sure a cure as 

 that inexpensive remedy discovered as a result of great 

 "Piety, Learning and Industry" by one "inspir'd with 

 the Love of his Country, and the Good of Mankind," 

 to wit. "Dr. bateman's Pectoral Drops." 



Then followed seven chapters treating the multi- 

 tude of illnesses for which the Drops were a specific. 

 Finalh', tlie pamphlet cited "some few, out of the 

 many thousands of Certificates of Cures effected by 

 these DROPS. . . ." Even so early was the testi- 

 monial deemed a powerful persuader. 



No more could Okell, Cluer, Dicey, and Raikes 

 escape competition than could the proprietors of 

 other successful nostrums. In 1755 they went to 

 court and won a suit for the infringement of their 

 patent, but the damages amounted to only a shilling. 

 Even after the patent expired, the tide of publicity 

 flowed on.^ 



Competition was also lively in the 1740's among 

 some half a dozen proprietors marketing a form of 

 crude petroleum under the name of British Oil. 

 Early in the decade Michael and Thomas Betton 

 were granted a patent for "An Oyl extracted from a 

 Flinty Rock for the Cure of Rheumatick and Scor- 

 butick and other Cases." The source of the oil, 

 according to their specifications, was rock lying just 

 above the coal in mines, and this rock was puh-erized 

 and heated in a furnace to extract all the precious 

 healing oil.' This Betton patent aroused one of their 

 rivals, Edmund Darby & Co. of Coalbrook-Dalc in 

 Shropshire. Darby asserted that it was presumptuous 

 of the Bettons to call their British ovl a new invention.' 



' /V broadside, issued in London, ca. 1750, advertising "Dr. 

 Bateman's Drops," is preserved in the Warshaw Collection of 

 Business Americana, New York. Later reprints of litis same 

 broadside arc preserved in the private collection of Samuel 

 Aker, Albany, New York, and in the Smitlisonian Institution. 



* Michael and Thomas Betton, "Oil for the cure of rheumatic 

 and scorbutic affections," British patent 587, August 14, 1742. 



" Edmund Darby & Co., Directions for taking inwardty and using 

 outwardly the company's true genuine and original British Oil; pre- 

 pared by Edmund Darby & Co. at Coalbrook-Dale, Shropshire, 

 ca. 1745. An 8-page pamphlet preserved in the Librar\- of the 

 College of Physicians, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 



PAPER 10: OLD ENGLISH PATENT MEDICINES IN AMERICA 



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