For over a century Darb\' and his predecessors had 

 been marketing this self-same product, and it had 

 proved to be "the one and only unrivall'd and most 

 efficacious Remedy ever yet discovered, against the 

 whole force of Diseases and Accidents that await 

 Mankind. . . ." For the Bettons to appropriate 

 the process and patent it — and even to claim in their 

 advertising cures which really had been wrought b\- 

 the Darby product— was scandaknis. Worse than 

 that, said Darby, it was illegal, for in 1693 William 

 III had granted a patent to "Martin Eele and two 

 others at his Nomination for making the same Sort 

 of Oyl from the same Sort of Materials." Evidence 

 to substantiate his belief in the Betton perfidy was 

 presented by Darby to George II, who had the mailer 

 duly investigated.'" Being persuaded that Darby was 

 right, the king and his councillors, in 1745, vacated 

 the Betton patent. This victory seems not to have 

 boomed the Darby interests, and this defeat seems not 

 to have ruined the Bettons. During the succeeding 

 century, the Betton patent was published and repub- 

 lished in advertising, just as if it had never fallen 

 afoul the law. From their battles with the Oil from 

 Coalbrook-Dalc and other British Oils marketed by 

 other proprietors, the Bettons emerged triumphant. 

 In the years to come, patent or no, tlu- Bciions British 

 Oil was to dominate the field. 



The year after the Bettons had secured Iheir [patent. 

 another was granted to John Hooper of Reading for 

 the manufacture of "Female Pills" bearing his name." 

 Hooper was an apothecary, a man-midwife, and a 

 shrewd fellow. This was the period in which the 

 British Government was increasing its efforts to re- 

 quire the patentee to furnish precise specifications 

 with his application.'^ When Hooper was called upon 

 to tell what was in his pills and how they were made, 

 he replied by asserting that they were composed "Of 

 the best purging stomatick and anti-hysterick ingredi- 

 ents," which were formed into pills the size of a small 

 pea. This satisfied the royal agents and Hooper went 

 on about his business. In an advertisement of the 

 same year, he was able to cite as a witness to his patent 

 the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury." 



Much less taciturn than Hooper about the com|)osi- 

 tion of his nostrum was Robert Turlington, who se- 

 cured a patent in 1744 for "A spccifick balsam, called 



'"London Gazette, London, March 1, 1745. 

 " John Hooper, "Pills," British patent 592, July 21, 1743. 

 " E. Burke Inlow, The patent grant, Baltimore, 1950, p. 33. 

 " Daily Advertiser, London, September 23, 1743. 



^>^^ THE ^7^^' 



DR. STOUfiHTON'S t 



PREPARED BT / 



(^ SALEM, MASS., ^jj 



r'-S' 



^ rr^ 



Figure 3. — Labki, for .Stoughion's Elixir as manu- 

 factured by Dr. Jos. Fryc of Salem, Massachusetts. 



(Courtesy, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.) 



the balsam of life." '■* The Balsam contained no less 

 than 27 ingredients, and in his patent specifications 

 Tiulington asserted that it would cure kidney and 

 l)ladder stones, cholic, and inward weakness. He 

 shortly issued a 46-page pamphlet in \\hich he greatly 

 expanded the list.'^ In this appeal to 18th-century 

 sensibilities, Turlington asserted that the "Author of 

 Nature" has provided "a Remedy for every Malady." 

 To find them, "Men of Learning and Genius" have 

 "ransack'd" the "Animal, Mineral and Vegetable 

 World." His own search had led Turlington to the 

 Balsam, "a perfect Friend to Nature, which it strenijth- 

 ens and corroborates when weak and declining, vivi- 

 fies and enlivens the Spirits, mixes with the Juices and 

 Fluids of the Body and gently infuses its kindly Influ- 

 ence into tho.se Parts that are most in Disorder," 



Testimonials from those who had felt the kindly in- 

 fluence took up most of the space in Turlington's pam- 

 phlet. In these grateful acknowledgments to the po- 

 tency of the patent medicine, the list of illnesses cured 

 stretched far beyond the handful named in the patent 

 specifications. Just as for Bateman's Pectoral Drops 



'* Robert Turlington, "A Spccifick balsam, called the balsam 

 of life," British patent 596, January 18, 1744. 



" Robert Turlinijton, Turlington's Balsam oj Life, ca. M-M. A 

 46-page pamphlet preserved in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 

 Washington, D. C. 



160 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



