blazed a trail with respect to distinctive packaging. 

 The popularity of the old English remedies, year in 

 and year out, owed much to the fact that though the 

 ingredients inside might vary (unbeknownst to the 

 customer), the shape of the bottle did not. This was 

 the reason proprietors raised such a hue and cry about 

 counterfeiters. The secret of a formula might, if only 

 to a degree, be retained, but simulation of bottle de- 

 sign and printed wrap[)er was easily accomplished, 

 and to the average customer these externals were the 

 medicine. 



This fundamental fact was to be recognized by the 

 committee of Philadelphia pharmacists in 1824. "\Ve 

 are aware" the committeemen reported, "that long 

 custom has so strongly associated the idea of the gen- 

 uineness of the Patent medicines, with particular 

 shapes of the vials that contain them, and with certain 

 printed labels, as to render an alteration in them an 

 affair of difficulty. Many who use these preparations 

 would not purchase British Oil that was put up in a 

 conical vial, nor Turlington's Balsam in a cylindrical 

 one. The stamp of the excise, the king's royal patent, 

 the seal and coat of arms which are to prevent coim- 

 terfeits, the solemn caution against quacks and im- 

 posters, and the certified lists of incredible cures, [all 

 these were printed on the bottle wrappers] have not 

 even now lost their influence." Nor were they for 

 years to come. 



Thus after 1754 the Tmlingion Balsam bottle was 

 pear-shaped, with sloping shoulders, and molded into 

 the glass in crude raised capitals were the proprietor's 

 name and his claim of the kings royal patent.'' 

 Turlington during his life had made one modification. 

 He explained it in a broadside, saying that "to pre- 

 vent the \'illainy of some Persons who buying up my 

 empty Bottles, have basely and wickedly put therein a 

 vile spurious Counterfeit-Sort," he had changed the 

 bottle shape. The date molded into the glass on his 

 supply of new genuine Iwttles was January 26, 1754.^* 

 This was, perhaps, a very fine point of difference from 

 the perspective of the average customer, and in any 

 case the bottle was hidden under its paper wrapper. 



"* "From past times an original bottle of Turlington's Balsam," 

 Chemist and Druggist, September 23, 1905, vol. 67, p. 525; 

 Stewart Schackne, "Bottles," American Druggist, October 1933, 

 vol. 88, pp. 78-81, 186-188, 190, 194; Frederick Fairchild Sher- 

 man, "Some early bottles," Antiques, vol. 3, pp. 122-123; and 

 Stephen Van Rensselaer, Early American bottles and flasks, Peter- 

 borough, New Hampshire, 1926. 



" Waldo R. Wedel and George B. Griffenhagen, "An Eng- 

 lish balsam among the Dakota aborigines," American Journal of 

 Pharmacy, December 1954, vol. 126, pp. 409-415. 



The British Oil bottle was tall and slender and it 

 rested on a square base. Godfrey's Cordial came in a 

 conical \ial witli sleep-pitched sides, the cone's point 

 replaced by a narrow mouth.''' Bateman's Pectoral 

 Drops were packaged in a more common "phial" — a 

 tall and slender cylindrical bottle.'® Dalby's Car- 

 minative came in a bottle not unlike the Godfrey's 

 Cordial bottle, except that Dalby's was impressed 

 with the inscription dalby's carminativ." Steer's 

 Oi)odeldoc bottles were cylindrical in shape, with a 

 wide mouth; some apparently were inscril)ecl opo- 

 deldoc while others carried no such inscri|)tion. .^t 

 least one brand (jf Daffy's Elixir was packaged in a 

 globular Ijottle, according to a picture in a 1743 ad- 

 vertiseinent.'* Speculation regarding the size and 

 shape of the Stoughton bottle varies.'^ At least one 

 Stoughton bottle was described as "Round amber. 

 Tapered from domed shoulder to base. Long 5 in. 

 bulged neck. Square flanged mouth. Flat ba.se." ^ 



Hooper's and .Xnderson's Scots Pills were, of course, 

 not packaged in bottles (at least not the earliest), but 

 were instead sold in the typical oval chip-wood pill 

 boxes. On the lid of the box containing Hooper's 

 Pills was stamped thi.^ inscription: dr. john hooper's 



FEMALE PILLS; BY THE KINO'S PATENT 21 JULY 1743 NO. 



592. So far no example or illustration of Anderson's 

 Scots Pills has been found. .\t least one producer, 

 it will be remembered (page 157), .sealed the box in 

 black wax bearing a lion rampant, three mallets ar- 

 gent, and the bust of Dr. Anderson. 



Source of Supply Sev'ered 



On September 29, 1774, John Boyd's "medicinal 

 store" in Baltimore followed the time-honored custom 

 of advertising in the Maryland Gazelle a fresh supply 

 of medicines newly at hand from England. To this 

 intelligence was added a warning. Since nonimpor- 

 tation agreements bv colonial merchants were immi- 



*^ .Sherman, np. cit. (footnote 53). 



*" .Schackne, op. cit. (footnote 53). 



" George S. and Helen McKearin, American glass, Ne\v- ^■ork, 

 1941. 



'*' Daily Advertiser, London, October 29, 1743. 



™ George Griffenhagen, "Stodgy as a Stoughton bottle," 

 Journal of the .Xmerican Pharmaceutical Association, Practical Phar- 

 macy Edition, January 1956, vol. 17, p. 20; Mitford B. Mathews, 

 ed., A dictionary of Americanisms on historical principles, Chicago, 

 1951, 2 vols.; Bertha KitchcU Whyte, Wisconsin heritage, Boston, 

 1954; Charles Earlc Funk, Heavens to Betsy/ and other curious say- 

 ings, New York, 1955. 



'"' James H. Thompson, B'ttcrs bottles, Watkins Glen, Xcw 

 York, 1947, p. 60. 



168 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECH.NtJLUGY 



