Figure ii. — An Original Package of Hooper's 

 Pills, from ihc Samuel Aker, David and George Kass 

 collection, Albany, New York. {Smithsonian photo 

 44201.) 



mixtures to lill ihcin. In the years before the War of 

 1812, the British glass industry maintained a \irtual 

 monopoly of the specially-shaped bottles for Bate- 

 man's, Turlington's, and the other British remedies. 

 When in the 1820's the first titan of made-in-America 

 nostrums, Thomas W. Dyotl of Philadelphia, appeared 

 upon the scene, this \enturesomc entrepreneur decided 

 to make bottles not only for his own assorted remedies 

 but also for the po|)ular Engiisii brands. In time he 

 succeeded in impro\ing the quality of .\merican bottle 

 glass and in draslicajly reducing prices. The standard 

 cost for most of the old English \ ials under the British 

 monopoly had been $5.50 a gross. By the early 1830's 

 Dyott had cut the price to under two dollars.*'' 



Other American glass manufactories followed suit. 

 For example, in 1835 the Free Will Glass Manufactory 

 was making "Godfrey's Cordial," ''Turlington's Bal- 

 sam," and "Opodeldoc Bitters bottles." " An 1848 

 broadside entitled "The Glassblowers' List of Prices 

 of Druggist's Ware," a broadside preserved at the 

 Smithsonian Institution, includes listings for Turling- 

 ton's Bal.sam, Godfrey's Cordial, Dalby's and Small 

 and Large Opodeldoc bottles, among many other 

 American patent medicine bottles. 



In the daybook of the Beverly, Massachusetts, apoth- 

 ecary,*" were inscribed for Turlington's Balsam, 

 three separate formulas, each markedly dififerent from 

 the others. A Philadelphia medical journal in 1811 



" Democratic Press, Philadelphia, July 1 and October 28, 1824; 

 Thomas W. Dyott, An exposition of the system oj moral and mental 

 ahor, established at the glass factory of Dyottsiilte, Philadelphia, 

 1833; and Joseph D. Weeks, "Reports on the manufacture of 

 glass," Report of the manufactures of the United States at the tenth 

 census, Washington, D. C, 1883. 



*' Van Rensscalar, op. cit., (footnote 53), p. 151. 



" Rantoul, op. cit. (footnote 72). 



contained a complaint that ."Americans were using 

 calomel in the preparation of .Ander.son's Scots Pills, 

 and that this practice was a deviation both from the 

 original formula and from the different init still all- 

 vegetable formula by which the jjills were being made 

 in England." Various books were published reveal- 

 ing the "true" formulas, in conflicting versions.** 



Philadelphia College of Pharmacy Formulary 



As the years went Ijy and therapeutic laissez-faire 

 continued to operate, conditions worsened. By the 

 early 1820's, the old English patent medicines, whether 

 of dwindling British vintage or of burgeoning American 

 manufacture, were as familiar as laudanum or castor 

 oil. 



With the demand so extensive and the state of pro- 

 duction so chaotic, the officials of the new Philadel- 

 phia College of Pharmacy were persuaded that reme- 

 dial action was mandatory. In May 1822, the Board 

 of Trustees resolved to appoint a 5-man committee 

 "to .select from such prescriptions for the preparation 

 of Patent Medicines . , ., as may be submitted to 

 them by the members of the College, those which in 

 their opinion, may be deemed most appropriate for 

 tiie different compositions." 



The committee chose for study "eight of the Patent 

 Medicines most in u.se," and sought to ascertain what 

 ingredients these ancient remedies ought by right to 

 contain. Turning to the original formulas, where 

 these were given in English patent .specifications, the 

 ])harmacists soon became convinced that the informa- 

 tion provided by the original proprietors served "only 

 to mislead." 



If the patent specifications were perhaps intention- 

 ally confusing, the committee inquired, how could the 

 original formulas really be known? This quest seemed 

 so fruitless that it was not pursued. Instead the phar- 

 macists turned to American experience in making the 

 English medicines. From many members of the Col- 

 lege, and from other pharmacists as well, recipes were 

 secured. The result was shocking. Although almost 

 every one came bolstered with the assertion that it 

 was true and genuine, the formulas differed so mark- 



s' Philadelphia Medical Museum, new scr., vol. 1, p. 130, 1811. 



** Formulae selectae; or a collection of prescriptions of eminent physi- 

 cians, and the most celebrated patent medicines. New York, 1818; 

 John Ayrton Paris, Pharmacologia; or the history of medicinal sub- 

 stances, with a view to establish the art of prescribing and of composing 

 extemporaneous formulae upon fixed and scientific principles. New York, 

 1822. 



174 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MU.SEU.M OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



