unofficial synonym of U. S. P. Compound Tincture 

 of Benzoin. Concerning its efiicacy, the United 

 States dispensatory '-* states: "The tincture is occasion- 

 ally employed internally as a stimulating expectorant 

 in chronic bronchitis. More frequently it is used as 

 an inhalent .... It has also been recommended in 

 chronic dysentery . . . but is of doubtful utility." 



A formula for Godfrey's Cordial, under the title 

 of Mixture of Opium and Sassafras, is still carried 

 in the Pharmaceutical recipe hook}" Remingtons practice 

 of pharmacy '"^ retains a formula for Dalby's Carmina- 

 tive under the former J\'ational formulary title of Carmi- 

 native Mixture. 



In the nation of their origin, the continuing interest 

 in the ancient proprietaries seems somewhat more 

 lively than in America. The 1953 edition of Pharma- 

 ceutical formulas, published by the London journal 

 The Chemist and Druggist, includes formulas for eight 

 of the ten old patent medicines described in this study. 

 This compendium, indeed, lists not one, but three 

 different recipes for British Oil, and the formulas bv 

 which Dalby's Carminative may be compounded 

 run on to a total of eight. J'wo lineal descendents 

 of 18th-century firms which took the lead in exporting 

 to America still manufacture remedies made so long 

 ago by their predecessors. May, Roberts & Co., 

 Ltd.. of London, successors to the Newbery interests, 

 continues to market Hooper's Female Pills, whereas 

 W. Sutton & Co. (Druggists' Sundries), London, Ltd., 



'-'"' 7'Ac disprnsalory of the United States of America, 25th ed., 

 Philadelphia, 1955, p. 158. 



'2' The Pharmaceulicat recipe l/ook, 2nd cd., .\moiican Pharma- 

 ceutical Association, 1936, p. 121. 



'JS Eric W. Martin and E. Fiillcrton Cook, editors, Remington's 

 practice nf fiharmary. 11th ed., Easton, Pennsylvania, 1956, p. 

 286. 



of I'.nfield. in Middlesex, succes.sors to Dicey & Co. 

 at Bow Churchyard, currently sells Bateman's Pec- 

 toral Drops. '■' 



In .\merica, however, the impact of the old English 

 patent medicines has been largely absorbed and 

 forgotten. During the past twenty years a revolution 

 in medical therapy has taken place. Most of the 

 drugs in use today were unknown a quarter of a 

 century ago. Some of the newer drugs can really 

 perform certain of the healing miracles claimed by 

 their pretentious proprietors for the old English 

 patent medicines. 



A inore recent import from Britain, penicillin, may 

 prove to have an even longer life on these shores 

 than did Turlington's Balsam or Bateman's Drops. 

 Still, two hundred years is a long time. Despite the 

 fact that these early English patent medicines are 

 nearly forgotten by the public today, their .\merican 

 career is none the less worth tracing. It reflects 

 aspects n(;t only of medical and pharmaceutical 

 history, luit of colonial dependence, cultural nation- 

 alism, industrial development, and popular psy- 

 chology. It reveals how desperate man has been 

 when faced with the terrors of disease, how he has 

 purchased the packaged promises offered by the 

 sincere hut deluded as well as by the charlatan. 

 It shows how science and law have combined to 

 offer man some safeguards against deception in his 

 pursuit of health. 



The time seems ripe to write the epitaph of the old 

 English patent medicines in America. That they are 

 now a chapter of history is a token of medical progress 

 for mankind. 



'29 Letter from Owen H. Waller, editor of The Chemist and 

 Druggist, to George Griffenhagen, January 15, 1957. 



Figure i6. — Turlington's B.\i.s.\m of Life Bottle 

 (all four sides) found in an Indian grave at Mo- 

 bridge, South Dakota; now preserved in the U. S. 

 National Museum. (Cat. jXo. 32462, Archeol.; 

 Smithsonian photo 42936-/I.) 



182 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM Ol HISTORV .AND TECHNOLOGY 



