172  The  Evolution  of  Nostrum  Ve?tding.  {AmAJPOrnr,'i905arm' 
of  the  makers  of  nostrums  dictated  the  recognition  of  such  revolt- 
ing relics  from  ancient  practice  and  barbarism. 
Many  of  the  practitioners  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centu- 
ries prided  themselves  on  their  use  of  special  remedies,  and  adopted 
a  style  of  advertising  their  infallible  treatments  continued  in  some 
quarters  even  to  the  present  day.  St.  John  Long,  who  practised  as 
a  "  consumption  doctor  "  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  was  a 
noted  example  of  this  class.  His  principal  remedy  was  a  secret 
embrocation  which  he  would  not  permit  out  of  his  hands.  The  St. 
John  Long's  Liniment  of  the  shop  is  presumably  an  imitation  of  the 
same. 
In  America  it  is  well  known  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  colonies 
many  of  these  proprietary  remedies  were  imported,  and  that  quite 
early  in  the  history  of  our  country  records  show  that  the  monas- 
teries engaged  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  such  medicines.  For 
some  of  the  popular  imported  remedies  formulas  were  proposed,  and 
many  of  the  leading  druggists  engaged  in  supplying  their  home  trade 
with  products  of  their  own  manufacture.  Naturally,  there  was  con- 
siderable diversity  in  the  recipes  and  resulting  products,  and  one  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  was  to  ap- 
point a  committee  composed  of  Charles  Allen,  Daniel  B.  Smith, 
Warder  Morris,  E.  B.  Garrigues  and  William  Bakes,  to  investigate 
the  subject  and  submit  satisfactory  formulas. 
On  May  4,  1824,  they  submitted  a  report  to  the  College,  and 
their  formulas  for  the  following  were  adopted :  Hooper's  Female 
Pills,  Andersons  Scott's  Pills,  Bateman's  Pectoral  Drops,  Godfrey's 
Cordial,  Dalby's  Carminative,  Turlington's  Balsam  of  Life,  Steer's 
Opodeldoc  and  British  Oil.  These  formulas  were  published,  and  modi- 
fications of  the  foreign  wrappers  printed,  and  a  local  manufacturer 
at  once  engaged  in  manufacturing  the  peculiar  vials  as  used  abroad, 
and  thus  standard,  uniform  and  satisfactory  products  of  these  house- 
hold remedies  became  possible.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  such 
prominent  pharmacists  of  that  day  considered  the  subject  of  such 
importance  and  devoted  their  time  and  energy  to  such  commodities. 
At  the  Semi-Centennial  Celebration  of  the  American  Pharmaceuti- 
cal Association  (in  1902),  in  the  historical  exhibition,  Mr.  S.  W. 
Heinitsh,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  showed  a  collection  of  old  proprietary 
remedies,  such  as  had  been  sold  at  the  Heinitsh  Pharmacy,  in  that 
city,  and  several  of  these  were  more  than  1 00  years  old. 
