Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey.
- Arnold, Ken, 1960-
- Date:
- 1994
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: Pills and profits : the selling of medicines since 1870 : an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold, Tilli Tansey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Broughton Wright had been legally assigned the patent on Bunyan's death, and was now selling a share of the patent. Sunflowers decorate the borders of the deed. Though patenting was meant to make a nostrum an 'open secret', often the recipes were recorded with considerable vagueness. EPB BF39 (a) 1.10 Elizabeth Cheney's testimonial for Dr Radcliff s Purging Elixir; English, 1737[?] Eighteenth-century newspapers contained numerous advertisements for medicines. As is seen in this example, a standard format adopted was to present a testimonial. The legalistic style of writing and the many specific details included here helped to make it more convincing. Testimonials were commonly written for a small payment; the famous charged more. EPB BF39 (a) 1.11 Advertisement for Holloway's Pills; English, c. 1842 This advertisement is presented in the common format of a testimonial. It describes how William Brooke was cured of ulcerated sores and wound by Holloway's medi- cine after his case had been abandoned by four hospitals. The account was counter signed by the Lord Mayor. Holloway's were the most widely advertised of all Victorian medicines. In 1864 he spent some £40 000 on advertising. EPB BF39 (b) 1.12 Advertisement for 'Curious Issue Plaisters'; English, [late-seventeenth century?] The advertisement offers advice on how to use the Orange Peas and plaisters. It also gives their price at 4 shillings per 100. Though illustrations in advertisements were not commonly used until the eighteenth century, small eye-catching 'cuts' like this one did start appearing from the middle of the seventeenth. EPB BF39 (a) 1.13 'Dr Morison's Pills'. Anonymous song; English, 1831-36 The cover of this satirical song caricatures the 'before and after' trope used in so much medical advertising. The box of pills that the recovered figure is pouring into his mouth suggests taking one every 1/4 of an hour. The factory building in the back- ground is satirically labelled British College of Wealth. James Morison claimed that his Vegetable Universal pills were effective in curing all diseases, and could be taken in doses of up to 30 a day. Hugely successful, he was considered the arch-quack of his time and was heavily criticised in a report on patent medicines in the Lancet. His case was not helped by the contempt that he openly displayed for the medical profession. He is said to have died reaching for a box of his own pills. EPB BF35](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20456517_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
