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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![SEQUAH AND THE AMERICAN MEDICINE SHOW Sequah was, for a period around 1890, one of the most famous British medical practitioners outside London. For the previous few years, he, or rather they (for dozens of Sequahs worked across the country), were extremely successful. Employing unusual marketing methods, Sequah Ltd sold an enor- mous volume of'Indian' medicines. Sequah was the major British representative of a fashion that spread from 1880s America: the infatuation with remedies endowed with the superior medical understanding of Indians. Rarely bought spontaneously, Sequah 'Prairie Flower' and 'Indian Oil', like so many quack remedies, were acquired after exposure to an extravagant medicine show. Performed in cos- tumes redolent of America's wild west and to the accompaniment of a brass band, the Sequah show involved tooth pulling and miraculous cures of rheumatism. Like many quack potions, Sequah remedies were not quite what they were advertised to be. Any effects they had were due far more to the proper- ties of turpentine, weak alkali and alcohol than the Montana herbs and Californian mineral water specified in the recipe that Sequah claimed he had learned from the Apache. Far from a sensational unmasking of these fraudulent practices, however, the eventual downfall of Sequah Ltd in 1909 resulted instead from changes in commercial law and the unfriendly attention of the Inland Revenue. Exhibits II. 1 Advertisement for Sequah medicines. Coloured lithograph; English, [189-?] Along with performances in which salesmen talked up and sold Sequah products, eye- catching advertisements like this were pasted up on walls and hoardings to excite the imagination of the public. They were used to arouse interest and anticipation about Sequah, who would later arrive with his medicine show. When the show left town, Sequah medicines could then be bought from local pharmacists. Names of these pharmacists were printed in local newspapers. CMAC GC/69/10](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20456517_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
