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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![V.9 Burroughs Wellcome & Co. Trade Marks book (1879-1893). Sample of 'Tabloids of Compressed Tea'., [191-?] The trademark book is stamped with the name of the patent agent, Philip M Justice. The first marks are in the name of Silas M Burroughs; the first under Henry Wellcome's name is for 'Tally Ho' perfumery (1880); and the first under the company name Burroughs Wellcome & Co. is for 'Aqua Viva' (1881). Records for 'Tabloid' products first appear in 1884. The opening shown is for the 'Tabloids' of compressed tea. A tin of the product is also displayed. In the competitive pharmaceutical world the legal protection of trademarks was increasingly fiercely fought for. In 1903, Wellcome won a legal battle to protect his sole rights to the use of the term 'Tabloid'. Kindly loaned by The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. V.10 'Hazeline Rose Frost' bottle and box, [192-?] A note included in the box is headed with a quote from Carlyle: The strong thing is the just thing. The product was a rose-tinted skin cream. This sample was produced for a Chinese-speaking market; it sold very well in the Far East. Curiously, the shape of the bottle means that it can only, rather inconveniently, be removed from the bot- tom of the box. Kindly loaned by The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. V.l 1 Framed display of pills, [196-?] The range of products in this display include items for photographic and veterinary as well as human use. The form in which B, W & Co. produced its pills was from early on central to its marketing policy. The word 'Tabloid' (taking its elements from the words tablet and alkaloid) came to Henry Wellcome one night in 1884. It was patented the same year, and subsequently entered both common usage and indeed the dictionary. Kindly loaned by The Wellcome Foundation Ltd. V. 12 'Blossom and the Kepler Twins' (1925); 'Tabloid First Aid for the Mother out Back' (1924). Mock-ups with art work for promotional booklets The illustrations in both are by C W Hesling ('Hez'). 'Blossom' was clearly aimed at a children's market, and describes the dream of a recovering child in which the product 'Kepler' appears prominently. 'Kepler' was a solution of cod liver oil in malt extract used as a dietary supplement. The Wellcome company produced both a 'Tabloid' range of ethical medicines for doctors and milder products for the popular market such as 'Kepler'. The first aid booklet was for the mothers of the Empire,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20456517_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
