The term patent-medicine, used to refer to the unregulated quack remedies of the 1800’s, such as those featured in traveling medicine shows, may be confusing. How could these medicines have been patented? Does this term refer to the United States Patent Office or any other patent-granting organization? In reality, the term patent used in patent-medicine had […]
Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night Tea Review
My wife hates all tea whether is it tea made with actual tea leaves, or it is an herbal tea (semantics, it’s an infusion but we call it all tea). My son and I, though, tough guys that we are, we like all sorts of tea. We drink iced tea by the gallon and enjoy […]
What Was Musterole?
Musterole was a medicinal rub that was used similar to Vicks VapoRub but could also be used similarly to Ben Gay and other muscle and joint pain rubs. It is often said that Musterole existed long before Vicks Vapo-Rub, but this is an erroneous assumption, as we shall see. Musterole was first introduced in 1905, […]
Why Did They Use Arsenic in Patent Medicines?
Arsenic was known as both a poison and a medicine for thousands of years. We have all read famous stories of its use in poisoning, such as the Roman Emperor Nero using it to poison his stepbrother. Its use in medicine is not as well-known. In Chinese medicine, where it is called pi shuang, it […]
Parker’s Tonic: The Intoxicating Non-Inoxicating Stimulant
Parker’s Tonic, established around 1890, was advertised as a “purely vegetable extract.” It was recommended to cure coughs, consumption, and asthma by rejuvenating the blood. It basically claimed to stimulate and restore the body without intoxicating you. In those days, alcohol was often thought to be a stimulant. This tonic, then, was recommended for alcoholic […]
Bristol’s Sarsaparilla
At first glance you may think this looks like a page about a root-beer. The kind we call “sasparilla.” There is certainly nothing about the advertisment below to make you think otherwise. It is, however, a patent-medicine advertisement for one of the most popular type of nostrums of the 19th century. Sarsaparilla was the name given […]