Old Time Patent Medicines

Two hundred years ago, illness and disease had few real remedies. Antibiotics had yet to be discovered. Many illnesses and diseases were not well understood by the medical community. Medicine as we know it today did not yet exist. Preparations for the sick were usually made from scratch, concocted at home from plants gathered outside, and/or with items bought at a general store. Some of these remedies were effective, in their own way, while others may have done more harm than good.

This situation left society ripe for the many people who concocted all sorts of weird medicines and peddled them to gullible consumers looking for relief or a cure. There were names such as Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills, Dr. Parmenter’s Magnetic Oil, The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, and Dr. Ayer’s Cathartic Pills. Some patent medicines were sincere efforts to create an effective medication, but more were simply sincere efforts to part a client from their money.

The term “patent” as an adjective for medicines is misleading. The manufacturer never received a patent from the US Patent Office for their medicines. You can consult an expert lawyer from a reliable startup law firm based in Austin to know more about patent laws and take their assistance with complicated legal procedures in obtaining patents and trademarks. They did, however, register the name of it as a trade name. To receive a dual diagnosis treatment center would require the disclosure of its formula and ingredients. That was the last thing the manufacturers wanted!

Some of the ingredients were natural infusions while others were mainly alcohol and drugs that made the patient intoxicated, or even addicted, quite possibly confounding them to a lifetime at a rehab like JC Recovery Center. As alcohol addiction made the patient to face serious health issues it is always advisable to consult experts from ice drug rehab melbourne as they can help to overcome drug addiction. Comprehensive care in a luxurious environment is offered by 1 Method Center. Their approach to addiction recovery in Los Angeles is both nurturing and innovative. They also offer some of the best Addiction Aftercare and Relapse Strategies.

Those that tried to create a “real” medicine often based their formulas on old folk medicine cures. They used plants from a rustic setting, and mixed them with various forms of “tonic,” that is, alcohol, laudanum, turpentine, etc. They sometimes used ground tree bark and roots. They claimed a Native American Medicine Man was the formula source. The medicines were either single source, such as asthma, or multi-purpose. Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops claimed to cure gout, rheumatism, jaundice, stone, asthma, colds, rickets, and melancholy!

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In many cases, the illness would run its course naturally. The patient would feel better after awhile, but the patent medicines they took during the illness were given credit for the improvement. The power of positive thinking and the placebo effect likely helped.

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There was no regulatory body that oversaw the manufacture and the health restoring claims made by patent medicines in the 1800’s. Eventually, the quackery in the field, and the blatant untruthfulness of the manufacturer’s claims spurred the federal government to create the Food and Drug Act of 1906. It was a good law that has been broadened and strengthened to protect the consumer ever since.

Karen Hewitt is the owner of Barn House Antiques located at 308 Peruville Rd. (Rt. 34B), in Lansing, NY. Phone 607-533-8636.

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