[Guest Post by Deborah Isley, MA in History, Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum Volunteer]
The Snoqualmie Valley did not have a resident doctor until the early 1890s, and it was common for families to treat serious illness and injury from home without the advice of a medical professional.
In fact, doctors were rarely involved in patient care for most of human history. In the absence of modern medicine, the internet, or even nurses, family and community members used knowledge passed down within a community to care for the ill. In the late 1800s, increased commercialization and consumerism led to big business opportunities in creating bottled elixirs sold directly to consumers to treat just about anything.
In the unregulated business of medicine development and sales, unscrupulous businesspeople and even entertainers jumped into this wild west of pharmaceuticals. These medicines were called “patent medicines,” a misnomer because they were not patented at all. The medicines did not have to go through patient trials or even disclose their ingredients, which often included dangerous and addictive substances like opium, alcohol, and cocaine.
Those potent ingredients often made people feel momentarily better, causing them to believe the medicine was working. The medication often claimed to cure many diseases from smallpox to cancer in one easy tonic. In the Snoqualmie Museum, we have evidence that even remote, rural communities purchased and used these products.
Patent medicine makers extensively advertised in newspapers, often including testimonials from satisfied customers. In Seattle, one prominent advertiser was Dr. Eugene Jordan, an anti-establishment doctor who rejected germ theory and sold his proprietary patent medicines statewide.
During the diphtheria epidemics of 1889–1890, Fall City residents Samuel Flint and Charley Cottril provided testimonials in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in which they credited Dr. Jordan’s patent medicines with curing valley residents’ bouts of diphtheria.
In the museum, we also have bottles of two of the most successful patent medicines of the time: Hamlin’s Wizard Oil and Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. Lydia Pinkham gained widespread fame by selling her Vegetable Compound, a blend of herbs, roots, and 20% alcohol, as a remedy for women’s ailments through newspaper ads featuring testimonials and the tagline “A woman’s remedy for women’s ills.”
Due to her widespread advertisements, she became one of the most recognized faces of the era. Meanwhile, magician and showman John Austen Hamlin promoted his Wizard Oil, an ointment containing ingredients like camphor (a waxy substance made from turpentine), ammonia, chloroform, and 50-70% alcohol. It was initially for topical use but later horrifyingly recommended for ingestion.
This medicine was marketed through entertaining Medicine Shows that featured popular entertainers and functioned like a live infomercial. Other medicines, particularly cough medicines, were advertised for use in children and included large amounts of alcohol and often opium.
After a series of exposés published in newspapers and magazines nationwide, the U.S. Congress passed the Safe Food and Drug Act in 1906. The Act required drug manufacturers to properly label certain addictive or dangerous ingredients including morphine, alcohol, and cocaine.
The law was less clear regarding mislabeling medications by claiming miraculous cures. Congress amended the law in 1912, but the government still struggled to enforce regulations over patent medicine manufacturers’ outlandish claims.
For instance, in the museum, we have a bottle of Liquid Sulfur Compound from a Seattle company called Arcodare’s in the early 20th century. It is unclear how long this company and medicine existed, but, interestingly, this bottle states it is “Guaranteed under the Food and Drug Act.” Yet, the medicine still claims to treat many things like eczema, rheumatism, and even cancer.
In another example from the 20th Century, one patent medicine manufacturer marketed Bliss Native Herbs in tablet form, claiming it purified blood and cured kidney and liver disorders, malaria, asthma, and many other ailments. Using the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California sued Bliss Native Herbs for misbranding.
The judgment in the case read, “the article contained no ingredient, or combination of ingredients capable of producing the curative and therapeutic effects claimed.” Still, the government had a difficult time proving that manufacturers intended to defraud consumers.
These unproven remedies once filled the pages of newspapers and convinced desperate families that a cure for whatever ailed them was possible. However, shocking ingredients and unscrupulous business practices also spurred a national reckoning that eventually resulted in stricter laws and better consumer protections.
Some of these patent medicines, among others, are on display now at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum’s At the Turn of the 20th Century exhibit.
References:
- Arizona State University, “Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound (1873–1906),” Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Last modified March 26, 2012. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/lydia-pinkhams-vegetable-compound-1873-1906.
- National Library of Medicine. “Cough Killer’s Secret Ingredient.” Circulating Now, February 1, 2017. Accessed November 14, 2024. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/02/01/cough-killers-secret-ingredient/.
- “Diphtheria Curable.” The Seattle Post Intelligencer. Volume 15, No. 63. January 15, 1889. Page 8, Column 3. Seattle, Washington. Washington Digital Newspapers. Accessed February 26, 2025 at The Seattle Post-intelligencer 15 January 1890 — Washington Digital Newspapers
- Renfro Valley Sells a Mountain of Hamlins Wizard Oil: A Chloroform Elixir Cure?. Anesthesiology 2019; 130:673 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000002741
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Part I: The 1906 Food and Drugs Act and Its Enforcement,” FDA.gov, last modified June 30, 2023, https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/part-i-1906-food-and-drugs-act-and-its-enforcement.
- U.S. v. 1,255 Dozen Packages of Bliss Native Herbs. Case No. 8940. Consent decree of misbranding, product released on bond. Northern District of California, May 23, 1921. FDA Notices of Judgment Collection, Foods and Drugs, 1908-1943. National Library of Medicine. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://fdanj.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/fdnj08940.
- Young, James Harvey. The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America Before Federal Regulation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1961.
- Object IDs from Image #1: Bliss Native Herbs 74.481.A; Carter’s Little Liver Pills 168.40; Oil Stillingia 74.189.C; Sloan’s Liniment 156.50; Buffalo Lithia Water 111.002; St. Jakob’s Oel 574.027; St. Jacob’s Oil 390.022; Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound 074.076.
[Featured Image: An assortment of patent medicines stored at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum. All of these were sold nationally around the turn of the 20th Century]
