History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills Part 5

For some years past they have not been advertised in newspapers, they being filled with sensational advertis.e.m.e.nts of quack nostrums got up for no other purpose than catch-penny articles ...

The Indian Root Pills obviously claimed a more lofty stature than other, common proprietary remedies. The exclusive representation scheme was also a partial subst.i.tution for newspaper advertising; the company was aggressive in soliciting additional agents--aiming at one in every town and village--and then in encouraging them to push the pills by offering prizes such as watches, jewelry, and table utensils.[10]

[Footnote 10: In connection with this offer the pills were priced to agents at $2 per dozen boxes--$24 per gross--and were to be retailed at $3 per dozen--25 per box. Other agreements, however, probably intended for more substantial dealers, specified a price of $16 per gross for the Indian Root Pills.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 21.--Cover for booklet used as a circular describing the Indian Root Pills.]

What were the ingredients of the Indian Root Pills and the other Comstock preparations? Originally, the formulas for the various remedies were regarded as closely held secrets, divulged only to proprietors and partners--and not even to all of them--and certainly never revealed to the purchasers. But despite this secrecy, charges of counterfeiting and imitating popular preparations were widespread. In many cases, the alleged counterfeits were probably genuine--to the extent that either of these terms has meaning--for it was a recurrent practice for junior partners and clerks at one drug house to branch off on their own, taking some of the secrets with them--just as Andrew B. White left Moore and joined the Comstocks, bringing the Indian Root Pills with him.

In the latter years, under the rules of the Federal Food and Drug Act, the ingredients were required to be listed on the package; thus we know that the Indian Root Pills, in the 1930s and 1940s, contained aloes, mandrake, gamboge, jalap, and cayenne pepper.

_Aloe_ is a tropical plant of which the best known medicinal varieties come from Socotra and Zanzibar; those received by the Comstock factory were generally described as Cape (of Good Hope) _Aloe_. The juice _Aloes_ is extracted from the leaves of this plant and since antiquity has been regarded as a valuable drug, particularly for its laxative and vermifuge properties. _Mandrake_ has always been reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities. _Gamboge_ is a large tree native to Ceylon and Southeast Asia, which produces a resinous gum, more commonly used by painters as a coloring material, but also sometimes employed in medicine as a cathartic. _Jalap_ is a flowering plant which grows only at high alt.i.tudes in Mexico, and its root produces an extract with a powerful purgative effect. All of these ingredients possessed one especial feature highly prized by the patent-medicine manufacturers of the nineteenth century, i.e., they were derived from esoteric plants found only in geographically remote locations. One does find it rather remarkable, however, that the native Indian chiefs who confided the secrets of these remedies to Dr. Morse and Dr. Cunard were so familiar with drugs originating in Asia and Africa.[11] The Indians may very well have been acquainted with the properties of jalap, native to this continent, but the romantic circ.u.mstances of its discovery, early in the last century seem considerably overdrawn, as the medicinal properties of jalap were generally recognized in England as early as 1600.

Whether the formula for the Indian Root Pills had been constant since their "discovery"--as all advertising of the company implied--we have no way of knowing for sure. However, the company's book of trade receipts for the 1860s shows the recurring purchase of large quant.i.ties of these five drugs, which suggests that the ingredients did remain substantially unchanged for over a century. For other remedies manufactured by the company, the ingredients purchased included:

Anise Seed Black Antimony Calomel Camphor Gum Arabic Gum Asphaltum Gum Tragacanth Hemlock Oil h.o.r.ehound Laudanum Licorice Root Magnolia Water Muriatic Acid Saltpetre Sienna Oil Sulphur Wormseed

It is not known where the calomel (mercurous chloride) and some of the other harsher ingredients were used--certainly not in the Indian Root Pills or the Mountain Herb Worm Tea--for the company frequently incorporated warnings against the use of calomel in its advertising and even promised rewards to persons proving that any of its preparations contained calomel.

Less active ingredients used to supply bulk and flavor included alcohol, turpentine, sugar, corn starch, linseed meal, rosin, tallow, and white glue. Very large quant.i.ties of sugar were used, for we find that Comstock was buying one 250-pound barrel of sugar from C.B. Herriman in Ogdensburg approximately once a month. In the patent-medicine business it was necessary, of course, that the pills and tonics must be palatable, neutralizing the unpleasant flavor of some of the active ingredients; therefore large quant.i.ties of sugar and of pleasant-tasting herbs were required. It was also desirable, for obvious reasons, to incorporate some stimulant or habit-forming element into the various preparations.

[Footnote 11: Actually, the formula for the Indian Root Pills would seem to have corresponded closely with that for "Indian Cathartic Pills"

given in _Dr. Chase's Recipes_, published in 1866. These were described as follows:

Aloes and gamboge, of each 1 oz.; mandrake and blood-root, with gum myrrh, of each 1/4 oz.; gum camphor and cayenne, of each 1-1/2 drs.; ginger, 4 oz.; all finely pulverized and thoroughly mixed, with thick mucilage (made by putting a little water upon equal quant.i.ties of gum arabic and gum tragacanth) into pill ma.s.s; then formed into common sized pills. Dose: Two to four pills, according to the robustness of the patient.]

A register of incoming s.h.i.+pments for the year 1905 shows that the factory was still receiving large quant.i.ties of aloes, gamboge, mandrake, jalap, and pepper. One new ingredient being used at this time was talc, some of which originated at Gouverneur, within a few miles of the pill manufactory, but more of it was described as "German talc." The same register gives the formulas for three of the company's other preparations. One of these, the _Nerve & Bone Liniment_, was simply compounded of four elements:

3 gal. Turpentine 2 qts. Linseed Oil 2 lbs. Hemlock 2 lbs. Concentrated Amonia.

The formula for the _Condition Powders_ (for horses and livestock) was far more complex, consisting of:

4 lbs. Sulphur 4 lbs. Saltpetre 4 lbs. Black Antimony 4 lbs. Feongreek Seed 8 lbs. Oil Meal 1-1/2 oz. a.r.s.enic 2 oz. Tart Antimony 6 lbs. Powdered Rosin 2 lbs. Salt 2 lbs. Ashes 4 lbs. Brand (Bran-?).

The name of the third preparation was not given, but the ingredients were:

1 oz. Dry White Lead 1 oz. Oxide of Zinc 1/2 oz. Precipitated Chalk 3 oz. Glycerine Add 1 lb. Glue.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 22.--A partial list of remedies offered for sale by Lucius Comstock in 1854, shortly after the separation of the old company into the rival firms of Comstock & Co. and Comstock & Brother.]

Originally, Comstock and its predecessor firms marketed a large number of remedies. In 1854, Comstock & Company--then controlled by Lucius Comstock--listed nearly forty of its own preparations for sale, namely:

Oldridge's Balm of Columbia George's Honduras Sarsaparilla East India Hair Dye, colors the hair and not the skin Acoustic Oil, for deafness Vermifuge Bartholomew's Expectorant Syrup Carlton's Specific Cure for Ringbone, Spavin and Wind-galls Dr. Sphon's Head Ache Remedy Dr. Connol's Gonorrhea Mixture Mother's Relief Nipple Salve Roach and Bed Bug Bane Spread Plasters Judson's Cherry and Lungwort Azor's Turkish Balm, for the Toilet and Hair Carlton's Condition Powder, for Horses and Cattle Connel's Pain Extractor Western Indian Panaceas Hunter's Pulmonary Balsam Linn's Pills and Bitters Oil of Tannin, for Leather Nerve & Bone Liniment (Hewe's) Nerve & Bone Liniment (Comstock's) Indian Vegetable Elixir Hay's Liniment for Piles Tooth Ache Drops Kline Tooth Drops Carlton's Nerve and Bone Liniment, for Horses Condition Powders, for Horses Pain Killer Lin's Spread Plasters Carlton's Liniment for the Piles, warranted to cure Dr. Mc Nair's Acoustic Oil, for Deafness Dr. Larzetti's Acoustic Oil, for Deafness Salt Rheum Cure Azor's Turkish Wine Dr. Larzetti's Juno Cordial, or Procreative Elixir British Heave Powders

All of the foregoing were medicines for which Lucius claimed to be the sole proprietor--although it is improbable that he manufactured all of them: several of them were probably identical preparations under different labels. In addition to these, he offered a larger list of medicines as a dealer. Brother J. Carlton Comstock must have been the main originator of medicines within the firm; he seems to have specialized largely in veterinary remedies, although the liniment for the piles also stood to his credit. Despite Lucius' claim to sole proprietors.h.i.+p of these remedies, the departing brothers also manufactured and sold most of the identical items, adding two or three additional preparations, such as Dr. Chilton's Fever and Ague Pills and Youatt's Gargling Oil (for animals). Aside from J. Carlton Comstock and Judson, the originators of most of the other preparations are cloaked in mystery; most of them were probably entirely fict.i.tious. Admittedly, William Youatt (1776-1847), for whom several of the animal remedies were named, was an actual British veterinarian and his prescriptions were probably genuine, but whether he authorized their sale by proprietary manufacturers or was himself rewarded in any way are questions for speculation. The versatile Dr. Larzetti seems to have experimented both with impotency and deafness, but his ear oil--a number of specimens of which were still on hand in the abandoned factory--was identical in every respect with Dr. McNair's oil, as the labels and directions, aside only from the names of the doctors, were exactly the same for both preparations. In fact, some careless printer had even made up a batch of circulars headed "Dr. Mc Nair's Acoustic Oil" but concluding with the admonition, "Ask for Larzetti's Acoustic Oil and take no other."

Presumably simple Americans who were distrustful of foreigners would take Mc Nair's oil, but more sophisticated persons, aware of the accomplishments of doctors in Rome and Vienna, might prefer Larzetti's preparation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 23.--Dr. McNair's and Dr. Larzetti's acoustic oil apparently were identical in every respect. Labels and directions, with the difference only of the doctors' names, were quite obviously printed from the same type.]

As the century moved along, the Comstock factory at Morristown reduced the number of remedies it manufactured, and concentrated on the ones that were most successful, which included, besides the Indian Root Pills, Judson's Mountain Herb Pills, Judson's Worm Tea, Carlton's Condition Powders, Carlton's Nerve & Bone Liniment, and Kingsland's Chlorinated Tablets. At some undisclosed point, Carlton's Nerve & Bone Liniment for Horses, originally registered with the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution on June 30, 1851, ceased to be a medicine for animals and became one for humans. And sometime around 1920 the Judson name disappeared, the worm medicine thereafter was superseded by Comstock's Worm Pellets. Long before this, Judson had been transposed into somewhat of a mythical character--"old Dr. Judson"--who had devised the Dead Shot Worm Candy on the basis of seventy years' medical experience.

During the final years of the Comstock business in Morristown, in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, only three items were manufactured and sold: the Indian Root Pills, the Dead Shot Worm Pellets and Comstock's N & B Liniment.[12] The worm pellets had been devised by Mrs. Hill, "an old English nurse of various and extended experience in the foundling hospitals of Great Britain."

Besides its chemicals and herbs, the Comstock factory was a heavy consumer of pillboxes and bottles. While the company advertised, in its latter years, that "our pills are packaged in metal containers--not in cheap wooden boxes," they were, in fact, packaged for many decades in small oval boxes made of a thin wooden veneer. These were manufactured by Ira L. Quay of East Berne, New York, at a price of 12 per gross. The pill factory often must have been a little slow in paying, for Quay was invariably prodding for prompt remittance, as in this letter of December 25, 1868:

Mr Wm h comstock

Dear sir we have sent you one tierce & 3 cases of pill boxes wich we want you to send us a check for as soon as you git this for we have to pay it the first of next month & must have the money if you want eney moure boxes we will send them & wait for the money till the first of april youres truly

Quay & Champion

Quay continued to supply the boxes for at least fifteen years, during which his need for prompt payment never diminished. Comstock also bought large quant.i.ties of bottles, corks, packing boxes, and wrappers.

Throughout the company's long existence, however, more frequent payments were made to printers and stationers--for the heavy flow of almanacs, handbills, labels, trade cards, direction sheets, and billheads--than for all the drugs and packaging materials. In the success achieved by the Indian Root Pills, the printing press was just as important a contributor as the pill-mixing machine.

*The Final Years*

When William Henry Comstock, Sr., moved the Indian Root Pill business to Morristown, in 1867, he was--at age 37--at least approaching middle life. Yet he was still to remain alive, healthy, and in direct charge of the medicine business for more than half a century longer. And the golden era of the patent-medicine business may be said to have coincided very closely with Mr. Comstock's active career--from about 1848 to 1919.

[Footnote 12: However, additional items were manufactured by the Dr.

Howard Medicine Co., affiliated with the Comstock factory in Brockville.

Also, during World War II the company accepted an Army contract for the manufacture and packaging of foot powder.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 24.--In its final years the Comstock factory discontinued most of its old remedies and concentrated upon the three most successful: Comstock's Dead Shot Worm Pellets, Comstock's N. & B.

Liniment, and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills.]

While no schedule of sales, net income, or financial results are available, the fragmentary records make it obvious that the business continued to flourish beyond World War I, and long after the pa.s.sage of the first Food and Drug Act--in 1906. The almanacs were still printed as recently as 1938; while the labels and other advertising matter abandoned their ornate nineteenth-century style and a.s.sumed a distinctly modern aspect--to the extent of introducing comic-style picture stories, featuring the small boy who lacked energy to make the little league baseball team (he had worms), and the girl who lacked male admirers because of pimples on her face (she suffered from irregular elimination). Sales volume of the Morristown factory, however, apparently did reach a peak early in the present century--perhaps around 1910--and began a more rapid decline during the 1920s. During this same period the geographical character of the market s.h.i.+fted significantly; as domestic orders dropped off, a very substantial foreign business, particularly in Latin America, sprang up. While this did not compensate fully for the loss of domestic sales, it did provide a heavy volume that undoubtedly prolonged the life of the Indian Root Pill factory by several decades.

William Henry Comstock, Sr., who first came to Brockville in 1860, at a time when the struggle with White for the control of the pills was still in progress, married a Canadian girl, Josephine Elliot, in 1864; by this marriage he had one son, Edwin, who lived only to the age of 28. In 1893 Comstock married, for a second time, Miss Alice J. Gates, and it is a favorable testimony to the efficacy of some of his own virility medicines that at age 67 he sired another son, William Henry Comstock II (or "Young Bill") on July 4, 1897. In the meanwhile, the elder Comstock had become one of the most prominent citizens of Brockville, which he served three terms as mayor and once represented in the Canadian parliament. Besides his medicine factories on both sides of the river, he was active in other business and civic organizations, helped to promote the Brockville, Westport & Northwestern Railway, and was highly regarded as a philanthropist. Although he lived well into the automobile age, he always preferred his carriage, and acquired a reputation as a connoisseur and breeder of horses. As remarked earlier, his steam yacht was also a familiar sight in the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River.

The medicine business in Morristown was operated as a sole proprietors.h.i.+p by Comstock from the establishment here in 1867 up until 1902, when it was succeeded by W.H. Comstock Co., Ltd., a Canadian corporation. St. Lawrence County deeds record the transfer of the property--still preserving the 36-foot strip for the railroad--from personal to corporate owners.h.i.+p at that time.

Comstock--the same callow youth who had been charged with rifling Lucius' mail in the primitive New York City of 1851--came to the end of his long life in 1919. He was succeeded immediately by his son, William Henry II, who had only recently returned from military service during World War I. According to Mrs. Planty, former Morristown historian, "Young Bill" had been active in the business before the war and was making an inspection of the company's depots in the Orient, in the summer of 1914, when he was stranded in China by the cancellation of trans.p.a.cific s.h.i.+pping services and was therefore obliged to cross China and Russia by the Transiberian Railway. This story, however, strains credulity a trifle, as the journey would have brought him closer to the scene of conflict at that time, and he was, in any event, only 17 years old when these events are supposed to have occurred.

The decline of the patent-medicine business was ascribed by Stewart Holbrook in his _Golden Age of Quackery_ to three main factors: the Pure Food and Drug Acts; the automobile; and higher standards of public education. All of these were, of course, strongly in evidence by the 1920s, when William Henry Comstock II was beginning his career as the head of the Indian Root Pill enterprise. Nevertheless, the Morristown plant was still conducting a very respectable business at this time and was to continue for some four decades longer. The Comstock enterprise never seemed to have been much embarra.s.sed by the muckraking attacks that surrounded the pa.s.sage of the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Aside from the enforcement of these measures by the energetic Harvey Wiley, the two most effective private a.s.saults upon the patent-medicine trade probably were the exposures by Samuel Hopkins Adams in a series of articles in _Collier's_ magazine in 1905-1906, under the t.i.tle, "The Great American Fraud," and the two volumes ent.i.tled, _Nostrums and Quackery_, embodying reprints of numerous articles in the _Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation_ over a period of years. Both sources named names fearlessly and described consequences bluntly. But the Comstock remedies, either because they may have been deemed harmless, or because the company's location in a small village in a remote corner of the country enabled it to escape unfriendly attention, seemed to have enjoyed relative immunity from these attacks. At least, none of the Comstock remedies was mentioned by name.[13] To be sure, these preparations--or at least those destined for consumption within the United States--had to comply with the new drug laws, to publish their ingredients, and over a period of time to reduce sharply the extensive list of conditions which they were supposed to cure. Nevertheless, it seems probable that the general change in public att.i.tudes rather than any direct consequences of legislative enforcement caused the eventual demise of the Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 25.--Comstock packaging building (upper floor used as residence for manager--note laundry) at left, hotel at right. Ferry slip directly ahead. About 1915.]

Foreign business began to a.s.sume considerable importance after 1900; s.h.i.+pments from Morristown to the West Indies and Latin America were heavy, and the company also listed branches (perhaps no more than warehouses or agencies) in London, Hongkong, and Sydney, Australia.

Certain of the order books picked up out of the litter on the floor of the abandoned factory give a suggestion of sales volume since 1900:

[Footnote 13: Dr. William's Pink Pills, also headquartered in Brockville, were not so fortunate, as they were mentioned disparagingly in both the _Collier's_ and American Medical a.s.sociation articles. Among numerous proprietary manufacturers who protested, bl.u.s.tered, or threatened legal action against _Collier's_, the Dr. Williams Co. was one of only two who actually inst.i.tuted a libel suit.]

SALES OF DR. MORSE'S INDIAN ROOT PILLS

gross | | Estimated | | Dollar | Domestic Foreign Total | Amount -----+-------------------------------+------------ 1900 | --- --- 6,238 | 100,000 1910 | 5,975 --- --- | 96,000 1920 | 3,243 --- --- | 52,000 1930 | --- 1,893 --- | 30,000 1941 | 316 --- --- | 5,000