Do you know the ingredients of the medicines you are taking? Maybe you don’t, but you can easily google what goes into those blood pressure pills or that cough syrup. Modern medicine must be thoroughly tested and approved by the FDA and complete a lengthy process including: discovery/concept, preclinical research, clinical research, FDA review, and finally, FDA post-market safety monitoring. This was not the case if you had an ailment in the 19th century; anyone could put together a concoction that promised to cure whatever your problem was. Some of these glass vials worked, and some didn’t, but either way, in the days before chain-store pharmacies, men like Chauncey Van Valkenburgh and Peter Howard could get you what you needed.
There were several pharmacies along Main Street in Poughkeepsie during the 19th century. These stores, like modern day CVS and Walgreens, sold much more than just over-the-counter drugs and prescriptions; they also sold building materials like window glass and paints. These druggists were sometimes the only option for finding the cure for what ailed you, especially for those who might not be able to afford/or didn’t trust a doctor. Instead, you could put your trust in the hands of the man (and it was always a man) behind the counter to either recommend a remedy, or whip one up for you. We have several empty glass bottles in our collection from local druggists in Poughkeepsie that say things like, glycerin and turpentine. These items were regularly prescribed for toothaches, kidney troubles, cuts, colds, and more. Some local druggists even made up their own creations, like Peter M. Howard, who sold his own form of hair dye in 1869 in his shop at 265 Main Street. In Chauncey Van Valkenburgh’s advertisement for his store, located right next to the Poughkeepsie Hotel, it read, “Choice medicinal liquors, prescriptions compounded carefully, leeches applied.”
If one flips through the pages of the old Poughkeepsie Journal, you will find advertisements for the many outlandish patent medicines that were common throughout the 19th century. Most of the medicines claimed to cure everything including things that had absolutely no connections. These advertisements were the length of articles. With many claiming to be the greatest inventions in medicine. However, there was never a mention of ingredients, which could be things like cocaine, opium, alcohol, and vegetable compounds. In the best of circumstances these “medicines” did very little to cure the actual problems, but might make someone feel better temporarily. However, in worst case scenarios these concoctions were not made by real doctors and caused more problems, like addiction to opiates. In 1855 Dr. L. Wright’s Liquid Cathartic claimed to be “the only medicine ever discovered that will positively cure consumption” (Tuberculosis), however the actual cure for TB did not come along for another century. Jayne’s Hair Tonic claimed to regrow hair, even if you were completely bald (yeah, sure!). Both of these so-called tonics were sold at Van Valkenburgh’s store. Globe pills claimed to be the pill that “No female should be without” and that they could easily sell for $5 a box (thankfully they only sold for 25 cents a box) and could cure you of all of your female issues including being nervous, “giddiness,” “blotches on skin,” “shortness of breath,” and it could even cure your “frightful dreams.”
This form of quackery would continue well into the 20th century and wasn’t put into question until a man named Samuel Hopkins Adams published a series of articles in Collier’s Weekly throughout 1905. In his introduction he stated, “Gullible America will spend this year some seventy-five millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines. In consideration of this sum it will swallow huge quantities of alcohol, an appalling amount of opiates and narcotics, a wide assortment of varied drugs ranging from powerful and dangerous heart depressants to insidious liver stimulants; and, far in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud.” A year later, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act; President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded on this in 1938 with the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which demanded pre-market reviews of the safety of all new drugs.
References:
“The Great American Fraud” by Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1905
Poughkeepsie Journal – 1 Jan 1848, 4 Aug 1855, 1 Sep 1869, 3 Aug 1881, 21 Sep 1884, 7 Jan 1890
Images:
33LD24aC1 – Interior view of Peter Howard’s drug store, 265 Main Street, 1878. LH Collections
VanValkenburghstore – View of Main Street showing Van Valkenburgh’s store next to the Poughkeepsie Hotel, circa 1860s. LH Collections
PJAd-Aug1855 – Advertisement for Dr. L. Wright’s cure for Consumption, from the Poughkeepsie Journal, 1855.
PJAd-Jan1890 – Advertisement for Globe Pills, from the Poughkeepsie Journal, 1890.
