Medical Department #27 - Civil War Snake Oil - Part IV - Patent Medicines and Civil War Veterans

In the first and second installments of this series, I described the rising popularity of so-called “patent medicines” up to the years of the Civil War and the booming numbers of nostrums during the war and after. In Part III, I described Abraham Lincoln’s own interesting association with “quack medicines,” from his days as a lawyer in Springfield, to his inauguration, his presidency, and many years after his assassination.

In this concluding part of the series, I describe how patent medicine firms marketed their wares specifically to Civil War veterans in the post-war years, and – as during the war – counted on testimonials from the erstwhile soldiers to prop up their “snake oil” to the American public.

PATENT MEDICINES AND THE CIVIL WAR

PART IV – “PINK PILLS FOR PALE VETERANS”
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – August 2009

Two Union army veterans – Z. C. Patten and T. H. Payne - wasted little time getting in on the patent medicine action. After they were mustered out of the army in Chattanooga, they remained in the city and opened a stationery business and soon after purchased the Chattanooga Times, which was burdened with debt. The ambitious Patten then bought the recipe for “Thedford’s Black Draught,” a laxative tea first formulated in the 1840s by Dr. A. O. Simmons and then passed to Simmons’ son-in-law, J. H. Thedford in the mid-1850s.

Patten then began selling Black Draught through his “Chattanooga Medicine Company,” concentrating his sales in country stores that dotted the landscape of the ex-Confederacy, with a few border-states added for good measure. His association with the Times provided an ideal venue for advertising. The company’s Black Draught and “Wine of Cardui” (for “female complaints”) become Southern staples.

Aging veterans attached their names to Black Draught testimonials, including this one from a 1916 issue of Confederate Veteran:

“I am an old Confederate veteran, 67 years of age…I am hale and hearty and can swing a 14-inch plow all day long…I don’t allow myself or my family to get sick…When I get up in the morning and have a bitter taste in my mouth or a dull headache, I take a dose of Black Draught after eating a little breakfast, another dose at noon and another at night, and it has never failed to cleanse my stomach and liver.”

The firm has remained in Chattanooga to this day. In 1969, it went public, and adopted the name “Chattem” (NASDAQ = CHTT). It no longer sells Black Draught or Cardui, but readers are no doubt familiar with many of its products, including Gold Bond Powder, Selsun Blue, Aspercreme, and other popular consumer goods. Even more fascinating is that the current CEO of Chattem, Zan Guerry, is a descendant of Z. C. Patten!

Another well-known nostrum that made a splash among veterans was “Dr. William’s “Pink Pills for Pale People.” The medicine was invented in 1886 by Dr. William F. Jackson, an Ontario physician. In June 1890, another Canadian – pharmacist George T. Fulford – purchased Jackson’s patent for $53. Fulford invested heavily in advertising (more than $300,000 in the first years alone!) and was soon selling millions of boxes a year in Canada. Fulford then formed a partnership with a Schenectady, New York, businessman to market the pills in the United States.

Fulford claimed a remarkable number of cures for his “Pink Pills,” including anemia, bronchitis, headache, indigestion, lumbago, neuralgia, rheumatism, and St. Vitus’ Dance. In the mid-1890s, the Schenectady branch sent out a 4-page marketing pamphlet to Union veterans (the author has the brochure in his collection). Three of the pages had color prints or sketches to provide the reader with fond memories of their service. Inside, the brochure invited veterans to “please fill out and return this list of questions” so that they could be advised on a cure by return mail, free of charge:

• Were you WOUNDED during the War?


• If so, HOW and WHERE?


• Do you attribute your present ill-health to your war experiences?


• How has it affected you, and what is the nature of your disease?

The brochure also reminded veterans:

“It is not alone those who were wounded who deserve our sympathy: it is the great majority WHO WERE NOT, but who contracted the seeds of disease in Southern swamps and prisons, and who have as a consequence lost their health before their time – THESE are as deserving of sympathy as their wounded comrades and should have equal reward.”

“Pink Pills for Pale People” also garnered veteran testimonials, including this one found in an 1898 issue of American Gardening:

“I served three years in the 124th Illinois…The strain of army life did its work in undermining my health…For some time I suffered from general debility and nervousness…My brother is a doctor, but all his efforts to help me failed…Finally, having read articles regarding cures…by Dr. Williams’' Pink Pills for Pale People, I decided to try them. That was in 1896. I bought a box and took the pills according to instructions. Just four days later, I had the happiest hours I had known for years…”

Given the stakes at hand (patent medicine sales grew to nearly $80 million by the turn of the century), it is not surprising that soliciting testimonials from veterans had clever, cunning, and downright ugly aspects. For example, Dr. Coutant – the maker of a very dubious deafness cure – promoted his nostrum through the testimonials of one Henry Farrar. Under the banner headline, “His Hearing Was Restored,” Coutant’s ads showed sectional sensitivity: in Northern newspapers, Farrar was a “Civil War veteran” shown in the garb of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), declaring that his “beloved bugle…led troops to many a victory.” In Southern papers, however, Farrar was shown in civilian dress, identified simply as a musician, whose “beloved cornet…helped in his career.”

More sinister was the practice of “testimonial brokers” who solicited testimonials on a contract basis, earning as much as $5,000 by soliciting endorsements from senators ($75 a pop) and congressmen ($40) and influential men in the War Department. One such broker bragged that there were “easy-going congressmen” who would “sign their names to anything” and “a lot of broken-down army veterans” hanging around Washington, who would – for a few dollars - “go their old army officers on a basis of old acquaintance sake and get testimonials.”

The Comstock Medicine Company engaged in a more innocent practice: in the late 1880s, the company took advantage of the growing popularity of Confederate currency by printing advertisements for its “Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills” on the back of facsimile rebel $20 bills!

Sometimes, testimonials could get veterans into hot water. Comrade J. R. Ketchum – a veteran with the GAR in Missouri – used his Post letterhead to commend a patent medicine to the nostrum’s maker in Maine. The medicine company quickly distributed facsimiles of the letter throughout the country. GAR members were forbidden to use the badge of the Order or the letters “G-A-R” in advertisements for any private business. Ketchum was gently reprimanded for his careless mistake.

In another case, reported in an 1897 issue of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, a Massachusetts veteran had given “a testimonial to a patent-medicine manufacturer, stating that he had been entirely cured by his nostrum. It seems that he was receiving a pension for the ills of which the medicine cured him, and that when the authorities learned of his recovery, his pension was cut off.” The Journal wondered “Is he likely to suffer relapse? And if he does will he get back his pension?"

A British medical journal, seeing reports of the veteran’s plight in American papers, had the answer: “[The authorities] would, we imagine, be more likely to recommend him a further course of the patent remedy which had proved so efficacious before.”

Almost Perfect - Willard Schmidt - 1955

A couple of years ago, I put up a short post about the passing of my great uncle, Willard Schmidt, a former pitcher for the Cardinals and Reds in the big leagues.

The recent perfect game pitched by Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox brought back two good memories:

1) Being a fan of the Sox - I lived in the far NW Chicago 'burbs from 1995-2004 and picked the Sox as my new team to root for (having been a lifelong Royals fan)...that's not easy (maybe it is) when your entire family is Cubs fans. I got to see several games at new Comiskey and Buerhle (and Paul Konerko) is among the few, if only, players left from the teams I rooted for.

2) Not so much a memory, because I wasn't even born yet, but I sure would have liked to have been there: the *almost* perfect game that rookie Willard Schmidt pitched against the Cubs in early September 1955...20 straight outs into the 7th inning before the roof caved in...must have been exciting for Willard and the fans, though. Who is to blame? Either Ernie Banks or some dopey Cubs fan who jinxed Willard by talking about a perfect game while it was in progress...don't you know that's taboo?!

Enjoy this newspaper clipping from the September 5, 1955, issue of the Salina (Kansas) Journal.

Medical Department #26 - "Turning a Blind Eye"

Did you know that eye injuries have gone from less than 1% of total wounds in the Civil War to greater than 10% during modern operations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan?

It is due in no small part because of the hot, dirty, and dustry conditions. The emergence of IEDs and the use of lasers have also contributed to an increasing number of eye injuries. Indeed, recent news reports describe injuries - including permanent blindness - from green lasers (or "dazzlers") being used in the campaign.

To carry on with the theme, below is an older "Medical Department" column of mine about the eye problems that Jefferson Davis suffered.

TURNING A BLIND EYE
By James M. Schmidt
The Civil War News – “Medical Department” – February 2007

When it comes to having your photograph taken, do you have a “good side”? Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, did. Davis fought health problems for a good part of his life, including a nearly fatal bout with malaria in 1836. He was seriously ill again in the winter of 1857-1858, and by February he began suffering from a relapse of a chronic inflammation of his left eye. The disease was so bad that a visiting ophthalmologist commented “I do not see why this eye has not burst.” As a result, most photos of Davis are in right profile, thus hiding his left eye.

In their article, “The Eye Disease of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889)” (Survey of Ophthalmology, Nov-Dec 2006, Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 596-600), Dr. Richard W. Hertle and Robert Spellman use historical evidence from multiple sources to propose a diagnosis for Davis’s eye condition and consider how the disease could have influenced military and political decisions during the Civil War. Dr. Hertle has also written about eye injuries and the Civil War in general in a previous article entitled “Ophthalmic Injuries and Civil War Medicine” (Documenta Ophthalmologica, 1997, Vol. 94, pp. 123-137).

Dr. Hertle is a native of Brooklyn, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree at Ohio State University in 1979 and his medical degree in 1984 at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. After internships and fellowships at hospitals in Ohio he was a resident at Boston University Medical Center. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and was a senior scientist at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health . Presently he holds a number of appointments, including Chief of the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology, and Professor of Ophthalmology, at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

Dr. Hertle’s co-author, Robert Spellman, is his nephew. Robert (affectionately known to his uncle as “Bobby”) is a senior at Monsignor Bonner High School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Robert has been involved in Civil War living history for about five years. “He was fascinated by my passion for the Civil War and this became a part of our relationship,” Dr. Hertle told me. Robert has also worked at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia.

Dr. Hertle became interested in Jefferson Davis’s eye condition after reading William J. Cooper’s biography, Jefferson Davis, American (Knopf, 2000). “I read Cooper’s book and found hints of his problem,” he told me, adding “This was the impetus for trying to find out exactly what he had and how this may have influenced some of his decisions.”

They begin the article with a brief biography of Davis as soldier, politician, and statesman, and then turns to a discussion of the eye disease that can be traced back to his first bout with malaria. About a dozen years later, during a relapse, Davis suffered a “severe eye attack” such that, in the words of his wife Varina, he could not “bear a ray of light on either eye.” Documents show that the disease recurred almost annually from that time and through the Civil War.

In a severe relapse in1858, Davis was seen by two famous eye physicians of the time – Drs. Robert Stone and Isaac Hayes. Stone described the condition of Davis’s left eye in detail, including “ulceration of the cornea,” “abscess of the eye,” and “hypopyon” (a collection of pus cells in the aqueous humor). It was Hayes who commented that he couldn’t see why Davis’s eye had not already burst. Davis was given treatments of the day, including “quiet” and bandages soaked in herbal remedies; he also underwent eye surgeries in 1859 and 1860.

Next, Dr. Hertle puts on his clinician’s hat, and discusses a possible diagnosis of Davis’s disease. He feels that it can be divided into at least two parts – a primary disease and the secondary consequences of the inflammation and, not surprisingly, the treatments. In Dr. Hertle’s opinion, the list of possible primary diseases is long, and includes no less than a dozen infectious agents. Using a combination of anecdotal and scientific evidence – including modern studies – Dr. Hertle and his nephew conclude that Davis suffered from “herpes simplex keratouveitis,” a condition that remains a major cause of injury to the eye.

An especially interesting part of the article concerns the authors’ opinion that Davis’s eye condition had consequences during the Civil War, especially during the spring and early summer of 1863. At that time, Davis was confined to his home for weeks at a time, and the disease thus interfered with his duties as President of the Confederate States. Coincidentally, it was also a pivotal period in military planning for the Confederacy. The authors argue that the eye disease, or perhaps medicines used in the treatment, impaired Davis’s decision-making ability resulting in poor advice to and poor communication with senior military commanders such as Lee and Pemberton.

Dr. Hertle has been a history buff for a long time - an interest that he inherited from his father. “I have been an amateur Civil War historian since about 1990, when, during my training I was faced with taking care of many trauma patients,” Dr. Hertle told me. He recognized a common theme throughout history: the influence of war on rapid developments in medical innovation and practice. “The Civil War was particularly interesting as a focal point for change in the pre-microbiologic era,” he told me, adding “The more we look at the Civil War period the more firsts in medicine and surgery become apparent.”

Jefferson Davis’s is not the only interesting eye-related story in the Civil War. “Benjamin Butler had strabismus (“lazy eye”),” Dr. Hertle told me, adding that “there were also great advances in prosthetic eyes as a result of the War.” He noted that discoveries regarding the neurology of the visual system were part of larger investigations and observation of battlefield injuries and diseases on the brain seen at large specialty hospitals in which patients with neurological diseases were cared for.

Modern war, including the present war in Iraq, poses some particular challenges when it comes to military ophthalmology. Indeed, eye injury rates in battle have been increasing over the last 150 years. Data from the U.S. Army’s Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine show that ocular injuries have gone from less than 1% of total injuries in the Civil War to 13% during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

“I think that ‘high tech’ instrumentation and desert warfare require special visual and ocular motor skills and protection, respectively,” Dr. Hertle told me. “The acceptance by the armed forces of refractive surgical procedures (e.g., LASIK and radial keratotomy) has allowed our soldiers to go into battle without the need for specific optical correction such as spectacles and contact lenses.” He added that the dry, dusty and intense UV rays in the present theaters of conflict can be detrimental to the health of the ocular surface, lens, and retina.

James Durney at TOCWOC Reviews Lincoln's Labels!

I want to thank James Durney for posting a very kind review of my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War, on Brett Schulte's very popular TOCWOC blog today. James is a Top500 amazon reviewer (and a fellow Facebooker!) and does us authors a great favor by cross-posting his reviews on the other online booksellers as well, which requires a good amount of time on his part.

Excerpts:

"Books on logistics tend to be about as much fun to read as watching the grass grow...[but] the response of companies to the demands of a major war is important. This is a complex and compelling story of companies balancing government contracts with their normal customers...Until reading “Lincoln’s Labels”, I did not think it possible for a book about war production to be informative and fun.

"Each chapter covers a company that supplied the Union armies during the Civil War and is still in business. This forms an instant connection with the war and the reader...The author links each of these companies to the American Civil War, how they responded and profited. In place of a lengthy dry tome, we have a lively history of the company during the war.

"Each company has a chapter. This allows the author to concentrate our attention in one industry with almost no distractions. Sufficient background information is provided for the reader to grasp the industry specific issues caused by the war. The balance of the chapter is an easy to read, informative history..."

I am so happy - and humbled - at James' kind review and I can tell that he "got" it, that is, he identified - and appreciated - the mission of the book. I couldn't ask for more. Thanks, James!

For more reviews of Lincoln's Labels, please see:

Rea Andrew Redd - The Civil War Librarian
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Andrew Wagenhoffer - Civil War Books and Authors
Michael Aubrecht - Pinstripe Press
Reader Testimonial
Advance Praise/Blurbs

Long Time, No Blog

Just a quick note to let readers know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Lighter blogging early this summer, that's all. Just returned from a nice holiday to visit family in Oklahoma and will be back at it again, soon. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday.