My Victorian Medicinal Notes
May. 12th, 2023 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stcculkyI have a google doc full of notes on Victorian medicine, so today I'm going to be sharing one of my note entries. This is actually the first one I did, and it's about "Dr. William's Pink Pills for Pale People". If you have any interest in this, feel free to read it. And if not, why're you still reading?
Dr. William’s Pink Pills for Pale People
Victorian era (late) patent medicine pills created by the Dr Williams Medicine Company, later being purchased by the G.T. Fulford & Co. for $53.01 (about $5,401.40 in today's currency) When sold, it became very popular in China, as China had already adapted to the medicinal-style of taking pills. It became very popular worldwide, actually, and many parts of Europe spread tales of its “wonder” as far as Egypt.
Treatment:
These pills were seen as a cure-all. They claimed to cure clinical depression, epilepsy, nervousness, insomnia, chorea, locomotor ataxia, partial paralyxia, seistica, neuralgia rheumatism, nervous headache, the after-effects of la grippe, palpitation of the heart, pale and sallow complexions, [and] all forms of weakness in male or female. The only “evidence” (although it’s obviously false, but I’ll be putting that in its own category) to back up any of this in any way is from Reverend Enoch Hill of M.E. Church of Grand Junction in Iowa, who endorsed the product in several 1900s advertisements, claiming that it cured his chronic headaches, as well as energizing him. Other than this, I can’t find much on the legitimacy of these claims, but I don’t need to. Obviously most (if not all) of it is false.
Ingredients:
These pills were coated in pink sugar. In an analysis of the pills conducted in 1909, the BMA (British Medical Association) revealed that the pills contained sulphate of iron, potassium carbonate, magnesia, powdered liquorice, and sugar. Approximately one third of the iron sulphate in the pills had oxidised in the sampling analysed, leading to the statement that the pills had been "very carelessly prepared". The formula went through several changes, and at one stage included the laxative aloe, the major ingredient of Beecham's Pills. The Pills were finally withdrawn from the market in the 1970s.
-It's iron content actually made it helpful for treating Anemia, so at least it did something.
Dr. William’s Pink Pills for Pale People
Victorian era (late) patent medicine pills created by the Dr Williams Medicine Company, later being purchased by the G.T. Fulford & Co. for $53.01 (about $5,401.40 in today's currency) When sold, it became very popular in China, as China had already adapted to the medicinal-style of taking pills. It became very popular worldwide, actually, and many parts of Europe spread tales of its “wonder” as far as Egypt.
Treatment:
These pills were seen as a cure-all. They claimed to cure clinical depression, epilepsy, nervousness, insomnia, chorea, locomotor ataxia, partial paralyxia, seistica, neuralgia rheumatism, nervous headache, the after-effects of la grippe, palpitation of the heart, pale and sallow complexions, [and] all forms of weakness in male or female. The only “evidence” (although it’s obviously false, but I’ll be putting that in its own category) to back up any of this in any way is from Reverend Enoch Hill of M.E. Church of Grand Junction in Iowa, who endorsed the product in several 1900s advertisements, claiming that it cured his chronic headaches, as well as energizing him. Other than this, I can’t find much on the legitimacy of these claims, but I don’t need to. Obviously most (if not all) of it is false.
Ingredients:
These pills were coated in pink sugar. In an analysis of the pills conducted in 1909, the BMA (British Medical Association) revealed that the pills contained sulphate of iron, potassium carbonate, magnesia, powdered liquorice, and sugar. Approximately one third of the iron sulphate in the pills had oxidised in the sampling analysed, leading to the statement that the pills had been "very carelessly prepared". The formula went through several changes, and at one stage included the laxative aloe, the major ingredient of Beecham's Pills. The Pills were finally withdrawn from the market in the 1970s.
-It's iron content actually made it helpful for treating Anemia, so at least it did something.
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