The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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Castor oil, sweet oil, essence of lemon, peppermint, cinnamon,
wintergreen, horehound, alum, salts, borax, copperas,
saleratus, seidlitz powders, quinine, calomel, opium,
and the like, were usually to be found in even the smaller
stores. The influence of the herb and botanic practice is
noticeable in the lists in the United States Pharmacopoeia
of 1820 and 1830, for among other items listed were digitalis,
bittersweet, juniper, geranium, garlic, tulip tree bark,
sassafras, hops, tobacco, guiac, delphinium, parsley, iris,
wild lettuce, and ergot; also gold, isinglass, prunes, musk,
and yeast.
Not all
the drug inventory was made up of medicines.
Indigo, logwood, fustic, nicwood, madder, and cochineal
were used for dyes; gums were ingredients of dyes, plasters,
inks, and, with turpentine and alcohol, of varnishes and
burning fluids. Other articles were used for confections,
perfumes, and seasoning.
In addition to paints, varnishes, glassware, and doctors'
instruments— at times hardware, notions, and even groceries—the
drug store handled ''patent" medicines, wines,
soft drinks, and usually hard liquor as well. Brandy, port,
and sherry were for "medicinal" purposes. When the prohibition
movement became a factor to reckon with, drug
stores sometimes compromised on "Kentucky wine," also
presumably for medicinal purposes. The drug store's chief
competitors in the sale of both patent medicines and liquor
were the general store, so well known as a dispenser of
whiskey as to be called a "groggery" rather than a grocery
by those with a prohibition bias, and the book store or
stationer's shop, which often had monopoly rights on certain
of the proprietary medicines.
Daniel Drake's soda fountain in his Cincinnati drug store
in 1816 is the first in the West to which we have certain
reference. A dozen years later soda water with syrup and
flavors was widely advertised. Prominent citizens as well
as town loafers, when they dropped in to pass the time of
day, asked for a little soda "with a stick in it." One surmises
that the straw, which came later, as did the ice cream,