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

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of the intestines in some minutes; relieved the dropsy, often
in an hour's time; took away pains of the head and softened
the ears of the deaf; soothed aching in the hollow tooth,
cleansed the blood and served as an antidote against poison.
"It is useful for females, gives color and a fair complexion;
purges imperceptibly and without pain; cures all intermittent
fevers at the third, and is a preservative from all
contagious disorders."^
Four years later at Cincinnati the firm of Richard Lee
and Son, of Baltimore, was advertising worm-destroying
lozenges, essence of mustard, grand restorative, antibilious
pills, sovereign ointment for the itch, ague and fever drops,
Persian lotion, genuine eye water, toothache drops, corn
plasters, lip salve, restorative pov/der for the teeth and
gums, anodyne elixir, and Indian Vegetable Specific.
''These medicines having come into general use, they are
frequently purchased not only by Druggists, but by country
store keepers to sell again ."
. . . And Daniel Drake
and Company, of all people, besides books, marble mortars,
and regular drugs, was selling Dr. S. H. P. Lee's valuable
antibilious pills, Dr. Rogers' celebrated vegetable pulmonic
detergent for coughs and beginning consumptions, and
an "Essential oil of worm seed,
a new and valuable worm
medicine."^
Widely advertised in the early years were the thirteen
patent medicines of Dr. T. W. Dyott, M. D., of Philadelphia,
guaranteed to cure any ills from gout to female
disorders. It required three columns of the small four-page
Vincennes Western Sim in 1815 to set forth the virtues
of these medicines.^*' Advertising simultaneously was Dr.
J. Shinn, whose Panacea (Swaim's) was the only thing
for scrofula or King's Evil, putrid sore throat, rheumatism,
diseases of the bones, syphilis, "ulcers of the laryrux," liver
complaints, and "that dreadful disease occasioned by a long
and excessive use of mercury &c." Testimonials were
appended from tv/o members of the faculty of the University
of Pennsylvania.^^ Panaceas seldom come cheap.
Shinn's cost $24 the dozen, or $2.50 each.