{"id":654,"date":"2018-11-25T20:33:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T20:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:37:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:37:25","slug":"quack-medicines-miracle-cures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/25\/quack-medicines-miracle-cures\/","title":{"rendered":"Quack medicines and ‘miracle cures’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A further look at the discomforting world of Victorian \u2018cures\u2019 for illness<\/h2>\n

In July 1863, a former Carlisle weaver named Thomas Hetherington was fined \u00a35 by magistrates in Hartlepool for selling quack medicines in the market place there.<\/p>\n

The name is too common to trace \u2013 there are no obvious candidates in Carlisle in 1861. What surprised me a little was the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Because trading standards in Victorian times left a lot to be desired. Meanwhile, advertising standards were pretty much non-existent.<\/p>\n

The Advertising Standards Authority<\/a> website\u00a0says advertising controls didn\u2019t really take off until the 1920s. Before then, quack medicines could be advertised with impunity.<\/p>\n

Quack medicines and fine fortunes<\/h2>\n

\u2018Doctor\u2019 Samuel Solomon, of Liverpool, made a fortune out of his Cordial Balm of Gilead.<\/p>\n

An 1801 advert claims it offers permanent relief to nervous disorders proceeding from immoderate use of tea, hard drinking, excess of grief, dissipated pleasure, immoderate course of the menses, etc.<\/p>\n

Supposed to contain ingredients from the Holy Land, it was actually lemon peel and brandy. Which may have offered some temporary relief from period pains, but probably didn\u2019t restore thousands in the West Indies \u2018from the jaws of death\u2019 from yellow fever, as claimed.<\/p>\n

Real medicine was making strides. Also in January 1801, upwards of a thousand people, of all ages, were innoculated at Lowther<\/strong> with the cow pox vaccine, by a Dr Thornton, of London, who was visiting the Earl of Lonsdale. The Earl had previously sent a healthy girl \u2018infected with this matter\u2019 to a Dr Heysham, and \u2018from this subject\u2019 the vaccine was produced.<\/p>\n

But, such progress may inadvertently have helped purveyors of quack medicines to trick people. If you know real medical science is making valuable discoveries, who is to say the pills and potions being advertised aren\u2019t among them?<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just ex-weavers peddling quack medicines as miracle cures. Though you have to hope the shop keepers who stocked them believed they were genuine products, with medicinal value.<\/p>\n

Jefferay Carruthers \u2013 cures for all ills (and fine tea!)<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 1853, one advert says J Carruthers, chemist and grocer of 56-57 Scotch Street, Carlisle, stocks Measam\u2019s Medicated Cream. Who knows what was in it, but it was said to cure everything from scurvy to rheumatism to a foot run over by a railway waggon, to cancer!<\/p>\n

J Carruthers was Jefferay Carruthers, who in a previous post<\/a>\u00a0was advertising coffee and tea.<\/p>\n

The son of George Carruthers<\/strong> and Mary Peat<\/strong>, he was born in 1825. Father George was a seafarer turned grocer and publican, who kept a pub at Annan (where Jefferay was born),\u00a0 <\/span>and later the Highland Laddie pub, at Glasson.<\/p>\n

Quack medicines sold in good faith<\/b><\/h2>\n

Jefferay Carruthers established himself in Scotch Street (first door above the butcher\u2019s market). In 1853, he also opened a drug, grocery and general provision shop in Port Carlisle \u2013 where his (late) mother\u2019s family were well established.<\/p>\n

Jefferay Carruthers\u2019 Carlisle shop (for sure) also stocked: Dr Scott\u2019s Bilious and Liver Pills, Lambert\u2019s Asthmatic Balsam, and \u201cA New Discovery\u2026 Irving\u2019s Syrup of Wild Cherry not only gives freedom of breathing in ten minutes, it prevents consumption. And cures coughs and colds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is unfair to lump all these into a post talking about \u2018quack medicines\u2019. Dr Scott\u2019s Bilious and Liver Pills were still being marketed in the 1950s and for all I know, may well have contained ingredients that were good for the digestive system. It\u2019s Victorian advertising claiming that what may simply have been an antacid could also cure giddiness, coughs, colds and depression that taints things with quackery. At least they didn\u2019t contain mercury \u2013 once thought a cure for diseases of the liver.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like we should be smug today about our \u2018gullible\u2019 ancestors \u2013 aromatherapy, anyone?!<\/p>\n

Shop-keepers did at least need an annual licence<\/a> to make and\/or sell medicines \u2013 though this seems to have been more about tax than public health!<\/p>\n

Thank you darling, for sharing<\/b><\/h2>\n

In 1854, Jefferay Carruthers was advertising for sale: his own Carruthers\u2019 Pectoral Cough Lozenges; Holloway\u2019s Pills (cure asthma, piles, sore throats, worms and a lot more!); Carruthers\u2019 alternative powders for horses; Carruthers\u2019 Essence for Toothache, and: \u2018just arrived, oranges, oranges, oranges\u2019.<\/p>\n

He may well also have stocked sarsaparilla. The following testimonial for sarsaparilla appeared within an advert the Carlisle Patriot<\/em> on October 29, 1853.<\/p>\n

\u2018My wife has been afflicted for the last twenty years with general debility, prostration, sour stomach, costiveness, piles, dyspepsia and nervous sick headache.<\/p>\n

\u2018She has suffered also with pain over the small of the back and a burning sensation over the chest and abdomen.<\/p>\n

\u2018All these difficulties were brought on from taking a violent cold during menstruation, which fastened upon her system with such tenacity and violence that it broke down all her strength and made her a helpless invalid.<\/p>\n

\u2018All cured by less than two bottles of Old Dr Townsend\u2019s Sarsaparilla.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sylvester W Worth, Williamsburg, Sept 5, 1848.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the sake of poor Mrs Worth, one can only hope that it never appeared in any newspaper in Virginia, for her friends and neighbours to read.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a while<\/b><\/h2>\n

The advertisement I have used to illustrate this post comes from an almanac that is among an assortment of ephemera handed down through my family.<\/p>\n

If the thought of beef & malt wine wasn\u2019t enough to make you pretend to feel better, the threat of drinking diluted petrol sounds a real \u2018kill or cure\u2019.<\/p>\n

The date of the almanac?<\/p>\n

1930.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  • You can read my previous article on the topic here:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/21\/victorian-cures\/<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A further look at the discomforting world of Victorian \u2018cures\u2019 for illness In July 1863, a former Carlisle weaver named Thomas Hetherington was fined \u00a35 by magistrates in Hartlepool for selling quack medicines in the market place there. The name is too common to trace \u2013 there are no obvious candidates in Carlisle in 1861. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,136,3,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","category-medicine","category-social-history","category-victorian-life"],"yoast_head":"\nQuack medicines and 'miracle cures' - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Quack medicines and 'miracle cures' were a staple among the adverts in Victorian newspapers. 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