MONEY IN PROPRIETARY COMPOUNDS.
Proprietary Kings and How They Acquired Power--Patent Medicine
Secrets Given Away--Where Perry Davis Found His Recipe--The Parent
of the “Killers”--Men Who Made Their “Pile” in Pills--Fortunes in
“Bitters”--Electricity, or “Mustard Plasters”--The Story of a
“Discovery”--How a Man Made a Fortune With an Indian Cure--“What’s
in a Name?” The Mighty Lubec--Tons of Drugs Taken Every
Day--Triumph of “Soothing Syrup”--A New Patent Medicine for Every
Day of the Year--The Man Who Took Everything.
Owners of proprietary compounds have built up great fortunes in the sale
of their concoctions. Our drug stores are filled with patent medicines,
and millions of “cures” are sold annually. The names of some of these,
such as Hostetter, Brandreth, and Mother Winslow, have become household
words, proving how largely and universally their medicines have sold.
The story is told of one credulous hypochondriac, who, on the theory
that of many shot some one is likely to hit, actually took every kind of
patent medicine in the world, or at least of every sort he had heard
about. As there are more than three hundred and sixty diverse
concoctions, this genius must have taken a different kind for every day
of the year, or else have extended his experiments through a long
period, which seems impossible under the circumstances. It is said that
Perry Davis obtained his famous “Discovery” in the form of a recipe in
an old newspaper which he found in an outhouse. This was the foundation
of one of the largest fortunes in patent medicines, and it was the
parent of all the “Killers.” The men who have made their piles in
“pills” may be counted by the hundred. Perhaps the “Soothing Syrup”
success is the most signal example of “_multum in parvo_.” It is sold by
the million bottles, and yet it is nothing but a little paregoric
dropped in some sweet mixture. “Lubec” is a mighty name, but anybody can
be a Lubec so far as the question of perfumery goes. Among the anecdotes
of medicine venders we have only space for one or two. A man was crying
up the virtues of an electric belt, and it was found that he had
adroitly attached a strip of mustard plaster to the magic band, and this
when heated by contact with the warm skin produced redness and an
itching, which were supposed by the too trusting patient to be the
effects of the healing electricity. Another man has made a fortune with
an “Indian Plant.” He travels about the country with what he advertises
to be a “troop of Indians,” giving performances and hawking his “cures.”
The “Indians” are New York toughs, and the “medicine plant” is a common
pasture weed. We give no sort of countenance to these frauds, but,
dismissing them all, there are still both profit to the patient and
profit to the maker in the taking of proprietary medicines. To succeed
in this line one should first have an article of genuine merit, and then
advertise lavishly. Below are given some recipes quite as good as those
that have made fortunes for their possessors, and in some cases the
exact formulas of these widely renowned medicines are given.