What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“ABINGTON MINERAL WATER, SO useful in Chronic Diseases.”

As the first day of summer arrived in 1774, a headline in the Pennsylvania Gazette promoted “ABINGTON MINERAL WATER, inviting residents of Philadelphia and other towns to visit that “most healthy Part of the Province of Pennsylvania.”  There they could experience the waters “SO useful in Chronic Diseases” and recuperate from a variety of ailments.  William French placed that advertisement, offering “good Accommodations, at a modern Expence.”  Interested in encouraging health tourism in his town, he mentioned that “several other commodious Houses in the Neighbourhood of said Spring” also provided lodging for visitors.

In addition to marketing room and board in proximity to the mineral waters, Rush advised that that he had on hand “Dr. RUSH’S Experiments and Observations on the above Mineral Water, with particular Directions in what Diseases, and in what Manner, it should be used.”  He did not specify whether he sold copies or made them available for consultation by his guests, similar to modern hotels displaying fliers, brochures, and other promotional literature for points of interest in the area.  He also did not invoke the full title of the pamphlet, Experiments and Observations on the Minera Waters of Philadelphia, Abington, and Bristol, in the Province of Pennsylvania.  French conveniently left out other sites that competed for health tourism, though he was not the only advertiser who referred to Rush’s pamphlet, originally a paper delivered to the American Philosophical Society in June 1773, as a means of educating the public about the advantages of taking the waters.  The proprietors of the “BRISTOL BATHS and CHALYBEATE WELLS” did so as well in their own advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette a couple of months earlier.  In each instance, those seeking to generate revenue from mineral waters did not simply ask guests to take their word for the supposed benefits to their health; instead, they marshalled evidence from a medical expert as a testimonial on their behalf.  The “commodious Houses” in Abington amounted to pleasant amenities, but it was the healing power of the “MINERAL WATER” that most effectively marketed a stay in that town.