What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Proper medicines in all stages of the Venereal disease put up with the most faithful attention to the symptoms.”
Patrick Kennedy, a surgeon and apothecary, advertised an “assortment of genuine Patent Medicines” available at his “Drug-Store” in Baltimore in the May 23, 1775, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette. He carried many familiar items, including Bateman’s Drops and Stoughton’s Bitters, as well as “a few boxes of Patent dentifrice powder, for cleaning and beautifying the teeth.” He also “compounded [prescriptions] with care and fidelity.”
Beyond those medicines and services, Kennedy devoted a significant portion of his advertisement to addressing readers who contracted syphilis and other venereal diseases. “Proper medicines in all stages of the Venereal disease,” the apothecary advised, “put up with the most faithful attention to the symptoms.” In other words, Kennedy devised prescriptions baes on the specific symptoms that patients reported to him. When doing so, he observed “the most profound secrecy” to protect the privacy of his clients. Prospective patients could trust Kennedy’s discretion concerning such delicate matters. In addition to residents of Baltimore who visited his shop, he offered these services to “Persons afflicted with this disorder in the country.” He instructed them to send “a line descriptive of their case” and then he would supply “remedies of the most approved kind, with ample directions.” Providing written directions substituted for in-person consultations, allowing patients to use the medicines responsibly and effectively. Although some may have been anxious about submitting their requests in writing, they may have found doing so less embarrassing than discussing their symptoms with the apothecary in his shop. Ordering medicines from a distance made the patients nearly anonymous compared to face-to-face interactions at Kennedy’s shop. His promise of “profound secrecy” also applied to those orders.
For those who had avoided misfortune and wished to keep it that way, the apothecary promoted the “Antivenereal preventive Wash.” He explained that “repeated experiments” demonstrated its “assured efficacy in destroying the recent venereal infection; as it never fails to search after and cleanse away the acting cause of the malady.” Kennedy hoped that readers would consider this preventative regimen worth the investment since it “preserv[ed] the constitution from the long course of medicines” that they would otherwise take after contracting venereal diseases. As Benjamin Franklin had advised a few decades earlier, an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure! Kennedy hoped that sentiment would resonate with prospective clients who sought to avoid venereal diseases.