Dr. Weed’s Syrup and Powder for the Bloody Flux

October 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (October 14, 1774).

“The directions for taking the above [medicines], may be seen at the Printing Office.”

Colonial printers not only disseminated advertisements for patent medicines but also sold them to supplement the revenues from the other goods and services they offered at their printing offices.  In some instances, printers cooperated with others in advertising and selling patent medicines.  That seems to have been the case with Thomas Green and Samuel Green, printers of the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy, and Eleazer Oswald in the fall of 1774.  Oswald advertised a “few Boxes of OGDEN’s Antidysenteric Pills, For the Cure of the BLOODY-FLUX, And a few Bottles of WEED’S Syrup, with Powders” in the October 14 edition of the Connecticut Journal.  For those unfamiliar with these nostrums, he explained, “These are excellent medicines for the disorder now prevalent in town, as Ogden’s Pills, when properly administered, have never failed effecting a cure, even in the most desperate Fluxes; nor have Weed’s Syrup and Powder been attended with less success.”  As further evidence, Oswald suggested that prospective customers could examine the directions for the patent medicines at the printing office.

Oswald did not mention his affiliation with the Greens, nor did he give a separate address where customers could purchase the medicines.  In a town the size of New Haven, local readers did not always need advertisers to list their addresses.  In this instance, doing so might have been unnecessary if Oswald worked in the printing office and the community knew that without him stating it in the advertisement.  He apparently spent some time in New Haven in addition to seeking opportunities in other towns.  Born in England, Oswald migrated to the colonies in the early 1770s.  He served as an apprentice to John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal.  In 1779, he entered a partnership with William Goddard in printing the Maryland Journal in Baltimore.  In 1782, he established his own newspaper, the Independent Gazetteer, in Philadelphia.  In the time between his apprenticeship with Holt and his partnership with Goddard, Oswald formed some sort of relationship with the Greens.  He may have worked in their printing office, selling patent medicines as a side hustle, or he may have been a tenant.  Either way, his advertisement for Ogden’s pills and Weed’s syrup and powders had the potential to increase traffic in the printing office, making it an even more bustling hub of activity as colonizers exchanged goods and information.

August 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Aug 27 - 8:27:1770 Pennsylvania Chronicle
Pennsylvania Chronicle (August 27, 1770).

“I took Dr. Weed’s Syrup for the Bloody Flux, which gave me immediate ease.”

An advertisement for “Dr. Weed’s Syrup and Powder for the Bloody Flux” in the August 27, 1770, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle consisted almost entirely of testimonials.  One after another, four patients who had taken the elixir described how it had cured them.  For instance, Margaret Lee testified, “FOR the good of those who are afflicted with the Bloody Flux, I would inform them that I was lately seized with the disorder, and had it very bad; but by taking Dr. Weed’s Syrup and Powder for the Bloody Flux, according to directions, I found immediate ease and by repeating it a few times was perfectly cured.”  Each of the testimonials was dated within the past month, making them current endorsements of the nostrum.

Except for a headline that read “To the PUBLIC,” the advertisement did not include any additional information, not even instructions about where to purchase Dr. Weed’s Syrup and Powder for the Bloody Flux.  George Weed apparently did not believe that such details were necessary given his stature in the community and long experience serving residents of Philadelphia.  Dr. Weed’s Syrup and Powder for the Bloody Flux was not a mass-produced patent medicine imported from across the Atlantic.  It did not bear the name of a physician or apothecary famous throughout the British Empire.  Instead, Weed prepared his syrup and powder in Philadelphia and sought to cultivate local and regional acclaim for those medicines.  In an advertisement he placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette three years earlier, he touted his thirty of experience, including “the last seven Years of which he served in the Pennsylvania Hospital” where he “attended to all the Administrations of Medicine, and Chirurgical Operations in that Infirmary.”  Even though Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies in 1770, it was still a small enough town that Weed could assume that readers of the Pennsylvania Chronicle either already knew of him or could easily learn more by asking their acquaintances.  Whether or not that was the case, Weed gambled on making an impression by devoting his entire advertisement to testimonials and trusting that his reputation would do the rest of the work necessary to direct prospective patients to his shop.