YOUR remedies for menstrual period
pain and problems. See more remedies here.
 
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Patent medicine for women and mail-order cures for menstruation, cancer,
tumors,
odor, insomnia, stomach illness, depression, birth control, fertility and
women's diseases
Patent medicine, which was seldom if ever patented, usually means American
"medicines" in bottles that doctors and others produced, mainly
in the 19th century, and which sometimes have a bad reputation: they often
didn't do what they were advertised to do, such as cure cancer or banish
tumors or cure problems of the uterus or menstrual cycle. Many had alcohol
as their main component.
In that era some doctors diagnosed illnesses through the mail, sometimes
encouraging the writer to visit him or her for further examination or treatment.
And patients sometimes bought medicine the doctor created as well as booklets
and advertising devices designed to spread the doctor's reputation.
Sometimes the remedies worked!
Click on the following
Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (on this page, right
below) - Cardui -
Dr. Grace Feder Thompson's letter appealing for
patients - Dr. Pierce's medicines - Dr. E. C.
Abbey's The Sexual System and Its Derangements
(1882) - Dr. Young's rectal dilators - Orange Blossom medicine - ad for Ergoapiol
(1904), abortion substance
Midol pain reliever pills for menstruation:
old tins (containers), old ads,
old booklet (selections)
See also Australian
douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.)
(date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.)
- Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany)
- Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol ad, 1938
- Midol booklet (selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) -
Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Myzone menstrual pain pills ad, 1952 (Australia) - Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Sterizol
douche liquid ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Vionell genital
spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) - Zonite
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci
Capo Rome) - The odor page (with a surprise or two)
Lydia E. Pinkham's medicine business pages
on MUM
A discussion of the letter testimonials,
and their authenticity, of the Pinkham company (in a discussion of a Pursettes
ad with a letter testimonial)
See two letters to MUM about the ingredients
of her Compound, and one about the lyrics of an English
pop song, Lily the Pink,
(and parody of "Yes, We Have No Bananas"
from an American newspaper) about her.
In 1875, after her husband went bankrupt, Lydia Estes
Pinkham started probably the first widely successful
business run by a woman in America. Her product was a medicine for
"all those painful Complaints and Weaknesses so common to our best
female population," meaning mostly menstruation. Even though Mrs. Pinkham
had been in the temperance movement, as a student of phrenology she had
studied human nature, and almost 20% of her concoction was alcohol,
which she said acted "as [a] solvent and preservative," certainly
solving many a problem and preserving not a few of her fellow citizens.
Many similar medicines of the past used alcohol as the active ingredient,
(continued below picture)
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which was often the only way respectable women were able to enjoy the
intoxicant. And during the banning of alcoholic beverages in America, especially
in the 1920s, the Pinkham "medicine" enjoyed its greatest success.
The Brooklyn Bridge decorates a trade card
(above, 4" x 2.5", 5.1 x 6.4 cm), black and white) for her product.
Companies advertised their products on these cards, which were available
free in stores. Sometimes consumers collected them and even pasted them
into albums. This card probably dates from the late nineteenth century (the
Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, the year she died). The sign hanging
from the bridge is as imaginary as the claims she made for her compound,
which are listed on the back of the card. (But
read two objections to my assertion.) The words
below the picture give some data about the bridge, a wonder of its day,
which is perhaps what Mrs. Pinkham wanted Americans to believe about her
cure.
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The Schlesinger Library, of the Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study, part of Harvard University, has probably the
largest collection of material about the Pinkham
enterprise, the records of the Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company.
Part of the donation of SarahAnne Hazelwood to this museum, much of
it patent medicine and old medical equipment, was a very interesting biography
and study of Mrs. Pinkham's business, Female Complaints:
Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women's Medicine, by Sarah Stage.
See two letters to MUM about the ingredients
of her Compound, and one about the lyrics of an English
pop song, Lily the Pink, about her.
Other amazing women: Nelli Bly,
Dr. Marie Stopes, Dr. Grace Feder Thompson
See also the patent medicine Cardui,
Dr. Grace Feder Thompson's
letter appealing for patients, Dr. Pierce's medicines,
and Orange Blossom medicine.
© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission
of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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