Patent Medicines 4a

PATENT MEDICINE : Cures & Quacks continued

Alcohol ...

Advertising cards (known as "trade cards") were not only colorful, they were often imaginative. Here is a "metamorphic" card for an alcoholic sarsaparilla tonic. The sad "before" picture is visible when the card is folded, the happy "after" picture is seen when the card is opened.


BEFORE : "Once bright and beautiful, a maiden well beloved, adorned the social circle where she moved, but in her veins there lurked the pois'nous taint of scrofula, and many a sad complaint that hid the beauty of her radiant face beneath unseemly blotches nothing could efface, but for Scovill's Sarsaparilla, hope had flown had Scovill's Blood and Liver Syrup been unknown."		AFTER : "Now every trade of scrofula has disappeared, her face, ever marred by blotches, which she feared would never go away, is fair once more and brighter, handsomer than ever before. For all diseases of the blood and liver, something from their fury to deliver, or for a pleasant tonic, all your blood to stir up, take Scovill's Sarsaparilla or Blood and Liver Syrup."

The testimonial from the satisfied customer was another advertising technique used by the makers of patent medicines.

"Priscilla, The Mayflower of Plymouth.
Presented with the compliments of your druggist and C.I. Hood Company, Lowell, Mass., Proprietors of Hood's Sarsaparilla."

On the reverse : "GOVERNOR BRADFORD, - One of his descendants, Born and brought up in the good old town of Plymouth, Mass., was the picture of health when a child, and is now as a full-grown woman. Her people have always kept Hood's Sarsaparilla in the house...
She says she is sure there is nothing better for the blood than Hood's Sarsaparilla and consider it, as her father did, the best of all medicines for creating an appetite, making food taste good, aiding digestion, promoting assimilation, saving waste and building up the system. Her name is Carrie E Lantz, and she lives at 8 Gardner Street, Allston, Boston, Mass."