The Commercialisation of Medicine in the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1640–1700

Abstract

Modern historians tend to link the commercialisation of medicine with the 'consumer revolution' of the eighteenth century.1 This was said to be a time of societal change, triggered by new processes of production and exchange.2 As an ever-increasing range of items, from household durables through to luxury items, appeared on the market they helped both to create and fulfil rising demand. One historian has even wryly commented that the public clamour for such goods far outpaced the population itself.3According to Roy Porter, proprietary drugs were one of the major growth areas during this period of rising consumerism. He attributes this, in part, to 'the contemporary prominence of hypochondria'.4 Such morbid anxiety was fuelled by shrewd publicity by the manufacturers of patent and proprietary drugs.5 Their advertisements seduced potential customers into believing that their products would guarantee longevity, health, fitness and beauty.6While not disputing this later evidence, this article will argue that such developments actually began in the seventeenth century. My argument is based on a systematic examination of advertisements in seventeenthcentury English almanacs. As cheap, annual publications that were distributed on a national basis, they were the first examples of mass-media. The advertisements that they contained provide in-depth insight into the early development of proprietary drugs, a topic about which we currently know all too little.I have chosen to concentrate on what Bernard Capp, the author of the magisterial Astrology and the Popular Press has called their 'golden age' between 1640 and 1700.7 This period began with revolutionary events which created a new and different market for published items.8 The breakdown of censorship led to an unprecedented outpouring of both astrological and medical books.9 This was particularly true in terms of almanacs, which began a phenomenal rise which continued until 1700.10 By the end of the seventeenth century printers were regularly producing between 350,000 and 400,000 copies in the last two months of every year.11The master list of the almanacs used in this study has been compiled from several sources, including The English Short Title Index, Astrology and the Popular Press and the Internet site 'Early English Books Online'.12 Out of the 1,673 almanacs that are known to have survived 1,392 or 83.2%, have been examined.13 Of these 1,392 almanacs, 72.3% have been found to contain medical information or advice. Such figures suggest that this is the largest comparative study of the medical content of any form of printed seventeenth century English works.14Because such large numbers of almanacs exist, it has been possible to make quantitative, as well as qualitative conclusions about their content. These include the ability to chart trends in the inclusion or exclusion of certain types of medical information. One of the most striking findings is that medical advertisements were not only present in large numbers in almanacs during this period, but, more importantly, significantly increased over time. The total number of advertisements in almanacs grew from an average of one for every three almanacs in the period from 1640 to 1644 to almost eleven advertisements per almanac between 1695 and 1699. A variety of goods and services were promoted, including books, medicines, dates of regional fairs and consultations with specialists. From about 1680 onwards, however, the greatest growth can be attributed almost entirely to drug advertisements.The fact that proprietary medicines were so heavily advertised shows that they were becoming a standard feature in the contemporary 'medical marketplace'. Over the last twenty years, this concept has become a historical commonplace, refering to a society where the demands of a 'medically promiscuous' public resulted in a proliferation of healers, treatments and medical products.15 Most historians would also agree that a multitude of services that were either bartered or offered at no cost, as in the case of housewives, should be included in the definition. …