The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation

Abstract

The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America Before Federal Regulation. By James Harvey Young. (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1961. Pp. xii, 282. Illustrations, index. $6.00.) The line between folk medicine and quack medicine can scarcely be drawn with any sharp differentiation, although one might assert that the quack doctor deliberately exploits human sickness and suffering for personal gain while in folk medicine the local herb woman ministering to the needs of a community may be motivated, at least in part, by altruism. Unfortunately many quacks and producers of patent remedies firmly and honestly believe that their methods or therapeutics have validity, and many community herb doctors would happily seek greater profit from their endeavors if it were possible to broaden the field of their operation. Furthermore, in the era before what we now call scientific medicine, the line between quackery and legitimate medicine was almost as vague. For example, phrenology in the 1830's was welcomed by a good part of the medical profession. Although he touches upon the general nature of quackery in a fine introduction to his study, Mr. Young has wisely elected to concentrate upon patent medicines, phenomena associated with mass production techniques and advertising methods. In tracing the history of patent medicines in America, the author shows a close connection between the growth of newspapers and periodicals and that of the proprietary drug industry. Even in colonial days, newspaper columns advertised patent medicines on a fairly large scale, and, as the circulation of newspapers and magazines multiplied in the nineteenth century, the makers of patent medicines were one of the main sources of advertising revenue. From the beginnings of the patent medicine industry, the medical profession and responsible laymen have inveighed against its more outrageous aspects, but it was not until the medical revolution of the late nineteenth century, when the germ theory at long last provided the medical profession with a substantial rationale, that a basis was provided for a full-scale assault upon this social evil. By this time, patent medicine purveyers had pioneered in a good part of the worst aspects of mass advertising techniques and were able to roll with the punch. Despite fairly effective regulation at the state and national levels, as Mr. Young points out, cancer and food quacks, to name a few, still flourish like the proverbial green bay tree. The author has taken a fascinating topic and done it full justice. He has a delightful style, and his book should have a wide appeal. Yet what he has written is a thoughtful and scholarly work. The makers of proprietary remedies were by and large a colorful crew, but they also played a significant role in American history. It is precisely this role which Mr. Young explores so effectively. Through subsidies to newspaper advertising, through the distribution of millions of medical