A Deep Dive into the Deadly World of Victorian Patent Medicine

Go check out Foreo Sweden’s great line of skincare products here! In the Victorian era, a deadly and unorganized medical system bred an even more deadly and unregulated world of patent medicines filled with high proof alcohol, dangerous narcotics, and more. So why were these medicines so popular, and why did they run wild? Come learn with me! Find me on Twitter: I’m on TikTok @ kazrowe Find me on IG: Buy my comics: Send me a ko-fi: Read my webcomic: Catch it on Tapas: Line Webtoons: Filmed using: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k– Blackmagic Video Assist 5” HDR – Olympus M. Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro– Samsung Portable SSD T5 - 2Tb– ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sources The Influence of Victorian ‘Patent Medicines’ on the Development of Early 20th Century Medical Practice by F. Charles Tring The Patent Medicines Industry in Georgian England: Constructing the Market by the Potency of Print by Alan Mackintosh The Pharmacology of Nineteenth-Century Patent Medicines by J. Worth Estes Nervous Women and Noble Savages: The Romanticized “Other” in Nineteenth-Century US Patent Medicine Advertising by JANE MARCELLUS The Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 1851-1914 by Thomas Richards The Mighty Healer: Thomas Holloway’s Victorian Patent Medicine Empire by Verity Holloway British Patent Medicines: “Injurious Rubbish”? By Lori Loeb From Cure-alls to Calcium Tablets: A Comparative Semiotic Analysis of Advertisements for 19th and 20th Century Patent Medicines and Contemporary Dietary Supplements by Karin A. Albrecht National Museum of American History— Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection Digital Public Library of America— Quack Cures and Self-Remedies: Patent Medicine Patent medicines and the public’s health. By J Parascandola Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something by Cynthia Graber for Scientific American Bitter medicine: gout and the birth of the cocktail by Richard Barnett for The Lancet (12)60586-8/fulltext Secret remedies : what they cost and what they contain by British Medical Association Annals Of Weight-Loss Gimmicks: From Bile Beans To Obesity Soap by Scott Hensley for NPR Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show By Ann Anderson The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris