herb based medicines

[GuntherHess]

http://www.antiquemedicines.com/Herbs/Herbs.htm

a new page on my site to discuss herb based patent medicines.
have a look if you are interested.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Another great piece of information and a good read! Way to go Gunth,...Nicely presented. My fave meds are Herbal and/or Botanical ones. Thanks,....Joe

 

[bottlediger]

Great Addition to the websight Matt. Here is a small grouping of local pontil bottles Im sure you know of but might have forgotten about.

Dr. Kellings Pure Herb Medicines
Dr. Kellings Pure Herb Extracts

Feel free to use the picture if you want

Digger Ry

 

[bottlediger]

Dr Kelling was one of very few Herb doctors of the time in Pa (1840's). He studied from a well known Herb Doctor in Philadelphia. Each bottle was an in house concoction made for the person depending on what their illness was. You could also write letters to Dr Kelling describing your illness and he would send out a concoction if you were not local.

Digger Ry

 

[GuntherHess]

Great bottles Ryan.
There are a LOT of bottles that are marked herbal this or vegetable that.
My goal on that page was to show a few which had SPECIFIC herbs embossed.
I would venture to guess that at least 3/4 of all patent medicines made before 1880 had some herbal component. Many were secret formulas though so we really dont know what was in them.

 

[GuntherHess]

Sounds like Dr Kelling might have been practicing an early form of homeopathic medicine.

 

[pyshodoodle]

I doubt it was an early form of homeopathic medicine.... most medicine was homeopathic until the mid 20th century. I'm sure some people were more concerned with using it to heal than to turn a quick buck, however.

 

[GuntherHess]

homeopathic medicine has been described as one of the great frauds of the 19th century (and still are).
In the company of patent medicine dealers that is saying a lot.[]

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html

 

[bostaurus]

It is still very popular in Germany. In the stores and in the pharmacy herbal remedies were abundant. When ever I got the sniffles my German friends would recommend certain teas depending on whether it was in my nose, chest, coughing, etc. I would try it but but found it usually tasted bad and really didn't do much for my cold symptoms. I would fall back on my hot black tea or cocoa, an Advil, and some stuffy nose meds and feel much better.
Herbal tonics are popular too but that might have something to do with the alcohol content....