Rare Genuine, Swaims Panacea Philadelphia Very early tombstone shaped.

[Steve/sewell]

The ad on page 4.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Hmm,...Interesting stuff. I once read that the term "Mad as a hatter" originated with the use of mercury in hat making,....also they mention in the earlier postings that one of the symptoms of mercury poisoning common in users of Swaim's, was uncontrollable salivating or drooling....apparently mercury was thought to cure venereal diseases? A case where which is worse?

 

[cobaltbot]

There are several species of plants that can produce Oil of Wintergreen. I know birch beer was made by tapping the sap of the Sweet Birch similarly to tapping maple trees. I think Oil of wintergreen was made by distilling, not sure if they used the sap or crushed the twigs for this? The Oil of Wintergreen for the Swaims could have come from one of the other species but there are plenty of Sweet Birch trees around if that was what was used.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Joe more tommorrow I am tired I have to be up very early tommorrow morning 4:45 and out the door by 5:15.I hope some of the other members will post some of their Swaims bottles.They really are facinating.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Steve,...No worries mate!... Thanks for triggering this great thread!


Cobaltbot,...Thanks for the info,...pretty interesting. I worked on a large Maple syrup farm/operation for a few seasons back in the day. They did it the old way with buckets and a hand auger.One year I washed 1100 buckets by hand.


Here's a post it took me abit to find....This pic by Mike has always stuck in my mind!....Just when I thought a green pontiled Swaim's would be pretty high up the food chain,...He posted these. [] There is also a great article over at Gunthers Medicine site about Swaim's wannabes....These bottles I would dig a 20 foot hole to get to even one of them!!!




earlyglass
Super Member:

But you will see 50 Swaims before you see one Phelps, and you will see 500 Swaims before you see one Newtons. That being said, I would say that the Swaims was certainly the trendsetter as far as packaging design, and most definately the most successful. The aqua rectangular Swaims is from the 1830s, then the first round paneled version with a New-York panel instead of the Philada.

Mr. Phelp had a prior bottle used for packaging... it was a large 6 sided bottle. Funny that on the two "originals" (Swaims and Phelps)... they both used the word GENUINE. The original "Phelps Genuine Arcanum" is a great bottle worth $30-50K.

The rarest of this group (pictured) is the Newtons. There can't be more than 10 decent examples. He was in operation in vermont during the 1840s. More to write about him, but I have to go...

 

[JOETHECROW]

Okay,..I'll admit,..I'm curious as all get out, and have been reading more about Swaim's...Was it for treating mercury poisoning,..or was mercury used in it's preparation?....I guess I might have thought that I read that mercury was used in early treatment of venereal diseases?....anyone?

Here's a pic of a cool labeled later aqua version I happened across.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Okay....found the answer right in front of my face....Went back through and reread Steve's original clipping thoroughly....It was right there....SO,...does this confirm or imply that someone might have already used other patent meds for such diseases that DID contain mercury?

 

[JOETHECROW]

William Swaim and Swaim’s Panacea

The Helfand Collection’s second-earliest item, Some Remarks Upon a Publication by the Philadelphia Medical Society Concerning Swaim’s Panacea (1828), is of particular significance insofar as it sheds light on one of the first major scandals of the popular medicine industry. Written by William Swain, the pamphlet is a defense of his medicine, Swaim’s Panacea. As the name suggests, Swaim professed that his product, a syrup extracted from the roots of the sarsaparilla plant, had sweeping curative powers. Both the general nature of his claims and his promotional excesses raised the attention of the Philadelphia Medical Society, which publicly charged Swaim with selling a low-quality, unevenly mixed product that was dangerous and potentially fatal. In his rebuttal, Swaim accused the Medical Society of snobbery and professional jealously; and Some Remarks . . . suggests the extent to which he, like many of his industry predecessors, positioned himself as a champion of the people, or “one of the unlettered throng†fighting a “learned authority.â€

Despite this incident, Swaim’s Panacea went on to achieve a “very extended and established celebrity,†as the 1853 publication, Swaim’s Panacea, for the Cure of Scrofula, or King’s Evil suggests. Like many collection items, this booklet consists primarily of case histories and sworn statements from patients cured of scrofula. What makes this publication exceptional, however, are the illustrations: five wood engravings of Swaim’s patients, which introduce the effects of scrofula in incredible, gory detail. In 1871, Swaim’s Panacea was reprinted, with only the date on the internal title page being changed.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Last one for tonight...excerpt from an interesting looking book.


Over the Counter and On the Shelf: Country Storekeeping in America by Laurence A. Johnson
An excerpt from the book Over the Counter and On the Shelf: Country Storekeeping in America by Laurence A. Johnson a look at stores in United States history.
OVER THE COUNTER AND ON THE SHELF: COUNTRY STOREKEEPING IN AMERICA. 1620--1920. By Laurence A. Johnson, edited by Marcia Ray. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1970.


About the book: The American country store was a hodgepodge of merchandise, from groceries, drugs, and hardware to the whiskey sold in the back room. Merchandising has changed since the days of the open cracker barrel, but the general store is remembered as a pleasant and important part of America's past.


From the book: The storekeeper himself was a man of consequence, his opinions respected, if not always agreed with. Though he often lacked formal education, he was almost always exceptionally well informed. As postmaster he kept up with the times through the periodicals and newspapers that passed through the office. Yearly buying trips to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, or New Orleans introduced him to a wider world. Slack time in winter could be improved by reading and meditating on the books he carried in stock. Not at all unusual was the book selection of a merchant in a small Missouri town in 1829, who advertised volumes by Josephus, Byron, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Scott, Fielding, Herodotus, Hume, Smollett, Milton, Defoe, Homer, and Bunyan. No wonder, in an age of flowery harangue, the storekeeper was capable of Fourth of July speeches full of classical reference, and holiday toasts 2nd to none. In his political beliefs, he seldom hesitated to stand up and be counted.


With the years, the general health of the public became even more precarious if one can judge from the amount of patent medicines sold by peddlers and through general stores. In June, 1841, The New York Tribune printed a testimonial from Jane Bemee of Utica, N.Y., a young woman of 32, who, in the 2 years she had been bedridden with a disease that was "eating away her face," had consumed: 14 bottles of Phoenix Bitters, 20 Boxes of Life Pills, 100 boxes of Brandreth's Life Pills, 3 bottles of Phelps Arcanum, 4 Bottles of Smith's Anti-Mercurial Syrup, 5 Bottles of Swaims's Panacea, 3 Bottles of Indian Panacea, $6 worth of Conway's Boston Medicine, a large quantity of Fowler's Solution of Arsenic, and different preparations of mercury prepared by doctors. Blissfully, she concluded her testimonial, which was witnessed and corroborated by a justice of the peace at Utica--"I am satisfied that my life has been preserved and my health entirely restored by the blessing of God and the use of Bristol's Fluid Extract of Sarsaparilla.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Good information Joe thanks for the time put in.Is it any wonder that the people addicted to these remedies could even get up in the morning let alone funtion?You have to remember just twenty years prior yellow fever wiped out one tenth of the population of Philadelphia in 1793.No wonder
people were hooked on all of these medicines and cures.

A good quick read about the epidemic:

About the 1793 Yellow Fever Outbreak
By Rose Kivi, eHow Contributor .updated: September 13, 2010

In the summer of 1793, an estimated 5,000 residents in Philadelphia were infected with a deadly fever known as Yellow Fever. Philadelphia was in a state of panic. People were afraid, doctors didn't know the cure for Yellow Fever or how to prevent it. Doctors tried treatments without much success and eventually recommended that people flee the city to save their lives. Many who stayed came down with Yellow Fever and suffered a painful death.
.The Facts
A combination of two contributing factors brought Yellow Fever to Philadelphia for the first time in 1793. The first was weather. The spring season of 1793 brought a lot of rain to Philadelphia followed by a hot and dry summer season, which left behind swamps and puddles filled with stagnant water. The wet spring and dry summer created the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes to multiply and invade the city. The second contributing factor was the immigration of infected refugees. During the summer of 1793, an estimated 1,000 refugees fled from Santo Domingo to Philadelphia. Unknown to the people of Philadelphia, some of the refugees had been infected with and were carrying Yellow Fever. The mosquitoes bit the infected refugees and then bit the people of Philadelphia, transmitting the disease and starting an epidemic.
History
In the summer of 1793, the doctors of Philadelphia gathered together to discuss a common concern over a large amount of patients with the same symptoms. All of the doctors had been seeing patients who exhibited nausea, black vomit, skin eruptions, incontinence, lethargy and yellow skin coloration that led to death in the majority of the patients. The sickness was diagnosed as Yellow Fever. The doctors did not know the cause of the fever or the treatment for it. They had theories of the cause of the fever, but none of them discovered mosquitoes to be the cause of transmission. Unsanitary city conditions and dirty water were thought by some to be the cause. With lack of definitive knowledge of the cause and treatments of the fever, the doctors advised the people to leave the city to avoid infection.
Some doctors stayed behind to treat the infected. Dr. Benjamin Rush, used blood letting as a treatment for Yellow Fever. He would drain up to one-fifth of a patient's blood in an attempt to cure them. Dr. Jean Devèze treated the infected by keeping them comfortable and clean and administered quinine and stimulants. Some patients were saved, but many died.
Time Frame
The year of 1793 was the first but not the only year of Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia. Philadelphia suffered from the Yellow Fever epidemic again in the summers of 1794, 1796, 1797 and 1798. The summer of 1798 brought a severe Yellow Fever epidemic similar to the one in 1793. The other years were much less severe and not as many people died.
Effects
In 1793, Philadelphia was the largest city in the United States with more than 50,000 residents. By the end of the summer of 1793, one-tenth of the population of Philadelphia had died. When the weather cooled off in 1793, some of the Philadelphia residents who had fled returned to their homes believing Philadelphia to be safe again. With each following Yellow Fever outbreak in the following years, the population decreased due to deaths and a large number of residents left in fear. By the end of 1798, the majority of the people of Philadelphia permanently abandoned the city, leaving a population of less than 8,000.
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