Ohio History Journal
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PURVEYORS TO THE PROFESSION: CINCINNATI
DRUG HOUSES, 1850-1860
By PHILIP
D. JORDAN
During the twenty years prior to the
Civil War, the hard-
worked Ohio physician could replenish
his saddlebags and his
office drug stock from well-established
and reputable pharmaceu-
tical houses at home and abroad.1 No
longer was it necessary
for the doctor to search the fields and
pastures of the back
country for the makings of a botanic materia
medica. He was
freed at last from the tiresome effort
of preparing his own
temperamental tinctures, syrups and
cordials; he no longer had
to mix ointments and compound powders.2
Even his instrument
cases, ranging in quality from the best
Turkey Morocco to patent
leather, had been standardized.
Prescription bottles--Eagle flasks,
octagon castor oil bottles,
narrow-mouthed vials, green glass
packing bottles--could be purchased by
the dozen or the gross.
Scales, syringes, gum elastic pumps,
spatulas, pill machines,
catheters and stethoscopes and glass
silvered speculums were all
to be had upon order accompanied by
cash. The self-reliance of
many frontier physicians decreased as
the wholesale houses in
Ohio and the East increased their
stocks, their services and their
advertising.
From the Western Reserve to the Symmes
Purchase, orders
first trickled and then poured into the
offices of Cincinnati and
New York drug concerns. These companies
specialized in each
of the several schools of thought. Some
concerns catered to all
the schools--botanic, eclectic,
homeopathic, allopathic and hydro-
pathic. Before Cleveland forged ahead as
one of Ohio's great
1 Unless otherwise indicated, data
for this paper was taken from a collection of
catalogs issued by the firms
mentioned in the text for the period covered. These
catalogs are from the personal
library of Professor E. W. King, Miami University
librarian.
2 The emphasis
upon the physician gathering his own materia medica may be
seen in: Gideon C. Forsyth,
"Geological, Topographical and Medical Information
concerning the Eastern Part of the State
of Ohio," Appendix D in F. Cuming, Sketches
of a Tour to the
Western Country (Pittsburgh, 1810), 379; Daniel Drake, Picture of
Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1815), 85-7.
371
CINCINNATI DRUG HOUSES 373
cities, most of the prominent wholesale
drug concerns were lo-
cated in Cincinnati, although Ohio
doctors were not adverse to
placing their orders with Blanchard and
Lea in Philadelphia or
with Tilden & Company in New York. A
few Botanics and
Thomsonians, of course, relied upon the
herbs, medical plants,
extracts, essential oils and
"double distilled and fragrant waters"
that were put up and sold by the United
Society of Believers
(Shakers) in Union Village, near
Lebanon, Ohio.3 Others were
still old-fashioned enough to believe
that no standardized product
could be as effective as one put up at
home.
If home preparation was insisted upon by
the conservative
doctor, he could purchase drugs in crude
or unrefined form and
prepare them according to his peculiar formulae. But almost
every man of medicine, if he was not
exclusively botanic, had to
patronize the manufacturing Cincinnati
chemists at one time or
another.4
For years the Queen City had been an
entrepot for goods on
the way to the western fringe of
settlement. As emigration pressed
relentlessly toward the setting sun,
Cincinnati still retained its
place as a great city of trade and
commerce. It sent its shirts
and pants to clothe the stalwart bodies
of Missouri boatmen and
trans-Missouri fur trappers; it supplied
essential foods to the
dragoons of the frontier; and it packed
and shipped quantities of
drugs to the Upper Mississippi and into
the great valley.
Among the pharmaceutical houses whose
influence extended
throughout the Ohio Valley and into the
back-of-beyond were
Eclectic Head Quarters at the northwest
corner of Court and
Plum streets, managed by Dr. T. C.
Thorp; W. J. M. Gordon
& Bro., at Eighth Street between
Broadway and Culvert and with
an office at the northeast corner of
Western Row and Eighth
streets; Geo. M. Dixon (successor to
Doughty & Dixon) at the
northeast corner of Fifth and Main
streets; Wm. S. Merrell &
Co., at 110 Third Street; F. D. Hill at the southeast corner of
3 Western Journal of the Medical and
Physical Sciences (Cincinnati), II
(1834),
156; History of Warren County,
Ohio (Chicago, 1882), 273.
4 Drug shops began operating in
Cincinnati early in the 1820's, among them those
of Clark and Perry on Lower
Market Street; Thomas D. Foulke at 85 Main Street and
Benjamin Drake. See: Cincinnati National
Republican and Ohio Political Register,
May 14, 1824; Cincinnati Western Spy
and Cadet, March 2; Nov. 23, 1822.
374 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Fifth
and Race streets; and Jno. T. Toland's Dental Depot at 38
West
Fourth Street.
Each
of these concerns issued catalogs to the trade and made
every
effort to convince sceptical physicians of the accuracy of their
druggists
and the speedy efficiency of their services. Merrell &
Co.,
located the first door west of the Burnet House, claimed with
good
cause, that it was the "great central depot of all articles of
indigenous
Materia Medica, and of pure, fresh and reliable prepa-
rations
from them." The country doctor was invited to inspect
the
Merrell laboratory and to make the "strictest scrutiny into
the
character of all its productions."
William Merrell was proud
to
say in print: "In discovering and manufacturing the Isolated
Medicinal
Principles of our native plants we
were the pioneers,
and
our motto is still 'Excelsior.'" In addition to the laboratory,
the
concern operated a wholesale drug warehouse, an ample drug
grinding
and powdering establishment that embraced twenty-two
different
mills which were "unsurpassed by any eastern drug
mills"
and a force of salesmen who knew every doctor's needs.
Dixon,
who had been in business since the 1820's, did not
confine
himself to botanic supplies as did Merrell, but offered a
complete
service that included: "Drugs, Medicines, and Medici-
nal
Preparations, rare Chemicals and Extracts. Apothecaries'
choice
Goods, Shop Furniture and Labels, Physicians' extra
quality
Powders, Medicinal and Perfumers' Pure Essential Oils,
etc."
The
following are two pages from Dixon's Catalog of 1858:
DIXON'S
Cash Prices Current5
ARTICLES
EXTRACT,
FOX GLOVE, (Digitalis) ................. lb. 2.50
" GARGET, (Poke Root)
................ " .75
" GENTIAN
........................... " .80
HARDHACK
.......................... " 1.00
HOARHOUND...........................
" .75
HEMLOCK.......................... "
5
Pages from George M. Dixon, Semi-Annual Cash Prices Current and General
Catalogue
of Pure Chemicals and Extra
Quality of Medicines (Cincinnati,
July 1,
1858),
9-10.
CINCINNATI DRUG HOUSES 375
HENBANE, (Hyosciamus) Shaker.............. " 1.75
"
English ....................... " 2.00
HOPS .................................. " 1.25
INDIAN HEMP,
English .................. oz. 1.50
JALAP.................................. lb. 2.75
LIQCORICE, Calabria ..................... " .30
"
" powdered........... " .50
Sicily ................. " .20
Refined.................. " .50
LETTUCE.................................. " .75
LOGWOOD ............................... " .16
MAY APPLE, (Podophyllum) ................ " .75
MONESIA ................................ oz. 2.00
MULLEN ................................. lb. .75
NUX VOMICA, Alcoholic ................... oz. .40
OPIUM................................... " 1.00
PINK ROOT,
Fluid ....................... lb. 1.00
" " AND SENNA ............. " 1.00
POPLAR BARK .......................... " .75
POPPY ................................. " 1.50
PARIERA BRAVA, Fluid ................. " 1.00
QUASSIA, Solid ........................ " 4.50
RHATANY
............................... " .50
RHUBARB, Solid .......................... " 4.00
"
Fluid ........................ " 2.00
SARSAPARILLA ....................... " 3.50
"
Fluid .......................... " 1.25
"
" Shaker's ............... Doz. 4.50
SAVIN ................................... lb. 3.25
SENNA, American ........................ " .75
"
Alex., Fluid ..................... " 1.00
STRAMMONIUM ............................" 1.50
SAPONARIA ............................. " 1.25
TOMATO ................................. " 1.00
UVA URSI, Fluid ....................... " 1.00
VALERIAN, Fluid ........................ " 1.25
" Solid....................... " 2.00
VANILLA .............................. " 2.50
WATER PEPPER ........................... " 1.00
Essential Extracts,
Of very superior quality, for culinary purposes, of our
own make.
ESSENTIAL EXTRACT, CINNAMON
................................ Doz. 1.50
" " GINGER
................... " 1.50
" " LEMON .................... " 1.50
376 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
" " NUTMEGS
........................ " 1.50
" " ORANGE
......................... " 1.50
" " ROSE
........................... " 1.50
"
" VANILLA........................." 2.00
FARINA ...........................................lb. .20
FLAG ROOT, Candied ............................... Doz. .75
FLOWERS, ALTHAE ................... ............... lb. .40
" ARNICA
................................... " .30
" CHAMOMILE,
English....................... " .30
"
"
German.........................
" .30
" ELDER..................................... " .25
" LAVENDAR.................................. " .25
" ROSE,
Red ............................... " 1.00
" ROSEMARY ................................ " .20
FUNNELS, Glass, 15 to .............................
each .75
"
Wedge Wood, 20 to ...................... " 1.00
GALLIPOTS, Straight ................................
Doz. .50
" with
covers, for ointments, &c., 1 oz..... " .75
" " " " " 2 oz.....
" 1.00
" " " " " 4 oz.....
" 1.25
" " " " " 8 oz.....
" 1.50
"""" " 16
oz..... " 1.75
" " " " " 20
oz..... " 2.00
" " " " " quarts....." 3.00
GAALS, ALEPPO ................................... lb. .40
"
" Powdered
........................... " .45
GELLATINE, French .............................. " .75
Rose ...................................
" 1.50
GLASSWARE, every variety, at Manufacturer's prices...
Long Vials.
NARROW MOUTHS, 1/2, 1 and 2 drachms................
Gross 2.00
" " 1/2 and 1 ounce
.................... " 1.60
" " 2 ounce ......................... " 1.80
" " 3 and 4
ounce .................... " 2.25
" " 6 ounce
......................... " 2.75
" " 8 " ............................" 3.00
"
" Common Assorted Vials,
1/2 to 8 ounce. " 2.00
WIDE MOUTHS, 1/2, 1 and 2 drachms ..................
" 2.00
" " 1/2 and 1 ounce
.................... " 1.67
" " 2 ounce
.......................... " 2.00
" " 3 and
4 ounce ..................... " 3.34
" " 6 ounce ............................ " 3.00
" " 8 "
.............................
" 3.33
"
" Common Assorted Vials, 1 to 8 ounce.
" 2.50
CINCINNATI DRUG HOUSES 377
NARROW MOUTHS, 1/2, 1, and 2 drachms
.............. " 2.50
" " 1/2 and
1 ounce ................... " 2.00
" " 2ounce ......................... " 2.16
" " 3 and 4 ounce .................... " 2.70
" " 6 ounce ......................... " 3.00
" " 8 "
.........................
" 3.33 3.33
Assorted Prescription from 1/2 to 8
ounce ........................ " 2.75
WIDE MOUTHS, 1/2, 1, and 2 drachms ................... " 3.00
" " 1/2,
and 1 ounce .......................... " 2.34
Perhaps, as the rumblings of a coming Civil War grew ever
louder and the Nation became increasingly snarled in the slavery
controversy, Gordon & Bro. and the house of F. D. Hill grew
faster and offered a greater variety of drugs to the Ohio doctor
than did other concerns. Their
catalogs kept pace with suc-
cessive editions of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, and
their advertisements appeared in the local press and in such pro-
fessional journals as The Cincinnati Lancet and Observer. In-
deed, it was imperative for Ohio firms constantly to remind
physicians of the state of their supplies and services, for eastern
and European druggists were actively competing for western busi-
ness. By 1858, for example, Garnier, Lamoureux & Co., mem-
bers of the College of Pharmacy of Paris, was advertising through
its American representative a new departure. This was the sugar-
coated pill which, said F. A. Reichard who was sales agent in the
United States, presented "great advantages in the quadruple point
of view of the exactness of the weight of the medicines, of its
perfect preservation, its convenient and agreeable administration,
and above all, its greatly increased therapeutic action."
Even Dr. George Mendenhall, editor of The Cincinnati
Lancet and Observer and
professor of obstetrics in the medical
College of Ohio, supported Reichard's claims. "We have been
remiss," he wrote, "in cultivating pharmaceutical excellence
in
rendering remedies pleasant to the palate and agreeable to the eye
of our patients, and have thus given the Homeopathics a wider
378
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
field for success, because so many
persons, for themselves and
their children are ready to exclaim with
Napoleon 'Your nauseous
drugs disgust me.'"6
If such foreign competition urged
Cincinnati pharmaceutists
to greater activity, the efforts of
eastern concerns stimulated them
even more. In New York City alone there
were twenty-four
concerns wooing the Ohio doctor; in
Philadelphia, twenty-one;
in Boston, nine; and in Providence,
three. Tilden & Co., with
an office at 98 John Street and a
handsome factory in New
Lebanon, was a New York firm that
received generous patronage
from
Buckeye physicians. It had more than fifty dealers scat-
tered throughout the country and was
known for the superior
quality of its products. Its catalog of extracts with their me-
dicinal properties in 1854 was really a
text in the use of indigenous
plants and its description of fluid
extracts could scarcely fail to
impress the practitioner. Of the fluid
extract of lobelia, it said:
Lobeliae is one of the most valuable of
our indigenous plants. Few have
higher claims to the consideration of
the profession. Like other powerful
medicines in the hands of the unskilled
in its use, or ignorant of its powerful
medicinal qualities, it has
unquestionably been abused, and has obtained the
reputation of being a dangerous article,
too hazardous for general use.
These considerations have influenced the
preparation of a fluid extract of
it, which shall be uniform in its
strength, certain in its effects, and safe
if administered strictly after the
directions given. Howard says "Lobeliae
is the most valuable emetic
known." It also acts as a sudorific, diuretic,
expectorant, diffusible stimulant, and
as an alterative, is said by some
authors to possess narcotic powers ....
Dr. Noad, of Leipsic, says "it acts
specifically on the Pneumo gastric
nervous system" and consequently pos-
sesses such a remarkable influence on
the bronchial mucous membrane. In
very many instances it has been found
useful in chronic bronchites, whoop-
ing cough, catarrh, tetanus, convulsions
and palpitation of the heart. Its
friends claim that it is unrivalled as
an antidote to poisons of all kinds,
particularly in cases of hydrophobia.
Drug prices, of course, varied to the
profession in the decade
prior to the Civil War. In general,
costs remained relatively
stable throughout the 1850's, began to
rise in 1861, and reached
a peak about 1866. The following table
is indicative:
6 Cincinnati Lancet and Observer (Cincinnati),
I (1858), 320.
CINCINNATI DRUG HOUSES 379
1858 1859 1860 1866
Agrimony (lb.) .25c .25c .25c .40c
Epsom Salts (lb.) $10.00 $6.00 .80c .08c
Powd. Opium (oz.) .75c .60c .60c $1.00
Sulp. Quinine (oz.) $1.75 $1.40 $1.50 $2.25
Medical saddlebags ranged in price according to quality of
leather and the number of bottles included. A patent leather bag,
containing eight heavy two and one-half ounce bottles and ten
heavy one and one-half vials could be had for six dollars. Better-
made bags, holding twenty-four square bottles, sold for ten dol-
lars. After the war, prices
increased with fourteen dollars as
the top figure. A cupping case
with scarificator sold for $8.50
in 1860 and for ten dollars five years later. By 1866, Cincinnati
houses were offering amputating and trephining sets, in mahogany
cases and with ferruled instruments at thirty-two dollars; and
amputating sets (including a single capital knife, single short
knife, Liston's bone forceps, capital saw, and metacarpal saw) at
twenty-eight dollars. Such sets
were not advertised in 1859.
Obstetrical instruments ranged in price according to quality. A
Davis forceps could be had for eight dollars; perforators for
$3.25; placenta forceps for $3.50; and blunt hooks and crotches
for $1.50.
In addition to drugs, instruments, and office supplies, the
larger Cincinnati houses carried standard medical texts. F. D.
Hill offered the following in 1858:
Jones and Sherwood's Practice, 2 vols. $7.00
King's American Family Physician 5.00
King's American Eclectic Obstetrics 4.00
R. S. Newton, Syme's Surgery 5.00
Cook's Physio-Medical Surgery 5.00
Curtis's Lectures, vol. 1 3.00
Curtis's Criticisms 1.00
Curtis's Obstetrics 2.00
Potter's Compend. of Practice 1.50
Howard's Practice 3.00
Wilkinson's Practice 1.25
Kost's Materia Medica and Therapeutics 5.00
Kost's Domestic Medicine 3.00
380
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A year later, the Merrell Company
offered most of the above
items as well as other titles that
included: R. S. Newton,
Chapman on Ulcers; J. R. Buchanan, System of Anthropology;
W. G. L. Bickley, Physiological
Botany; and C. H. Cleaveland,
Pronouncing Medical Lexicon.
With Ohio's rapidly developing railroad
system and with the
steady improvements in communication, it
became easier and
easier for the physician to order from
Cincinnati druggists and
for Queen City wholesale houses to
replenish their stocks from
eastern manufacturers. Yet the
tinctures, herbs, ointments and
syrups and the sharp-cutting instruments
and the medical volumes
still were dispatched from hundreds of
way-stations to find their
way eventually into the hands of the
Ohio practitioner who knew
that once again the Cincinnati houses
had not failed him.
PURVEYORS TO THE PROFESSION: CINCINNATI
DRUG HOUSES, 1850-1860
By PHILIP
D. JORDAN
During the twenty years prior to the
Civil War, the hard-
worked Ohio physician could replenish
his saddlebags and his
office drug stock from well-established
and reputable pharmaceu-
tical houses at home and abroad.1 No
longer was it necessary
for the doctor to search the fields and
pastures of the back
country for the makings of a botanic materia
medica. He was
freed at last from the tiresome effort
of preparing his own
temperamental tinctures, syrups and
cordials; he no longer had
to mix ointments and compound powders.2
Even his instrument
cases, ranging in quality from the best
Turkey Morocco to patent
leather, had been standardized.
Prescription bottles--Eagle flasks,
octagon castor oil bottles,
narrow-mouthed vials, green glass
packing bottles--could be purchased by
the dozen or the gross.
Scales, syringes, gum elastic pumps,
spatulas, pill machines,
catheters and stethoscopes and glass
silvered speculums were all
to be had upon order accompanied by
cash. The self-reliance of
many frontier physicians decreased as
the wholesale houses in
Ohio and the East increased their
stocks, their services and their
advertising.
From the Western Reserve to the Symmes
Purchase, orders
first trickled and then poured into the
offices of Cincinnati and
New York drug concerns. These companies
specialized in each
of the several schools of thought. Some
concerns catered to all
the schools--botanic, eclectic,
homeopathic, allopathic and hydro-
pathic. Before Cleveland forged ahead as
one of Ohio's great
1 Unless otherwise indicated, data
for this paper was taken from a collection of
catalogs issued by the firms
mentioned in the text for the period covered. These
catalogs are from the personal
library of Professor E. W. King, Miami University
librarian.
2 The emphasis
upon the physician gathering his own materia medica may be
seen in: Gideon C. Forsyth,
"Geological, Topographical and Medical Information
concerning the Eastern Part of the State
of Ohio," Appendix D in F. Cuming, Sketches
of a Tour to the
Western Country (Pittsburgh, 1810), 379; Daniel Drake, Picture of
Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1815), 85-7.
371
(614) 297-2300