Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  •  
  • 5
  •  
  • 6
  •  
  • 7
  •  
  • 8
  •  
  • 9
  •  
  • 10
  •  

PURVEYORS TO THE PROFESSION: CINCINNATI

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