Inspired by October 11—Global Day Against Pain, the Museum has selected Renne’s Pain-Killing Magic Oil as a representative of not only a form of pain medicine from the 19th century relief but also a known patent medicine.
What is Patent Medicine?
Patent medicines—also known as proprietary medicine, are medications that can be procured without a prescription like over-the counter medications today. The term ‘patent’ is in reference to “a proprietary or trademarked remedy intended for self-medication.” As medications entered the market promising miracle cures, consumers flocked to procure them and then bore the consequences of the unregulated ingredients that these products contained. Most, if not all patent medicine, was under no obligation to give full descriptions of what ingredients it contained nor what side effects these ingredients may induce, William Rosen explains in his book Miracle Cure that “patent medicine was completely unregulated, a free-for-all libertarian dream that supplemented the Hippocratic Oath with caveat patients; ‘Let the patient beware.” As patent medicine grew due to the lack of regulations from the federal government, no consumer was safe from the harmful effects of medications created by medical entrepreneurs.
Patented Popularity and Marketing
The popularity of patent medicines derives from its ease of procurement, and the lengthy cures and remedies they offered their users. With doctors being an expensive investment or unavailable in certain communities, those in pain sought remedies within the “medicinal” advertisements within newspapers, and the unique traveling medicine shows.
Patent medicine was advertised widely in local newspapers during the 19th and early 20th century which correlates with the timeframe we see an increase in the sale of proprietary medicine. These ads would in some cases take up large sections of the limited space to advertise their outlandish concoctions. As local newspapers did not have a “medicinal section” these advertisements were peppered through the columns making them impossible to avoid. Readers were drawn in by lithographs of those in pain and suffering and remained intrigued with bold claims and catchy slogans. A unique form of patent medicine advertisement was the use of medical side shows. John Parascandola explains that some patent medicine manufactures went as far as creating travel acts as forms of entertainment with themes such as minstrel shows and the wild west. These shows would have drawn onlookers' attention to their product to convince them to purchase it right after the show.
Renne’s Pain Killin Magic Oil
Very little is known about the contents of this “magic oil” nor the side effects of which it induced its consumers. Renne’s Pain Killing Magic Oil was sold with an extensive list of ailments that W.M. Renne & Sons Manufactures claimed to have remedied. With the slogan “It works like a Charm” the Magic oil was said to help ease:
- Colic, cholera morbus, cramps and pain in the stomach, cholera, coughs, colds, croup, sore throat, dyspepsia, diarrhea, fever and ague, kidney difficulty, pleurisy, acid stomach, indigestion, headache, sea sickness, rheumatism, neuralgia, sprains, lameness, sciatica, toothache, earache, catarrh, frost bites
Although these curative claims could have made the investment worth it to many consumers, it might have worsened symptoms as the underlying cause of the patient's discomfort is not being treated. Clifford Pickover explains that “Although some of these medicines did provide pain relief due to their high alcoholic content and use of cocaine, most were ineffective for treating ailments, beyond functioning as a powerful placebo for hopeful people seeking cures.” As patent medicine manufacturers were not obligated to disclose the ingredients of their “cure-alls” it was not uncommon for these products to contain harmful chemicals and substances such as opium, morphine, and alcohol.
Modern Regulations
As manufactures and medicinal entrepreneurs took advantage of the public Samual H. Adams explains in 1905 “Gullible America will spend this year some seventy-five million of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines.” Adams, an investigative reporter, was committed to exposing the patent medicine industry. In his 1905 series of articles, published through Collier's Weekly and later published as a book, he would expose the patent medicine industry as “Frauds”- titling the novel The Great American Fraud. Adams explains that
[Americans] will swallow huge quantities of alcohol, an appalling amount of opiates and narcotics, a wide assortment of varied drugs ranging from powerful and dangerous heart depressants to insidious liver stimulants; and, more than all other ingredients, undiluted fraud
His articles brought to light the harm caused by the patent medicine industry and the dangerous ingredients within them. Adams was not the only one to expose an industry for its unhealth practices, and certainly would not be the last. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle would revolutionize how the American public saw the meat packing industry and its unsanitary nature. This book was considered a pivotal piece of literature that would promote the passing of the Federal Food and Drug Act 1906 known today as the FDA while articles like Adams would help to convince congress to begin looking at not only food but also the drugs Americans were consuming.
Today the FDA helps to regulate what ingredients make up foods and drugs to protect the American people from fraudsters.
Conclusion
Renee’s Magic Oil and other patent medicines were sold to millions of American with questionable affects. With advertisements catching the eye of the public, and addictive and dangerous substances keeping them loyal customers, patent medicine dominated the medical manufacturing industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, regulations are put in place to prevent the abuse of the public from medical entrepreneurs through laws and administrations such as the Food and Drug Act, and the Food and Drug administration.
To see more examples of patent medicine in our collection, please check out our collection.
Work Cited
- Adams, Samuel Hopkins. The Great American Fraud. United States: American Medical Association, 1912.
- Gwinn C. A., Compiler. Food and Drugs Act June 30, 1906 and Amendments of August 23, 1912 and March 3, 1913 with the Rules and Regulations for the Enforcement of the Act, Food Inspection Decisions, Selected Court Decisions, Digest of Decisions, Opinions of the Attorney General and Appendix. Washington, Govt. Print. Off.
- Parascandola, John. “Patent Medicines and the Public’s Health.” Public Health Reports (1974-) 114, no. 4 (1999): 318–21.
- Pickover, Clifford. The Medical Book. New York: Barnes and Nobles, Inc., 2012.
- Renne, William. Renne’s Pain Killing Magic Oil, Smithsonian: National Museum of American History.
- Rosen, William. Miracle Cure. New York: Penguin Books, 2017.
- Weinmeyer R. “Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs” Virtual Mentor: November 1 201315(11):954-8. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2013.15.11.hlaw1-1311.
- Young, James Harvey. “THE PIG THAT FELL UNTO THE PRIVY: UPTON SINCLAIR’S ‘THE JUNGLE’ AND THE MEAT INSPECTION AMENDMENTS OF 1906.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 59, no. 4 (1985): 467–80.