Archive for April 11th, 2011

Newspaper ad for Dr. Goerss

With colorful names and extravagant claims, patent medicines sold widely in the United States in the late 1800s. The popular cure-alls of pills and syrups were advertised in every newspaper with bold woodcuts extolling the miraculous benefits of Hood’s Sarsaparilla to purify the blood, Cuticura Soap to prevent “disfiguring humours,” or Chaulmoogra, the “East India Cure” that promised relief for every ailment this side of the grave.

Here’s the story of the San Diego Medicine Show.