Read selections from Pierce's The People's Common Sense
Medical Adviser; or, Medicine Explained,
(below) 1895, Buffalo, New York, from Pierce's
own press at his World's Dispensary Medical
Association: "Spermatorrhea'
(loss of semen without copulation, which usually
means masturbation),
portrait of Pierce,
and his hospital.
See Dr. Grace Feder Thompson's
letter appealing for patients, Lydia E. Pinkham's
Vegetable Compound, and Orange
Blossom medicine, Dr. E. C. Abbey's The Sexual System and Its
Derangements, which emphasises
masturbation, as doe Dr. Pierce, and several small boxes of old
American patent medicine for women.
And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special
for you! - the American fax tampon,
from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
See a Modess True or
False? ad in The American Girl magazine,
January 1947, and actress Carol
Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter"
booklet ad (1955) - Modess
. . . . because ads (many dates).
|
Dr. R. V.
Pierce's patent medicine empire and
hospital, often
concerned with women's diseases, cancer,
digestive illness, fatigue,
headache, female weakness, gynecology, tumors,
nervous
diseases, and menstruation
Dr. R. V.
Pierce (portrait and
signature) made a range of
medicine in the 19th and 20th
centuries in the U.S.A., many probably
highly alcoholic, just like Lydia Pinkham's
Vegetable Compound. Dr. Pierce was Mrs.
Pinkham's most successful
competitor.
Like Mrs.
Pinkham, Dr.
Thompson, and the makers of Cardui, the
company had a medical consulting
service where the favorite piece of
advice was to use its product. (See here for
more general information about patent
medicine.)
Below are the covers of a 1914 calendar and
advertising booklet (read
the whole booklet here), and, at
bottom, an undated but modern-looking
tin of "vaginal tablets" (see a box of his
tablets). (And look what
some women were wearing in 1914 to
protect their clothing from menstrual
leakage.)
Here are selections from Pierce's The People's Common
Sense Medical Adviser in Plain
English; or, Medicine Simplified,
(cover)
1895, Buffalo, New York, from Pierce's
own press at his World's Dispensary
Medical Association: "Spermatorrhea"
(loss of semen without copulation,
which usually means masturbation; see Dr. Abbey's similar interest),
portrait of
Pierce, and his hospital.
Here are interior
pages. See a barn with an
advertisement for Dr. Pierce.
SarahAnne Hazlewood generously
donated the Dr. Pierce material to
this museum.
|
Front cover of the 1914
booklet. (Whole
booklet here)
|
Back cover of the same
booklet.
|
Undated tin of tablets.
|
NEXT: See interior pages and a barn with an
advertisement for Dr. Pierce.
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on this
Web site in any manner
or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
|