Page 13 - Pharmacy History 31 Mar 2007

In 1876, Lydia Pinkham registered the trademark and label for her Vegetable Compound, which was used to treat women’s complaints with the United States Patent Office. Unlike the patent medicines that were imported from overseas, only the name and trademark of the product were protected; ingredients were usually kept secret.
woman need-needed to know about conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and the diseases of women and children. Dr Stockham refuted the concept that menopause was a disease and insisted that women should experience no unpleasant symptoms or changes from their normal condition during that phase of life. She counseled her readers to convince yourself that there is no actual need of any indisposition connected with the change of life forget all the traditions and teachings upon this subject.
Her recommendations included hygiene, dress, and exercise. Let the women who is a sufferer from hot flushes, dizziness, neuralgia, etc., give up strong tea and coffee, hot bread, pork, and rich pies and cake. Eat only what the appetite demands; and until the severest symptoms are relieved, partake of food not more than twice
a day, and possibly only once. Dr Stockham urged strict attention to torpidity or sluggishness of the bowels and resultant constipation. At that time, problems with evacuation were considered the cause of many (if not most) health problems. However,
her treatments for constipation
were dietary rather than the use of cathartic drugs. She concludes the section on menopause in her book by writing “...in the climacteric period put yourself in harmony with nature’s laws and you will have no occasion
for the physician’s potions.
The use of hormones to treat
the symptoms of menopause is a relatively new medical advance, and the transdermal delivery system of hormonal preparations is even more recent. Natural conjugated oestrogens were not marketed until the early 1940s with the introduction of Premarin.
References
1. Tilt EJ. The Change of Life in Health and Disease: A Practical Treatise on the Nervous and Other Affections Incidental atthe Decline of Life. 3rd ed. London: John Churchill and Sons; 1870:91.
2. Barton BS. Collections for an EssayTowards a Materia Medica of the United States. Philadelphia, PA: printed for the author; 1801:9.
3. Felier HW, Lloyd JU. King’s American Dispensatory. 19th ad, 4th version. Vol 1. Cincinnati, OH: The Ohio Valley Company; 1909:528-33.
4. King J, Newton RS. The Eclectic Dispensatory of the United States of America. Cincinnati, OH: HW Derby & Cc; 1852:250-3.
5. Stage S. Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women’s Medicine. New York: WW Norton Company; 1979:89.
6. Stockham AB. Tokology: A Book for Every Woman. Chicago, IL: Sanitary Publishing; 1886:276-85.
Address correspondence to: Dennis B. Worthen, PhD, The Lloyd Library and Museum, 917 Pluin Street, Cincinnati, OH USA
In what appears to be a radical departure from conventional medical thought, Alice Stockham MD, one
of the earliest American female physicians, self-published Tokology: A Book for Every Woman in 1883. This work provided information that every
The Australian perspective
Comments by Geoff Miller
In Australia, similar preparations were being marketed to relieve the universal female problems that occur during a woman’s lifetime.
Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound was sold in Australia in the early 1900s but around 1915, respected patent medicine manufacturer, the Nyal Company, produced their Vegetable Prescription, which had an ingredient list mimicking that of the imported American product.
As well 28 parts percentum of proof spirit, the Nyal product contained: • Life root, Senecio aureus, (Syn.
Fireweed), was widely used to treat gynecological problems
– mainly to induce menstruation and was used as a douche to reduce excessive bleeding. It also had stimulant and diuretic effects.
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volume 3 ■ no 31 ■ MARCH 2007
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 13