What struck me most was the value these materials hold as a window into the public\u2019s historical access to information about medical services. Through case studies, journal articles, and medical texts, we can see how medical professionals treated patients and extrapolate from this how patients perceived and experienced the medical profession. However, such formal sources do not show the whole picture of the public\u2019s experience of \u201cmedicine,\u201d which is more muddled and often lies on the fringes of science<\/a> with information from medical professionals mixing with the claims of quacks and advertisers of nostrums and patent medicines<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1906, with the Pure Food and Drugs Act<\/a>, the founding statute<\/a> of what would become today\u2019s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government imposed regulations and medical denouncements<\/a> of nostrums (those pills, ointments, and tonics that falsely claim miraculous cures for all manner of ailments and generally misrepresent ingredients) that had begun to gain traction at the turn of the 20th century. This increasing scrutiny caused a clear and demonstrable shift in the public\u2019s relationship with medicine that can be seen quite clearly through the marketing and promotional materials from that era.<\/p>\n Take, for instance, Father John\u2019s Medicine<\/a>. In 1915, the Carleton & Hovey Company faced grave consequences<\/a> for misrepresenting the drug\u2019s health benefits. While the advertisement for Father John\u2019s Medicine that I worked with at the NLM<\/a> was not the most grandiose, it did include those falsified claims for which it would later be condemned. As with most marketing campaigns (and certainly most medical promotional materials of the time), this advertisement was probably experienced as an everyday presence to be encountered at stores, distributed by druggists, delivered to homes, and received from sales agents.<\/p>\n Combined with the false curative claims is the imagery of a trusted and ostensibly \u201cgood\u201d authority figure (in this case clergyman) as well as his personal testimony about the drug\u2019s success. This sort of imagery, as well as the use of beautiful illustrations, emotional gimmicks, fear mongering, and especially personal testimonies, were all very common elements in the materials that I encountered in my work. In many ways, the public\u2019s experience of this advertisement is not all that foreign<\/a> to modern consumers. Despite regulations and changes in the delivery media<\/a>, many of these marketing strategies have parallels with advertisements today.<\/p>\n Advertisements are a significant point of interaction between the general public and medical services and products (legitimate or otherwise). They also provide a point of intersection between social history and the scientific history of medicine by illustrating how consumers experienced the world of medicine. They demonstrate the change in that experience following the Food and Drug Administration Act as companies began to change labels and literature to avoid false advertising, altered recipes, and even began referencing the FDA in their promotional materials. Some products, like Father John\u2019s Medicine, managed to adapt to the regulations and are still on the market<\/a>. Others, like Chappelear\u2019s Bronchini<\/a>, appear to have vanished into history. But the legacy of these advertisements for medical nostrums continues, and in them we have an invaluable window into the general public\u2019s experience of medicine.<\/p>\n![\"Jerome](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/guaranteed-under-the-fda.png?resize=650%2C981&ssl=1\" "\\"\"Guaranteed")
<\/a>![\"Without](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/father-john.png?w=413&h=500&ssl=1\" "\\"Father")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> ![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/father-john-portrait.png?w=419&h=500&ssl=1\" "\\"Portrait")
<\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n![\"Chappelear's](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/bronchini.png?resize=650%2C535&ssl=1\" "\\"\"The")
<\/a>