Antique Medicine Bottles Dr Cannon's Medicine Chest

ANOTHER "PATENT MEDICINE ARTICLE" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

I have a trade card picturing a bouquet of pansies, below which is printed Wm. H. Gill, Druggist, Dealer in Dr. C. McLane’s Liver Pills and Vermifuge, Palestine, Tex. It was a year or two before I realized that it was Dr. C. McLane and his Volcanic Oil Liniment which has been available to the public since 1841, and still is. And it was a Volcanic Oil bottle that first aroused my interest in old medicine bottles that summer of 1968 (Antique Bottle and Glass Collector, Feb., 1990).

Dr. C. McLane was from Sewickley, Pa. Holmes and Kidd of Pittsburgh, who began preparing and selling proprietary medicines in the late 1830s, acquired the rights to Dr. McLane’s American Worm Specific about 1844. Jonothan Kidd soon became the sole owner, and bottles such as my Doctor / McLane’s / American Worm / Specific, blowpipe pontil, aqua, round, 3 7/8 inches tall were blown to contain the product. A slightly later pontiled variant is embossed Doctor / C. McLane’s / American Worm / Specific. These bottles have a more pronounced flare to the lip.

Dr. McLane died in 1855, and by 1860, John and Cochran Fleming of Fleming Brothers of Pittsburgh, had become proprietors of McLane’s Worm Specific, and renamed the medicine Dr. C. McLane’s Vermifuge. There was also a McLane’s Liver Pills, Crudoform, Mikado Cologne, plus Kidd’s Cough Syrup. This product may have been named for J. Kidd Fleming, who became affiliated with the business. My trade card is from Fleming Brothers, Pittsburgh, Pa., and the back reads: “A Good Comparison, The Rev. William Roulatt, a well known Methodist clergyman residing at Naples, draws the following amusing but apt comparison between Dr. C. McLane’s Vermifuge prepared by Fleming Bros. of Pittsburgh, Pa., and a ferret. A ferret when placed at the entrance of a rat hole, enters the aperture, travels along the passage, seizes upon the rat, exterminates its existence, and draws the animal’s defunct carcass to the light. And in like manner have I found Dr. C. McLane’s Vermifuge to operate upon worms, those dreadful and dangerous tormentors of children. This remedy like the ferret, enters the aperture of the mouth, travels down the gullet, hunts round the stomach and lays hold of the worms, shakes the life out of the reptiles, sweeps clean their den and carries their carcasses clear out of the system. This, at least, has been the effect of the Vermifuge upon children.”

In 1876, another drug firm in Pittsburgh, the W.L. McCord Co., trademark Dr. C. McLane’s Lung Syrup. The first Fahrney product originated in Switzerland in the 17th century. It was called Forni’s Alpenkrauter Blutbeleber which is German for Mountain Herb Blood Vitalizer. It was brought to the United States about 1780 by Dr. Peter Fahrney who settled in Pennsylvania. The Fahrney

family became a large one, spreading throughout the eastern states, into Illinois, and even into Canada. Many of the sons became physicians, often studying under their fathers. The family history indicates that all Fahrneys with this spelling are related.

Dr. Peter Fahrney, 1840-1905, grandson of the early Dr. Peter Fahrney, carried on the proprietary medicine business from Chicago. His first products dated around 1869 and were forms of Alpenbrauter Blutbeleber. During the 1890s, Dr. Fahrney’s sons ran the business and set up and elaborate manufacturing plant in Chicago.
Dr. Daniel Fahrney of Hagerstown, Maryland, a cousin of Chicago’s Peter Fahrney, also became his competitor in 1872, when he began to market Teething Syrup. Other products were added, and sometime later, Daniel was joined by his son. I own a bottle that is embossed Dr. D. Fahrney & Son / Hagerstown, Md. // Teething Syrup // For Babes (not babies but babes), and is aqua, rectangular, and 5 3/8 inches tall. By the 1890s, there were a number of D. Fahrney remedies such as his health restorer, lightning pain knocker, peerless liniment, and worm syrup. These were prepared and handled by several different companies. After 1900, the Victor Remedies Company evidently bought the rights to all of these brands from Daniel’s heirs. The teething syrup was still available in 1945.

My bottle embossed Dr. J.W. Bull’s / Vegetable / Baby Syrup / Trade Mark, aqua, round, and 5 inches tall, is from Rev. Dr. John W. Bull of Baltimore, Maryland, and not John Bull of Louisville, Kentucky, or any of the other Bulls who put out proprietary medicines such as A.H. I.D., or W.H. August Vogeler, who began manufacturing drugs and chemicals in Baltimore in 1845, acquired the preparations of Rev. Dr. Bull in 1873, and formed a partnership with Adolph C. Meyer. The company was known under several names, and became A.C. Meyer & Co. after Meyer purchased all interests of the partners in 1883. They promoted Dr. Bull’s Family Medicines, such as a cough syrup, referred to as “The People’s Remedy” and introduced in 1852, Compound Pectoral, Pain Drops, and a blood mixture. Another branch of the business produced and promoted the Dr. Koenig preparations. Red Star Cough Cure is another related product. Yet another branch put out St. Jacob’s Oil. Hence, the history becomes more complicated as the years go by.

If all of this seems complicated and confusing to us, what about the poor archeologists who try to understand our ruins in a thousand or so years.....

Did you enjoy this article? Every month Antique Bottle and Glass Collector magazine gives you neat articles like this one.