Circa 1870 – Broadside advertising patent medicine cure for all diseases of the chest, lungs, and liver

Item Details

Highgate, Vermont, B. J. Brown, Circa 1870, Broadside

Very Good

This patent medicine advertising broadside measures approximately 5.5” x 12.5”. In nice shape with some light foxing and a horizontal storage fold.

The broadside touts:

“Don’t Think of Being Humbugged! / When You Buy / Dr. Ira Hatch’s Febrifuge Mixture / for Coughs, Colds, Croup, / and All Diseases of the Chest, Lungs & Liver, / which derive their origin from atmospheric vicissitudes and suppressed perperation, it is / The Best Preparation in Use!”

It then provides more details.

“The mixture when taken in season, has never failed to arrest the progress of Consumption. Its virtues in cases of that most frightful disorder, the Croup, have often been thoroughly tested, and in no case has it failed to effect an immediate and radical cure. In extreme cases of Asthma, it has been found exceeding efficacious.

“In arresting radiant attacks of Inflammation of the Lungs, it is a most desirable antidote. In severe cases of Lung Fever it has been used with marked success, when all other remedies have failed to offer the relief desired. In cases of hard cold, to which all are so liable in this changeable climate, use the Mixture at the commencement; often by so doing, a severe fit of sickness is avoided, consequently No Family Can Afford to Be Without It.”

Following this text are a series of testimonials, all dated 1870, and the broadside concludes noting:

“Prepared and Put Up by / B. J. Brown, / Highgate, Vermont.”

Ira Hatch was a graduate of the Castelton Medical College, the first medical school in Vermont. He set up practice in Fletcher, Vermont until 1840 when he relocated to Swanton, where he practiced medicine until his death in 1845. During that time, he sold “Mandrake Pills” as well as this concoction. It is likely that sometime before his death, rights to his medicines were acquired by Frederick Dutcher & Sons, St. Albans, Vermont, as there is one known 1880 trade card that advertises them along with a product named Dutcher's Ready Cleaner.

(For more information about Hatch, see various online genealogical and newspaper sites.)

A scarce patent medicine broadside. At the time of listing, no other examples are for sale in the trade. None have appeared at auction per the Rare Book Hub. Although OCLC shows none are held by institutions, it does record the Hatch-Dutcher trade card mentioned above is located at the University of Rochester.

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