n of narcotics,[124]
failed to restrict the sale of many opium-bearing compounds like
Godfrey's Cordial. In 1931, a Tennessee resident complained to the
medical journal _Hygeia_ that this medication was "sold in general
stores and drug stores here without prescription and is given to
babies." To this, the journal replied that the situation was "little
short of criminal."[125] The charge leveled against his competitors by
one of the first producers of Godfrey's Cordial two centuries earlier
(see page 158) may well have proved a prophecy broad enough to cover
the whole history of this potent nostrum. "... Many Men, Women, and
especially Infants," he said, "may fall as Victims, whose Slain may
exceed Herod's Cruelty...."

[122] Charles H. LaWall, _The curious lore of drugs and medicines
(Four thousand years of pharmacy)_, Garden City, New York, 1927,
p. 281.

[123] W. B. Sissons, "Poisoning from Godfrey's Cordial," _Journal
of the American Medical Association_, March 2, 1912, vol. 58, p.
650.

[124] Edward Kremers and George Urdang, _History of pharmacy_,
Philadelphia, 1951, pp. 170, 278.

[125] "Godfrey's Cordial," _Hygeia_, October 1931, vol. 9, p.
1050.

[Illustration: Figure 15.--TURLINGTON'S BALSAM OF LIFE bottles as
pictured in a brochure dated 1755-1757, preserved in the Pennsylvania
Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa. According to Turlington, the
bottle was adopted in 1754 "to prevent the villainy of some persons
who, buying up my empty bottles, have basely and wickedly put therein a
vile spurious counterfeit sort."]

For those who persist in using the formulas of the early English patent
medicines, recipes are still available. Turlington's Balsam remains
as an unofficial synonym of U.S.P. Compound Tincture of Benzoin.
Concerning its efficacy, the _United States dispensatory_[126] states:
"The tincture is occasionally employed internally as a stimulating
expectorant in chronic bronchitis. More frequently it is used as an
inhalent ... It has also been recommended in chronic dysentery ... but
is of doubtful utility."

[126] _The dispensatory of the United States of America_, 25th
ed., Philadelphia, 1955, p. 158.

A formula for Godfrey's Cordial, under the title of Mixture of Opium
and Sassafras, is still carried in the _Pharmaceutical recipe
book_.[127] _Remington's practice of pharmacy_[128] retains a formula
for Dalby's Carminativ