ise, phrased in long and
flowery sentences, in which modesty was not the governing tone. The
arguments ran like this: that the "Universal Good of Mankind" should be
the aim of "every private member"; that nothing is so conducive to this
general welfare as "HEALTH"; that no hazards to health are more direful
than diseases such as "the Gout; the Rheumatism; the Stone; the
Jaundice," etc., etc.; that countless men and women have succumbed to
such afflictions either because they received no treatment or suffered
wrong treatment at "the Hands of the Learned"; that no medicine is so
sure a cure as that inexpensive remedy discovered as a result of great
"Piety, Learning and Industry" by one "inspir'd with the Love of his
Country, and the Good of Mankind," to wit. "Dr. BATEMAN'S Pectoral
Drops."

Then followed seven chapters treating the multitude of illnesses for
which the Drops were a specific. Finally, the pamphlet cited "some few,
out of the many thousands of Certificates of Cures effected by these
DROPS...." Even so early was the testimonial deemed a powerful
persuader.

No more could Okell, Cluer, Dicey, and Raikes escape competition than
could the proprietors of other successful nostrums. In 1755 they went
to court and won a suit for the infringement of their patent, but the
damages amounted to only a shilling. Even after the patent expired, the
tide of publicity flowed on.[7]

[7] A broadside, issued in London, _ca._ 1750, advertising "Dr.
Bateman's Drops," is preserved in the Warshaw Collection of
Business Americana, New York. Later reprints of this same
broadside are preserved in the private collection of Samuel Aker,
Albany, New York, and in the Smithsonian Institution.

Competition was also lively in the 1740's among some half a dozen
proprietors marketing a form of crude petroleum under the name of
British Oil. Early in the decade Michael and Thomas Betton were granted
a patent for "An Oyl extracted from a Flinty Rock for the Cure of
Rheumatick and Scorbutick and other Cases." The source of the oil,
according to their specifications, was rock lying just above the coal
in mines, and this rock was pulverized and heated in a furnace to
extract all the precious healing oil.[8] This Betton patent aroused one
of their rivals, Edmund Darby & Co. of Coalbrook-Dale in Shropshire.
Darby asserted that it was presumptuous of the Bettons to call their
British oyl a new invention.[9] For over a