ler, a bodice-maker. Some bore a status of greater
distinction: there were a "Mathematical Instrument-Maker" and the
doorkeeper of the East India Company. All were jubilant at their
restored good health.

The Balsam's well-nigh sovereign power could not protect it from one
ailment of the times, competition. Various preparations of similar
composition, like Friar's Balsam, already were on the market, but
before long even the Turlington name was trespassed upon, and the
inventor's niece was forced to advertise that she alone had the true
formula and that any person who took a dose of the spurious imitations
being offered did so at great hazard to his life.

A quarter of a century after the patenting of the Balsam, there
appeared for sale to British ailing a remedy called Dr. Steer's
Celebrated Opodeldoc. Dr. Steer is a shadowy rider of a vigorous
steed, for although the doctor has left but a faint personal impact
upon the historical record, Opodeldoc has pranced through medical
history since the time of Paracelsus. This 16th-century continental
chemist-physician, who introduced many mineral remedies into the
materia medica, had coined the word "opodeldoc" to apply to various
medical plasters. In the two ensuing centuries the meaning had
changed, and the _Pharmacopoeia Edinburgensis_ of 1722 employed the
term to designate soap liniment. It is presumed that Dr. Steer
appropriated the Edinburgh formula, added ammonia, and marketed his
proprietary version. In 1780, a London paper carried an advertisement
listing the difficulties for which the Opodeldoc was a "speedy and
certain cure." These included bruises, sprains, burns, cuts,
chillblains, and headaches. Furthermore, the remedy had been "found
of infinite Use in hot Climates for the Bite of venomous
Insects."[16] Dr. Steer seems not to have secured a patent for his
slightly modified version of an official preparation. He died in
1781, but Opodeldoc, indeed Steer's Opodeldoc, went marching on.[17]

[16] _Daily Advertiser_, London, February 18, 1780.

[17] Broadsides, _ca._ 1810-1822, advertising "Steer's Chemical
Opodeldoc, for bruises, sprains, rheumatism, etc., etc.," are
preserved in the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester,
Massachusetts; the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine;
and the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, New York.

About the same time that Dr. Steer began advertising, newspaper
promotion was la