the _Boston News-Letter_ until August 23,
1750, two months after the much more recent Turlington's Balsam of Life
first put in its appearance.[35] During the same year, the British
confusion over British Oil was reflected in America. Boden's and
Darby's variety preceded the Betton brand into the _News-Letter_ pages
by a fortnight.[36] It was the latter, however, which was to win the
day in Boston, for almost all subsequent advertising specified the
Betton Oil. Godfrey's Cordial was first mentioned in 1761.[37] Thus, of
the ten old English patent medicines which are the focus of the present
study, eight had been advertised in the _Boston News-Letter_. The other
two, Steer's Opodeldoc and Dalby's Carminative, did not reach the
market before this colonial journal fell prey to the heightening
tensions of early 1776.

[35] _Ibid._, June 7, 1750.

[36] _Ibid._, May 24, 1750.

[37] _Ibid._, December 31, 1761.

By the 1750's, the names of several old English nostrums were appearing
fairly frequently in the advertising of colonial apothecaries, not only
in Boston but in other colonial towns. In Williamsburg, for example, a
steady increase occurs in the number of references and the length of
the lists of the English patent medicines advertised in the _Virginia
Gazette_ from their first mention into the early 1760's.[38] This
journal--which later had competing issues by different editors--was
launched in 1736, and the next year George Gilmer advised customers
that, in addition to "all manner of Chymical and Galenical Medicines,"
he could furnish, at his old shop near the Governor's, "Bateman's
Drops, Squires Elixir, Anderson's Pills."[39] The other remedies
appeared in due time, Stoughton's and Daffy's Elixirs in 1745,
Turlington's Balsam in 1746, Godfrey's Cordial in 1751, Hooper's Pills
in 1752, and Betton's British Oil in 1770.

[38] Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff, _Virginia Gazette
index, 1736-1780_, Williamsburg, 1950, 2 vols.

[39] _Virginia Gazette_, Williamsburg, May 27, 1737.

A spot check of newspapers in Philadelphia and New York reveals a
pattern quite similar. Residents of the middle colonies, like those to
the north and the south, could buy the basic English brands, and it was
during the 1750's that the notices of freshly-arrived supplies ceased
to be rare in advertising columns and became a frequent occurrence.
Thomas Preston, for example, announced to residents of Ph