arly 1820's, the old English
patent medicines, whether of dwindling British vintage or of burgeoning
American manufacture, were as familiar as laudanum or castor oil.

With the demand so extensive and the state of production so chaotic,
the officials of the new Philadelphia College of Pharmacy were
persuaded that remedial action was mandatory. In May 1822, the Board of
Trustees resolved to appoint a 5-man committee "to select from such
prescriptions for the preparation of Patent Medicines ..., as may be
submitted to them by the members of the College, those which in their
opinion, may be deemed most appropriate for the different
compositions."

The committee chose for study "eight of the Patent Medicines most in
use," and sought to ascertain what ingredients these ancient remedies
ought by right to contain. Turning to the original formulas, where
these were given in English patent specifications, the pharmacists soon
became convinced that the information provided by the original
proprietors served "only to mislead."

If the patent specifications were perhaps intentionally confusing, the
committee inquired, how could the original formulas really be known?
This quest seemed so fruitless that it was not pursued. Instead the
pharmacists turned to American experience in making the English
medicines. From many members of the College, and from other pharmacists
as well, recipes were secured. The result was shocking. Although almost
every one came bolstered with the assertion that it was true and
genuine, the formulas differed so markedly one from the other, the
committee reported, as to make "the task of reformation a very
difficult one." Indeed, in some cases, when two recipes bearing the
same old English name were compared, they were found to contain not one
ingredient in common. In other cases, the proportions of some basic
ingredient would vary widely. All the formulas collected for Bateman's
Pectoral Drops, for instance, contained opium, but the amount of opium
to liquid ingredients in one formula submitted was 1 to 14, while in
another it was 1 to 1,000.

Setting forth boldly to strip these English nostrums of "their
extravagant pretensions," the committee sought to devise formulas for
their composition as simple and inexpensive as possible while yet
retaining the "chief compatible virtues" ascribed to them on the
traditional wrappers.

Hooper's Female Pills had been from the beginning a cathartic and
emmenagogue.