These pills are sold by a Company giving an address in Wales. A bottle, containing 20 pills, costs 1s. 1½d.
The label and the enclosed circular bear the picture of a man’s head, with the words, “Harvey. Discoverer of the circulation of the blood,” with the possible implication that the Harvey who discovered the circulation of the blood also discovered or invented these blood pills.
The modest claims made in the circular included the following:
Harvey’s Blood Pills for Skin Diseases. An Unfailing Remedy for Scurvy Sores! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Scrofulous Sores. A Certain Remedy for Ulcerated Legs! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Sluggish Liver. The Surest Remedy for Ringworm! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Erysipelas. The Quickest Remedy for Itch! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Boils. An Effective Remedy for Eruptions! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Rheumatism. The Safest Remedy for Piles!
Harvey’s Blood Pills are purely Vegetable, and contain the best properties of Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Burdock, and Quinine. They are Warranted Free from Mercury.
Harvey’s Blood Pills fortify the feeble, restore the invalid to health, and do good in all cases. All sufferers should immediately have recourse to these celebrated Pills.
Harvey’s Blood Pills are “specially” suitable for Females. They remove all impurities.
Somewhat lengthy directions were given for diet, etc., as well as for taking the pills, in various cases; from which it appeared that the usual dose is:
For a male adult, one Pill three times a day; a female adult, one Pill twice a day; children one Pill at bedtime.
The pills were coated with French chalk, coloured red externally; when deprived of their coating, the average weight was 2·76 grains. Analysis showed them to contain quinine equivalent to 17·3 per cent. of the crystalline sulphate, 21·7 per cent. of potassium iodide, small proportions of powdered rhubarb and liquorice, and vegetable extract or extracts. A mass prepared from the following formula agreed closely with the pills in general properties and in results on analysis in various ways: