It is requested, in case this medicine should considerably open the bowels, that it may be laid aside until that effect has ceased, when it may be resumed, beginning with a smaller dose. Patients are also informed that it is unnecessary for any aperient medicine to be taken during its use, unless they have been costive for some days.
The pills had an average weight of 2·9 grains. Analysis showed them to contain powdered colchicum corm, exsiccated alum, and an excipient. The quantities found indicated the following formula:
| Powdered colchicum corm | 2·1 | grains. |
| Burnt alum | 0·35 | grain. |
in one pill.
The estimated cost of the ingredients for 14 pills is one-seventh of a penny.
HAMM’S RHEUMATIC, GOUT,
AND SCIATICA CURE.
The Originator and Proprietor of this cure, who hails from the north of England, charges 2s. 9d. for a bottle containing 8 fluid ounces. It was described on the outside package as “The Greatest Remedy in the World. It has no equal for the cure of Rheumatism, Gout, and Sciatica.” In a circular enclosed with the bottle it was stated that:
It never fails to Cure those distressing and torturing Complaints, and in most cases has given relief from the excruciating pains by taking a few doses. This Standard Remedy has time and again succeeded after all other internal remedies have failed. Purify the Blood by driving the Uric Acid from the system and you will remove the cause of all Rheumatism, etc. Hamm’s Famous Rheumatism Cure has Never Failed to do it.
The dose was given on the label as “One Tablespoonful three times a day, after meals.”
The preparation was a brown, slightly turbid liquid. Analysis showed it to contain potassium iodide, sodium salicylate, a little vegetable extractive, and a trace of alcohol. The extractive was moderately bitter, but possessed no characters indicating the drug from which it was derived; it contained no alkaloid. Quantitative determination of the ingredients showed the formula to be: