Bowel Complaints Coughs Colds Chest Diseases Costiveness Dyspepsia Diarrhoea Dropsy Debility Fever and Ague Female Complaints Headaches Indigestion Influenza Inflammation Inward Weakness Liver Complaints Lowness of Spirits Piles Stone and Gravel Secondary Symptoms

with particular stress upon their value as a "great female medicine." Besides the major advertisement of the pills, consisting of an eight-inch column to be printed in each issue of the paper, smaller announcements were provided, to be inserted according to a specified monthly schedule among the editorial matter on the inside pages. Sample monthly announcements from the Judson Mountain Herb Pills contract used in 1860 were:

FIGURE 19.—Card used in advertising Judson's Mountain Herb Pills.

JANUARY
THE GREAT FEMALE MEDICINE
The functional irregularities peculiar to the weaker sex, are
invariably corrected without pain or inconvenience by the use of
Judson's Mountain Herb Pills. They are the safest and surest
medicine for all the diseases incidental to females of all ages,
and more especially so in this climate.
Ladies who wish to enjoy health should always have these Pills. No
one who ever uses them once will ever allow herself to be without
them. They remove all obstructions, purify the blood and give to
the skin that beautiful, clear and healthful look so greatly
admired in a beautiful and healthy woman. At certain periods these
Pills are an indispensable companion. From one to four should be
taken each day, until relief is obtained. A few doses occasionally,
will keep the system healthy, and the blood so pure, that diseases
cannot enter the body.
MARCH
DISEASES OF THE CHEST AND LUNGS
These diseases are too well known to require any description. How
many thousands are every year carried to the silent grave by that
dread scourge Consumption, which always commences with a slight
cough. Keep the blood pure and healthy by taking a few doses of
JUDSON'S MOUNTAIN HERB PILLS each week, and disease of any kind is
impossible. Consumption and lung difficulties always arise from
particles of corrupt matter deposited in the air cells by bad
blood. Purify that stream of life and it will soon carry off and
destroy the poisonous matter; and like a crystal river flowing
through a desert, will bring with it and leave throughout the body
the elements of health and strength. As the river leaving the
elements of fertility in its course, causes the before barren waste
to bloom with flowers and fruit, so pure blood causes the frame to
rejoice in strength and health, and bloom with unfading beauty.

Any person who read the notices for both medicines carefully might have noticed with some surprise that the Mountain Herb Pills and the Indian Root Pills were somehow often recommended for many of the same diseases. In fact, the Mountain Herb Pills and the Indian Root Pills used identical text in explaining their effect upon several disagreeable conditions. Always prominent in this advertising were reminders of our fragile mortality and warnings, if proper medication were neglected, of an untimely consignment to the silent grave.

Unfortunately, newspapers in the South had been utilized extensively just on the eve of the Civil War, and it undoubtedly proved impossible to supply customers in that region during the ensuing conflict. However, other advertising was given a military flavor and tied in with the war, as witness the following (for 1865):

GENERAL ORDERS—No. 1
Headquarters
Department of this Continent and adjacent Islands
Pursuant to Division and Brigade orders issued by 8,000Field
Officers, "On the Spot", where they are stationed. AllSkedadlers,
Deserters, Skulkers, and all others—sick, wounded and
cripples—who have foresaken the cause of General Health,shall
immediately report to one of the aforesaid officers nearestthe
point where the delinquent may be at the time this order ismade
known to him, and purchase one box of
JUDSON'S
MOUNTAIN HERB PILLS
and pay the regulation price therefor. All who comply withthe
terms of this order, will receive a free pardon for pastoffences,
and be restored to the Grand Army of General Health.
A. GOOD HEALTH
Lieutenant-General
By order
Dr. Judson,
Adjutant-General
Sold by all dealers.

Twenty years later, when the Civil War had passed out of recent memory and Confederate currency was presumably becoming a curiosity, Comstock printed facsimiles of $20 Confederate bills,

[9]

with testimonials and advertisements upon the reverse side; it can be assumed that these had enough historical interest to circulate widely and attract attention, although each possessor must have felt a twinge of disappointment upon realizing that his bill was not genuine but merely an advertising gimmick.