July 23, 2024 • 30 mins
In the Victorian era, the menstrual cycle was considered a disease. A Victorian era woman going through menopause was considered to be emotionally unstable, and a physician would likely have prescribed bloodletting to treat its symptoms. He also would have advised her against reading novels, going to parties, and dancing. If you were a 45- to 50-year-old woman in the 19th century, developing this “madness” was considered inevitable. The lucky underwent bloodletting; the unlucky were confined to what were then-called ‘insane asylums’. Where conventional medicine failed the so-called weaker sex, the Victorian view of females as weak, fragile, and childlike actually served as both cause and effect when it came to .., that's right: patent medicines.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We have had a secret.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We have been working very diligently for the past many
months on creating something that a lot of you have
been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails
and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that
we talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Plus additional ones that we have not talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're going to have it. All right, let's jump into
the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
In eighteen o nine, in Danville, Kentucky, doctor f Ram
McDowell performed the world's first successful oapharrectomy when he removed
twenty two pound ovarian tumor from Jane Todd Crawford. Jane
strapped to the doctor's kitchen table, sang hymns in an
attempt to counteract the pain of the surgery to remove
(01:29):
her ovaries, which by the way, was performed without anesthesia
or antiseptic. But we'll be talking about the very opposite
of that patent medicines targeted to women, including one famous
vegetable compound. No scalpels involved. No, as McDowell's report detailed.
Quote in Testine's rushing out upon table and with that imagery,
(01:53):
welcome to Criminalia. I am Murria Tremarky, and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
If that sounds rud it certainly was. In the nineteenth
century when this patent medicine story takes place, women's health
care and medical treatment came with a lot of challenges.
Women's health often received inadequate attention at best, and that's
for a few reasons. Symptoms went unrecognized, primarily because women's
(02:22):
bodies were a medical mystery, but also because medical professionals,
who were almost all men, were frequently dismissive of female complaints.
Prevailing medical beliefs held women as simply inherently weaker than
men and more prone to illness. Women's complaints were also
often and often unfairly attributed to their uterus. In fact,
(02:46):
look all the way back to the medical texts of
ancient Greece and you'll find the idea of what was
called the wandering womb, and that idea persisted for centuries.
The wandering womb was a condition where the uterus, which
was thought to be untethered inside the female body, could
just cause problems like suffocation, hysteria, and even death if
(03:09):
it was out of place. Medical knowledge was obviously not
as sophisticated as it is today. And don't get cocky,
because surely in another century the same thing will be
said about us.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
In the Victorian era, the menstrual cycle was considered a disease.
A Victorian era woman going through menopause was considered to
be emotionally unstable, and a physician would likely have prescribed
blood letting from the ankle as a way to treat
its symptoms. He also would have advised her against reading novels,
(03:42):
going to parties, and dancing. If you were a forty
five to fifty year old Victorian woman developing this quote,
madness was considered inevitable. The lucky underwent blood letting. The
unlucky were confined to what were then called insane asylum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
In addition to the problems within conventional medicine of the time,
the rules of polite and proper social behavior and social
norms left many women uncomfortable talking about their own bodies
or asking questions about their health or treatment. Women often
used euphemisms or veiled terms as opposed to more straightforward
(04:23):
terms when talking about a lot of important things about
their bodies. That includes puberty, their periods, fertility, pregnancy, miscarriage
and pregnancy termination, childbirth, postpartum depression, and menopause. For instance,
you have almost certainly heard of menopause referred to simply
as the change. That's what we mean.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The Victorian view of females as weak, fragile, and childlike
actually served as both cause and effect when it came
to patent medicines. Where conventional medicine failed, the so called
weaker sex failure left a gaping hole for opportunity. Pharmacists,
patent medicine manufacturers, and advertisers began to target this underserved demographic.
(05:11):
Patent medicine products were often ineffective and or harmful, but
the remedies allowed women to take control of their well
being or at least feel like it, and offered privacy
and convenience through male order delivery. And it most certainly
did not involve a hysterectomy to cure ones headaches. So
(05:31):
patent medicine manufacturers developed in marketed products to address conditions
referred to as female weakness. These were a variety of
health concerns or not even concerns. They included things like
menstrual cramps to menopause, pretty normal things for a female body.
Advertisements that targeted women offered things like quote female strengthening
(05:54):
cordials and nerve tonics to address any and all quote
feminine complaints. There were illustrated trade cards, free calendars in almanacs,
and booklets full of testimonials, all with targeted messages about
helping women's quote weak constitutions and reproductive mysteries. An advertisement,
(06:15):
for instance, for Burdock's blood Bitters targeted women claiming to
be a quote grand system renovating tonic and that it
was the best cure for quote chronic diseases common to
their sex.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Another popular class of so called female remedies. In patent
medicines were known as emenagogues, and these products were intended
to stimulate blood flow to the pelvic and uterine area
to kickstart a period. While they probably were used for
that purpose, modern historians have come to believe that they
could have been used as abortive facians, which are herbs
(06:52):
that may induce miscarriage. Historian Leslie Reagan, for instance, describes
how women facing unwanted pregnancy in the eighteen the nineteenth
centuries likely first tried to induce an early termination at home,
using abortifacient plants like Tansy and Pennyroyal. Other methods, which
are terrifying, included jumping off of tables, massaging the stomach,
(07:16):
and using blunt instruments. Or women could get in touch
with Anne Lowman. Anne, known as Madame Ristelle, became one
of the wealthiest women in New York by selling quote
preventative powders and female monthly pills. If those didn't work
to restore your period. Ristel also offered surgical abortions. She
(07:39):
also ran a boarding house for pregnant women, for whom
she also arranged adoptions. The paperwork from an eighteen forty
lawsuit against Ristel mentioned that her patent medicines included the
abortifation oil of Tansy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The advertising and labeling for these specific products used very
carefully worded language that never actually said what its real
purpose was for pregnancy termination. An advertisement for doctor Vanderberg's
female renovating Pills, for instance, claimed the product was quote
an effectual remedy in all cases where the operations of
(08:16):
nature are impeded. Some labels simply warned that the product
should not be used by pregnant women. Hint, hint. Using
coded language was necessary because, in addition to being sold
by druggists, these products were also available by mail order,
as many patent medicines were. If they were upfront with
(08:39):
our purpose on the packaging, they'd be open for prosecution
under the Comstock Act of eighteen seventy three, which forbade
the sale of quote articles of a moral use through
the postal service.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about
some of the more popular patent medicines marketed to women
claiming to fix all kinds of women's health conditions.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Welcome, back to criminalia. Let's talk about some of the
more prominent patent medicine offerings advertised to women and the
one that truly stood out.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
There were many remedies targeting the female market and for
all sorts of symptoms in the nineteenth century. We'll talk
about just a few standouts. First in the hot seat
is Wompole's Vaginal Cones, created by pharmacist Henry Kwompole. This
product was marketed as an antiseptic that both cleaned and
(09:46):
deodorized the vagina and may have had potential contraceptive properties.
Early versions relied on picric acid that's a chemical used
in artillery shells during World War One, as well as
in explosives, matches and electric batteries, but that ingredient was
changed to sodium borate, a substance that is still in
(10:07):
use today in personal care products. The cones, though, it
turns out, increased a woman's risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And then there's Lysol disinfectant, which has a long history
as a cleaning product, but it also has a history
of being used in women's personal health. Its early formula
included krisol, which was reported to cause inflammation, burning, and death,
yet was aggressively marketed to American housewives. Advertised as a douche,
(10:40):
it played on women's fears of vaginal odor and uncleanliness,
and also used euphemisms that hinted at Lysol's effectiveness as
a contraceptive and pregnancy termination aid.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Doctor ray Von Pierce was at one time the nation's
leading seller of male order patent medicines. He was a
real doctor, and his popular product for female complaints was
called Doctor Pierce's Favorite Prescription. It was advertised that quote
it makes weak women strong and sick women.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It was, though, just as were many patent medicines, a
concoction of alcohol and opium. At the very least, maybe
it took your mind off your worries.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But by far it was Lydia Pinkham who ruled the
realm of patent medicines for women. Her vegetable compound was
probably the most popular female remedy from eighteen seventy five
when it hit the market into the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Lydia, born in eighteen nineteen, was the tenth of twelve
children born to William and Rebecca Estes, and grew up
in a middle class abolitionist Quaker family in Lynn, Massachusetts.
All of the Estes children were educated. Lydia attended Lynn Academy.
The family was part of a New England way of
social reform that promoted abolition, temperance, and women's rights, and
(12:05):
they were friendly with like minded people, including well recognizable
names such as William Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Both Susan
b Anthony and Mary Baker Eddie were also acquaintances who
lived nearby. Lydia was involved in the founding of Lynz
Freeman's Institute and was active in its anti slavery society.
(12:25):
There is some conflicting information, though, about whether or not
she eventually left the Quaker faith as a result of
her feeling that their platform opposing slavery was not strong
enough compared to her own beliefs. Lydia was also a
vocal and firm believer in women's rights, in women's right
to vote and engage in economic activities. It's important to
(12:47):
note that none of those progressive ideas were widely supported
among the American population in the mid to late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
At the age of twenty four, she married Isaac Pinkham.
Isaac was a widowed shoe manufacturer and land speculator. Lydia,
who had become a school teacher, left her classroom to
become a wife and mother. She and Isaac had three sons, Charles, Daniel,
and William, and one daughter, Aroline. It was during this
time when she became well known among her neighborhood for
(13:18):
her homemade remedies. According to Tory Barnes Bruce, a sociology
professor who has worked extensively with Pinkham's history quote, it
was not uncommon at all for women to mix their
own herbs and do herbal remedies, or for some women
in communities to be known for this. Lydia was that person.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Her remedies contained botanicals things such as feny Greek, which
today we know has anti inflammatory properties. Nursing mothers might
also recognize it as an herbal supplement used to promote
milk supply. She also used black cohash, also used by
some modern women as an alternative to hormone therapy for
symptoms of menopause. However, many patent medicines contained high percentages
(14:03):
of alcohol, and Lydia's did as well. What would become
her most famous product, her vegetable compound was initially cooked
up by Lydia herself in her home kitchen and contained
quote unicorn root, life root, black cohas pleurisy root, and
fenya Greek seed preserved in nineteen percent alcohol That made
(14:25):
it a roughly thirty eight proof pick me up. And
there's some potentially scandalous lore about Pinkham's vegetable compound. It's
believed by some to have been a secret formula that
was given to Isaac as payment for money he owed him,
rather than being a formula that Lydia came up with herself.
We don't know, Maybe maybe not.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
She kept a notebook she had titled Medical Directions for Ailments,
and also kept on hand a copy of John King's
American Dispensatory, a book first published in eighteen fifty four
that provides an extensive list of herbs and their medical
uses of note. In eighteen fifty eight, King also published
a book specifically on women's health and diseases. Whether or
(15:10):
not Lydia's tonic cured anything or was just another example
of the placebo effect in a patent medicine, her reputation
was growing strong, and, according to her biographers, women began
to travel to Lin to buy her product.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
So called country cures such as vegetable compounds or sasparillatonics
or super popular, and women especially relied on these home remedies.
According to Sarah Stage, a pink and biographer, doctors of
the time would examine female patients under their skirts to
quote preserve propriety, and as you can imagine, that would
(15:48):
have made serious diagnosis nearly impossible if you couldn't see
what you were doing. Women instead turned to other women
for advice, write Stage. Quote. In the absence of red
la available valid medical therapies, the vegetable compound made sense.
Lydia is quoted as saying only a woman can understand
(16:09):
a woman's ills.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Unlike many of the patent medicine peddlers we've talked about
this season, Lydia was actually a bit unsure and wary
of commercializing her products. All of that changed when Isaac's
businesses failed during the Panic of eighteen seventy three, a
financial crisis in North America and Europe that triggered an
economic depression for several years. She decided to put her
(16:33):
vegetable compound on the market in eighteen seventy five, and
she claimed it was quote a sure cure for prolapsis
uteri or falling of the womb, and all female weaknesses
including lukorea, painful menstruation, inflammation and ulceration of the womb, irregularities, floodings,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
She established Lydia E. Pinkham's medicine company, and she targeted
what she felt the mass medical community had dismissed as
simply female complaints that of course included things we've mentioned
like menstruation, menopause, cramps, hot flashes, and pregnancy related issue
and a so called hot button condition of the time, hysteria.
(17:17):
So we know today that this concept of hysteria is
total bunk, But then it was considered a mental health condition, and,
as modern researchers of medical history have pointed out, little
more than a way to describe and pathologize quote everything
that men found mysterious or unmanageable in women.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
According to Havelock Ellis, physician and author of Psychology of Sex,
a study estimated that in nineteen thirteen, as many as
seventy five percent of women were considered to be suffering
from hysteria. Physicians diagnosed it based on a very long
list of some very common symptoms, so it is quite
(17:59):
a lot. So we'll just note some highlights, and those
highlights are headache, forgetfulness, irritability, insomnia, hot flashes, usage of
coarse language, severe cramping, desire for c literal stimulation, mood swings, anxiety,
loss of appetite, aging, and what are now known as
(18:21):
symptoms of depression, schizophrenia, and other psychological disorders. Other vague
symptoms included quote, tears and laughter, yawning, stretching and yawning,
and abundant and clear urine. Basically, all of these symptoms
were lots of things that just come along with being human.
(18:43):
For a long time, hysteria remained an umbrella term that
included numerous and broadly different symptoms, as you've seen, only
reinforcing harmful stereotypes about sex and gender, and it didn't
fall out of fashion in the medical community until the
twentieth century. The American Psychiatric Association didn't drop the term
(19:03):
hysteria until nineteen fifty two. Nineteen fifty two, we're going
to take a break for a word from our sponsors,
and when we return, we'll talk about the Pinkham's medicine
company's style of advertising.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Pinkham's Medicine company was incorporated for
quite a long time, considering its business was patent medicines.
But let's talk about how it advertised its products and
how things changed as time went on.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The traditional medical community didn't have much to offer women
in regard to diagnosis, treatment, or cure a hysteria, or
any real feminine health concern other than the quote rest cure.
And yes, it is true that treating hysteria did give
us early electronic vibrators, but some pretty dizzying beliefs about
(20:06):
how the female human body works and how to treat
it led to surgical so called cures that included horrendous
procedures such as clitterodectomies and removing ovaries to quote cure insanity.
It's probably no surprise how many women turn to Pinkham's
products as an alternative. Lydia was popular with her female
(20:28):
followers for her remedies, her feminist beliefs, and also because
she encouraged women to write to her for advice. She
gave women confidence both in her and in her vegetable compound.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Today, it's unlikely that you would recognize her face, but
for decades, most people, and specifically most women, would have
recognized Lydia E. Pinkham as though she were family. Her
likeness appeared in marketing and advertising in so many kinds
of publications that writers and other contemporary compared her recognizability
(21:02):
to super famous names like Queen Victoria and even Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Women were not at this time in history encouraged to
engage in business or marketing, but Lydia had a drive
in spirit that led her to create one of the
most successful herbal remedy products in United States history. While
she initially oversaw the creation and bottling of the product
at her home, she left the promotion and distribution of
(21:28):
the vegetable compound to her two middle sons, Will and Dan.
She personally wrote the company's first piece of advertising, which
was a four page pamphlet called Guide for Women. These
free health guides would eventually become a staple of Pinkham's
medicine advertising efforts.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
It was Dan in eighteen seventy nine who came up
with the idea of using his mother's portrait and signature
in advertisements for her products. Historians believe hers was the
first woman's likeness to be used in average In that way,
providing women with a friendly face instilled confidence in the product.
(22:07):
Pinkham's medicine advertisements quote provided legitimacy for the nervous complaints
of women, and it also attempted to normalize women's symptoms
in light of the larger cultural acceptance of those female
weaknesses that we keep mentioning.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The uses for lydia Pinkham's vegetable compound changed a bit
over the years, as things do. Initially, the product was
intended to cure uterine prolapse as well as other health concerns,
including quote all weakness of the generative organs of either sex.
It is second to no remedy that has ever been
before the public. The label suggested dosing as quote a
(22:46):
tablespoonful every four hours through the day. Shake the bottle
before using. Lydia. Pinkham's vegetable compound was prescribed for all
those painful complaints and weaknesses so common to our best
female popular and is particularly adapted to the change of life.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
In many ways. Lydia was onto something she felt strongly about,
empowering women regarding their health and teaching women how to
care for their bodies and not to be ashamed of them.
But she was also a businesswoman of her time and place,
and that came with problems like the huge amounts of
alcohol contained in her product. Her claims that an herbal
(23:27):
remedy could repair a prolapsed uterus or treat ovarian tumors
was flat out wrong, but it was probably no more
misguided than a lot of traditional therapies and conventional medicine.
At that time. We've been talking about blood letting for
menopause relief, for example.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Pinkham's medicine company took a hit though, when both Dan
and Will died of tuberculosis within two months of each
other in eighteen eighty one. Lydia's death followed in eighteen
eighty three after she suffered a stroke. Charles, Lydia's eldest
son and his sister, Ariline were left in charge of
the business. The company endured and continued to capitalize on
(24:06):
Lydia's image and answered correspondence in her name, but it
wasn't the same. They began to rely on less than
ethical ad agencies and the company message had transformed as well.
Advertising for Pinkham's turned its focus to the concept of
the quote ideal wife, and the ideal wife was one
who was not ill and was not a quote drag
(24:30):
upon her husband.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Slowly, Lydia's vegetable compound began to be advertised as a
cure all, including quote all cases of irregularity, faintness, headaches,
chlorosis that's a form of anemia, low spirits, displacements, periodic bearing,
down pains, dizziness, palpitations, depression, pains in the back, and
(24:54):
those dull and listless days when you feel fit for nothing.
And the product line and expanded to include liver pills,
blood purifier, sanitive wash that was a douche, pills for constipation,
and mouthwash. The company continued to produce pamphlets and guides
such as Yours for Health and lydia E. Pinkham's Private Textbook,
(25:17):
and also, oddly they published Landmarks of New England. All
of that was printed and reprinted pretty much just for
the purpose of advertising Pinkham goods.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Whether she was a product of her time or ahead
of her time, her legacy lives on. In nineteen twenty two,
Airline founded the Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Massachusetts
as a memorial for her mother. The institute was and
continues to be a charitable corporation dedicated to nursing mothers,
hygiene and promoting public health. And I guarantee you they
(25:52):
do no blood letting on the angle.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I gonna do any blood letting in this segment of
Curre's what ails yeank goodness. But we will do some
boiling of things, because first we got to make a syrup.
And I really love this syrup. So you are going
to do the usual one cup of water, one cup
of sugar, and to that you're going to add about
(26:20):
a three quarters to a cup of diced strawberries, fresh strawberries,
and then seven to ten sprigs of dill. I love dill,
and I have a bunch growing, so I'm making use
of it. You're gonna pull the tender parts off the
dill to put in this. If you just put the
sprigs in, it's not going to hurt anything, but you'll
just get more better flavor if you just put the
(26:42):
good parts in. You're gonna let that simmer for a
little while. I let mine go until it boils, and
then I turn it down to a low simmer and
then I let it go until it reduces by about half.
Probably you can reduce it more if you like a
thicker syrup. I like it a little thinner because it
incorporates better and drinks. Let that cool. Strain it off.
(27:03):
If you're lucky, as I was today, it turns a
beautiful pink color and your house smells utterly incredible.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I imagine that smells delicious.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Oh, it smelled so good. At one point I went
outside to do something while it was simmering, and I
came in and I was like, the house is amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You got the renewed smell.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I'm like, let's make candles out of this. Candle companies.
Here is the drink that we're making with it into
your shaking tin with a bit of ice. You are
gonna put an ounce of that strawberry dil syrup, an
ounce of lemon, an ounce and a half of rum,
and half an ounce of cognac, and you're gonna give
that a good shake, strain it over fresh ice, and
(27:45):
then just top it with like an ounce or an
ounce and a half of club soda.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
It sounds delicious.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That sound was me throwing something. It was so good.
This is another one, though, that is a little bit
dangerous because as we know, I often give things to
my taste tester Bryan. Yes, and Brian said, is this
a mocktail, which means he could not taste the two
ounces of alcohol.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And gosha, so you can get in trouble if you
don't catch drinks.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yes, he literally thought I had made him the mocktail version,
and I was like, no, baby, there's some ounce and
a half of rum in there, and he was like why,
Like it's a very soft but like the cognac gives
it a little bit fuller flavor. And we're calling this
one lady businesses are because that's a euphemism for some things.
And also Lydia was running a lady business. To make
a mocktail version of lady business is pretty easy. All
(28:32):
you're gonna do is you're also going to have to
do some simmering of things, which is you're gonna take
a half cup of white grape juice ideally low sugar,
a half cup of water, and you're gonna throw it
in a little saucepan with a bag or the equivalent scoop.
If you use a loose tea of just black tea,
whatever you got hanging around. This is a great time.
(28:53):
If one of your teas has gotten a little stale,
like you didn't all use it fast enough, this is
a great use for it because it's gonna impart that
sort of richer, smooth flavor that the kognac adds to
the drink, and the whether it's like super fresh tea
is not as much. So you're gonna do that. Let
that you're only gonna need two ounces of it. But
if you reduce your proportions that much, it won't work.
(29:16):
So that's again, a half cup of low sugar, white
grape juice, a half cup of water, one tea bag
and you're good. And other than that, you make it
exactly the same way with your lemon and your your
strawberry dill syrup and then your club soda to top
it off with what.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
A delicious, refreshing drink.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I will say this, if you make this syrup and
you love it like I do. I also, just because
I had some that was a little too much to
fit into any of my containers that I'm keeping it
in to like put in the fridge and stuff, I
just poured some into some club soda and had like
a strawberry dill soda and it was super delicious and
very refreshing. So you have options with this one. You
(29:59):
can do a lot of fun things. You can make
a straight up Collins with it, and it'll be like
a really fun take on a summary Collins. I'm very
into playing with syrups again, so look out.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I'm very interested in this particular syrup. It sounds, it
just sounds so yummy.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It's so easy. And you better believe I ate those
blanched strawberries with dial right out of the street.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
We will be right back here next week. We are
going to do the big wrap up of the season,
so you're going to get favorite stories and favorite cocktail
lists from me and Maria and we hope you join us.
Thank you so much for being here today. Criminalia is
a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For
(30:43):
more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey, before the show starts today, we have
a little bit of fun news to share.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We have had a secret.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We have been working very diligently for the past many
months on creating something that a lot of you have
been asking for, and that is a book of cocktails
and cocktails that are told right alongside the stories that
we talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Plus additional ones that we have not talked about.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's right. This book is about half stories you have heard,
although they've been abridged, alongside their cocktails and brand news
stories that we are telling, and brand new cocktails that
we have never had before.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are on pre order now so you can order
up and wait for it to hit in October.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's right. It is going to be out on October fifteenth,
and you can order it now just about anywhere books
are sold. Check out your local bookstores and see if
they're going to have it. All right, let's jump into
the episode.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
In eighteen o nine, in Danville, Kentucky, doctor f Ram
McDowell performed the world's first successful oapharrectomy when he removed
twenty two pound ovarian tumor from Jane Todd Crawford. Jane
strapped to the doctor's kitchen table, sang hymns in an
attempt to counteract the pain of the surgery to remove
(01:29):
her ovaries, which by the way, was performed without anesthesia
or antiseptic. But we'll be talking about the very opposite
of that patent medicines targeted to women, including one famous
vegetable compound. No scalpels involved. No, as McDowell's report detailed.
Quote in Testine's rushing out upon table and with that imagery,
(01:53):
welcome to Criminalia. I am Murria Tremarky, and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
If that sounds rud it certainly was. In the nineteenth
century when this patent medicine story takes place, women's health
care and medical treatment came with a lot of challenges.
Women's health often received inadequate attention at best, and that's
for a few reasons. Symptoms went unrecognized, primarily because women's
(02:22):
bodies were a medical mystery, but also because medical professionals,
who were almost all men, were frequently dismissive of female complaints.
Prevailing medical beliefs held women as simply inherently weaker than
men and more prone to illness. Women's complaints were also
often and often unfairly attributed to their uterus. In fact,
(02:46):
look all the way back to the medical texts of
ancient Greece and you'll find the idea of what was
called the wandering womb, and that idea persisted for centuries.
The wandering womb was a condition where the uterus, which
was thought to be untethered inside the female body, could
just cause problems like suffocation, hysteria, and even death if
(03:09):
it was out of place. Medical knowledge was obviously not
as sophisticated as it is today. And don't get cocky,
because surely in another century the same thing will be
said about us.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
In the Victorian era, the menstrual cycle was considered a disease.
A Victorian era woman going through menopause was considered to
be emotionally unstable, and a physician would likely have prescribed
blood letting from the ankle as a way to treat
its symptoms. He also would have advised her against reading novels,
(03:42):
going to parties, and dancing. If you were a forty
five to fifty year old Victorian woman developing this quote,
madness was considered inevitable. The lucky underwent blood letting. The
unlucky were confined to what were then called insane asylum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
In addition to the problems within conventional medicine of the time,
the rules of polite and proper social behavior and social
norms left many women uncomfortable talking about their own bodies
or asking questions about their health or treatment. Women often
used euphemisms or veiled terms as opposed to more straightforward
(04:23):
terms when talking about a lot of important things about
their bodies. That includes puberty, their periods, fertility, pregnancy, miscarriage
and pregnancy termination, childbirth, postpartum depression, and menopause. For instance,
you have almost certainly heard of menopause referred to simply
as the change. That's what we mean.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The Victorian view of females as weak, fragile, and childlike
actually served as both cause and effect when it came
to patent medicines. Where conventional medicine failed, the so called
weaker sex failure left a gaping hole for opportunity. Pharmacists,
patent medicine manufacturers, and advertisers began to target this underserved demographic.
(05:11):
Patent medicine products were often ineffective and or harmful, but
the remedies allowed women to take control of their well
being or at least feel like it, and offered privacy
and convenience through male order delivery. And it most certainly
did not involve a hysterectomy to cure ones headaches. So
(05:31):
patent medicine manufacturers developed in marketed products to address conditions
referred to as female weakness. These were a variety of
health concerns or not even concerns. They included things like
menstrual cramps to menopause, pretty normal things for a female body.
Advertisements that targeted women offered things like quote female strengthening
(05:54):
cordials and nerve tonics to address any and all quote
feminine complaints. There were illustrated trade cards, free calendars in almanacs,
and booklets full of testimonials, all with targeted messages about
helping women's quote weak constitutions and reproductive mysteries. An advertisement,
(06:15):
for instance, for Burdock's blood Bitters targeted women claiming to
be a quote grand system renovating tonic and that it
was the best cure for quote chronic diseases common to
their sex.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Another popular class of so called female remedies. In patent
medicines were known as emenagogues, and these products were intended
to stimulate blood flow to the pelvic and uterine area
to kickstart a period. While they probably were used for
that purpose, modern historians have come to believe that they
could have been used as abortive facians, which are herbs
(06:52):
that may induce miscarriage. Historian Leslie Reagan, for instance, describes
how women facing unwanted pregnancy in the eighteen the nineteenth
centuries likely first tried to induce an early termination at home,
using abortifacient plants like Tansy and Pennyroyal. Other methods, which
are terrifying, included jumping off of tables, massaging the stomach,
(07:16):
and using blunt instruments. Or women could get in touch
with Anne Lowman. Anne, known as Madame Ristelle, became one
of the wealthiest women in New York by selling quote
preventative powders and female monthly pills. If those didn't work
to restore your period. Ristel also offered surgical abortions. She
(07:39):
also ran a boarding house for pregnant women, for whom
she also arranged adoptions. The paperwork from an eighteen forty
lawsuit against Ristel mentioned that her patent medicines included the
abortifation oil of Tansy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The advertising and labeling for these specific products used very
carefully worded language that never actually said what its real
purpose was for pregnancy termination. An advertisement for doctor Vanderberg's
female renovating Pills, for instance, claimed the product was quote
an effectual remedy in all cases where the operations of
(08:16):
nature are impeded. Some labels simply warned that the product
should not be used by pregnant women. Hint, hint. Using
coded language was necessary because, in addition to being sold
by druggists, these products were also available by mail order,
as many patent medicines were. If they were upfront with
(08:39):
our purpose on the packaging, they'd be open for prosecution
under the Comstock Act of eighteen seventy three, which forbade
the sale of quote articles of a moral use through
the postal service.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about
some of the more popular patent medicines marketed to women
claiming to fix all kinds of women's health conditions.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Welcome, back to criminalia. Let's talk about some of the
more prominent patent medicine offerings advertised to women and the
one that truly stood out.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
There were many remedies targeting the female market and for
all sorts of symptoms in the nineteenth century. We'll talk
about just a few standouts. First in the hot seat
is Wompole's Vaginal Cones, created by pharmacist Henry Kwompole. This
product was marketed as an antiseptic that both cleaned and
(09:46):
deodorized the vagina and may have had potential contraceptive properties.
Early versions relied on picric acid that's a chemical used
in artillery shells during World War One, as well as
in explosives, matches and electric batteries, but that ingredient was
changed to sodium borate, a substance that is still in
(10:07):
use today in personal care products. The cones, though, it
turns out, increased a woman's risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And then there's Lysol disinfectant, which has a long history
as a cleaning product, but it also has a history
of being used in women's personal health. Its early formula
included krisol, which was reported to cause inflammation, burning, and death,
yet was aggressively marketed to American housewives. Advertised as a douche,
(10:40):
it played on women's fears of vaginal odor and uncleanliness,
and also used euphemisms that hinted at Lysol's effectiveness as
a contraceptive and pregnancy termination aid.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Doctor ray Von Pierce was at one time the nation's
leading seller of male order patent medicines. He was a
real doctor, and his popular product for female complaints was
called Doctor Pierce's Favorite Prescription. It was advertised that quote
it makes weak women strong and sick women.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It was, though, just as were many patent medicines, a
concoction of alcohol and opium. At the very least, maybe
it took your mind off your worries.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But by far it was Lydia Pinkham who ruled the
realm of patent medicines for women. Her vegetable compound was
probably the most popular female remedy from eighteen seventy five
when it hit the market into the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Lydia, born in eighteen nineteen, was the tenth of twelve
children born to William and Rebecca Estes, and grew up
in a middle class abolitionist Quaker family in Lynn, Massachusetts.
All of the Estes children were educated. Lydia attended Lynn Academy.
The family was part of a New England way of
social reform that promoted abolition, temperance, and women's rights, and
(12:05):
they were friendly with like minded people, including well recognizable
names such as William Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Both Susan
b Anthony and Mary Baker Eddie were also acquaintances who
lived nearby. Lydia was involved in the founding of Lynz
Freeman's Institute and was active in its anti slavery society.
(12:25):
There is some conflicting information, though, about whether or not
she eventually left the Quaker faith as a result of
her feeling that their platform opposing slavery was not strong
enough compared to her own beliefs. Lydia was also a
vocal and firm believer in women's rights, in women's right
to vote and engage in economic activities. It's important to
(12:47):
note that none of those progressive ideas were widely supported
among the American population in the mid to late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
At the age of twenty four, she married Isaac Pinkham.
Isaac was a widowed shoe manufacturer and land speculator. Lydia,
who had become a school teacher, left her classroom to
become a wife and mother. She and Isaac had three sons, Charles, Daniel,
and William, and one daughter, Aroline. It was during this
time when she became well known among her neighborhood for
(13:18):
her homemade remedies. According to Tory Barnes Bruce, a sociology
professor who has worked extensively with Pinkham's history quote, it
was not uncommon at all for women to mix their
own herbs and do herbal remedies, or for some women
in communities to be known for this. Lydia was that person.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Her remedies contained botanicals things such as feny Greek, which
today we know has anti inflammatory properties. Nursing mothers might
also recognize it as an herbal supplement used to promote
milk supply. She also used black cohash, also used by
some modern women as an alternative to hormone therapy for
symptoms of menopause. However, many patent medicines contained high percentages
(14:03):
of alcohol, and Lydia's did as well. What would become
her most famous product, her vegetable compound was initially cooked
up by Lydia herself in her home kitchen and contained
quote unicorn root, life root, black cohas pleurisy root, and
fenya Greek seed preserved in nineteen percent alcohol That made
(14:25):
it a roughly thirty eight proof pick me up. And
there's some potentially scandalous lore about Pinkham's vegetable compound. It's
believed by some to have been a secret formula that
was given to Isaac as payment for money he owed him,
rather than being a formula that Lydia came up with herself.
We don't know, Maybe maybe not.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
She kept a notebook she had titled Medical Directions for Ailments,
and also kept on hand a copy of John King's
American Dispensatory, a book first published in eighteen fifty four
that provides an extensive list of herbs and their medical
uses of note. In eighteen fifty eight, King also published
a book specifically on women's health and diseases. Whether or
(15:10):
not Lydia's tonic cured anything or was just another example
of the placebo effect in a patent medicine, her reputation
was growing strong, and, according to her biographers, women began
to travel to Lin to buy her product.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
So called country cures such as vegetable compounds or sasparillatonics
or super popular, and women especially relied on these home remedies.
According to Sarah Stage, a pink and biographer, doctors of
the time would examine female patients under their skirts to
quote preserve propriety, and as you can imagine, that would
(15:48):
have made serious diagnosis nearly impossible if you couldn't see
what you were doing. Women instead turned to other women
for advice, write Stage. Quote. In the absence of red
la available valid medical therapies, the vegetable compound made sense.
Lydia is quoted as saying only a woman can understand
(16:09):
a woman's ills.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Unlike many of the patent medicine peddlers we've talked about
this season, Lydia was actually a bit unsure and wary
of commercializing her products. All of that changed when Isaac's
businesses failed during the Panic of eighteen seventy three, a
financial crisis in North America and Europe that triggered an
economic depression for several years. She decided to put her
(16:33):
vegetable compound on the market in eighteen seventy five, and
she claimed it was quote a sure cure for prolapsis
uteri or falling of the womb, and all female weaknesses
including lukorea, painful menstruation, inflammation and ulceration of the womb, irregularities, floodings,
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
She established Lydia E. Pinkham's medicine company, and she targeted
what she felt the mass medical community had dismissed as
simply female complaints that of course included things we've mentioned
like menstruation, menopause, cramps, hot flashes, and pregnancy related issue
and a so called hot button condition of the time, hysteria.
(17:17):
So we know today that this concept of hysteria is
total bunk, But then it was considered a mental health condition, and,
as modern researchers of medical history have pointed out, little
more than a way to describe and pathologize quote everything
that men found mysterious or unmanageable in women.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
According to Havelock Ellis, physician and author of Psychology of Sex,
a study estimated that in nineteen thirteen, as many as
seventy five percent of women were considered to be suffering
from hysteria. Physicians diagnosed it based on a very long
list of some very common symptoms, so it is quite
(17:59):
a lot. So we'll just note some highlights, and those
highlights are headache, forgetfulness, irritability, insomnia, hot flashes, usage of
coarse language, severe cramping, desire for c literal stimulation, mood swings, anxiety,
loss of appetite, aging, and what are now known as
(18:21):
symptoms of depression, schizophrenia, and other psychological disorders. Other vague
symptoms included quote, tears and laughter, yawning, stretching and yawning,
and abundant and clear urine. Basically, all of these symptoms
were lots of things that just come along with being human.
(18:43):
For a long time, hysteria remained an umbrella term that
included numerous and broadly different symptoms, as you've seen, only
reinforcing harmful stereotypes about sex and gender, and it didn't
fall out of fashion in the medical community until the
twentieth century. The American Psychiatric Association didn't drop the term
(19:03):
hysteria until nineteen fifty two. Nineteen fifty two, we're going
to take a break for a word from our sponsors,
and when we return, we'll talk about the Pinkham's medicine
company's style of advertising.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Pinkham's Medicine company was incorporated for
quite a long time, considering its business was patent medicines.
But let's talk about how it advertised its products and
how things changed as time went on.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The traditional medical community didn't have much to offer women
in regard to diagnosis, treatment, or cure a hysteria, or
any real feminine health concern other than the quote rest cure.
And yes, it is true that treating hysteria did give
us early electronic vibrators, but some pretty dizzying beliefs about
(20:06):
how the female human body works and how to treat
it led to surgical so called cures that included horrendous
procedures such as clitterodectomies and removing ovaries to quote cure insanity.
It's probably no surprise how many women turn to Pinkham's
products as an alternative. Lydia was popular with her female
(20:28):
followers for her remedies, her feminist beliefs, and also because
she encouraged women to write to her for advice. She
gave women confidence both in her and in her vegetable compound.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Today, it's unlikely that you would recognize her face, but
for decades, most people, and specifically most women, would have
recognized Lydia E. Pinkham as though she were family. Her
likeness appeared in marketing and advertising in so many kinds
of publications that writers and other contemporary compared her recognizability
(21:02):
to super famous names like Queen Victoria and even Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Women were not at this time in history encouraged to
engage in business or marketing, but Lydia had a drive
in spirit that led her to create one of the
most successful herbal remedy products in United States history. While
she initially oversaw the creation and bottling of the product
at her home, she left the promotion and distribution of
(21:28):
the vegetable compound to her two middle sons, Will and Dan.
She personally wrote the company's first piece of advertising, which
was a four page pamphlet called Guide for Women. These
free health guides would eventually become a staple of Pinkham's
medicine advertising efforts.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
It was Dan in eighteen seventy nine who came up
with the idea of using his mother's portrait and signature
in advertisements for her products. Historians believe hers was the
first woman's likeness to be used in average In that way,
providing women with a friendly face instilled confidence in the product.
(22:07):
Pinkham's medicine advertisements quote provided legitimacy for the nervous complaints
of women, and it also attempted to normalize women's symptoms
in light of the larger cultural acceptance of those female
weaknesses that we keep mentioning.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The uses for lydia Pinkham's vegetable compound changed a bit
over the years, as things do. Initially, the product was
intended to cure uterine prolapse as well as other health concerns,
including quote all weakness of the generative organs of either sex.
It is second to no remedy that has ever been
before the public. The label suggested dosing as quote a
(22:46):
tablespoonful every four hours through the day. Shake the bottle
before using. Lydia. Pinkham's vegetable compound was prescribed for all
those painful complaints and weaknesses so common to our best
female popular and is particularly adapted to the change of life.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
In many ways. Lydia was onto something she felt strongly about,
empowering women regarding their health and teaching women how to
care for their bodies and not to be ashamed of them.
But she was also a businesswoman of her time and place,
and that came with problems like the huge amounts of
alcohol contained in her product. Her claims that an herbal
(23:27):
remedy could repair a prolapsed uterus or treat ovarian tumors
was flat out wrong, but it was probably no more
misguided than a lot of traditional therapies and conventional medicine.
At that time. We've been talking about blood letting for
menopause relief, for example.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Pinkham's medicine company took a hit though, when both Dan
and Will died of tuberculosis within two months of each
other in eighteen eighty one. Lydia's death followed in eighteen
eighty three after she suffered a stroke. Charles, Lydia's eldest
son and his sister, Ariline were left in charge of
the business. The company endured and continued to capitalize on
(24:06):
Lydia's image and answered correspondence in her name, but it
wasn't the same. They began to rely on less than
ethical ad agencies and the company message had transformed as well.
Advertising for Pinkham's turned its focus to the concept of
the quote ideal wife, and the ideal wife was one
who was not ill and was not a quote drag
(24:30):
upon her husband.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Slowly, Lydia's vegetable compound began to be advertised as a
cure all, including quote all cases of irregularity, faintness, headaches,
chlorosis that's a form of anemia, low spirits, displacements, periodic bearing,
down pains, dizziness, palpitations, depression, pains in the back, and
(24:54):
those dull and listless days when you feel fit for nothing.
And the product line and expanded to include liver pills,
blood purifier, sanitive wash that was a douche, pills for constipation,
and mouthwash. The company continued to produce pamphlets and guides
such as Yours for Health and lydia E. Pinkham's Private Textbook,
(25:17):
and also, oddly they published Landmarks of New England. All
of that was printed and reprinted pretty much just for
the purpose of advertising Pinkham goods.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Whether she was a product of her time or ahead
of her time, her legacy lives on. In nineteen twenty two,
Airline founded the Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Massachusetts
as a memorial for her mother. The institute was and
continues to be a charitable corporation dedicated to nursing mothers,
hygiene and promoting public health. And I guarantee you they
(25:52):
do no blood letting on the angle.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I gonna do any blood letting in this segment of
Curre's what ails yeank goodness. But we will do some
boiling of things, because first we got to make a syrup.
And I really love this syrup. So you are going
to do the usual one cup of water, one cup
of sugar, and to that you're going to add about
(26:20):
a three quarters to a cup of diced strawberries, fresh strawberries,
and then seven to ten sprigs of dill. I love dill,
and I have a bunch growing, so I'm making use
of it. You're gonna pull the tender parts off the
dill to put in this. If you just put the
sprigs in, it's not going to hurt anything, but you'll
just get more better flavor if you just put the
(26:42):
good parts in. You're gonna let that simmer for a
little while. I let mine go until it boils, and
then I turn it down to a low simmer and
then I let it go until it reduces by about half.
Probably you can reduce it more if you like a
thicker syrup. I like it a little thinner because it
incorporates better and drinks. Let that cool. Strain it off.
(27:03):
If you're lucky, as I was today, it turns a
beautiful pink color and your house smells utterly incredible.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
I imagine that smells delicious.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Oh, it smelled so good. At one point I went
outside to do something while it was simmering, and I
came in and I was like, the house is amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You got the renewed smell.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I'm like, let's make candles out of this. Candle companies.
Here is the drink that we're making with it into
your shaking tin with a bit of ice. You are
gonna put an ounce of that strawberry dil syrup, an
ounce of lemon, an ounce and a half of rum,
and half an ounce of cognac, and you're gonna give
that a good shake, strain it over fresh ice, and
(27:45):
then just top it with like an ounce or an
ounce and a half of club soda.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
It sounds delicious.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That sound was me throwing something. It was so good.
This is another one, though, that is a little bit
dangerous because as we know, I often give things to
my taste tester Bryan. Yes, and Brian said, is this
a mocktail, which means he could not taste the two
ounces of alcohol.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And gosha, so you can get in trouble if you
don't catch drinks.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yes, he literally thought I had made him the mocktail version,
and I was like, no, baby, there's some ounce and
a half of rum in there, and he was like why,
Like it's a very soft but like the cognac gives
it a little bit fuller flavor. And we're calling this
one lady businesses are because that's a euphemism for some things.
And also Lydia was running a lady business. To make
a mocktail version of lady business is pretty easy. All
(28:32):
you're gonna do is you're also going to have to
do some simmering of things, which is you're gonna take
a half cup of white grape juice ideally low sugar,
a half cup of water, and you're gonna throw it
in a little saucepan with a bag or the equivalent scoop.
If you use a loose tea of just black tea,
whatever you got hanging around. This is a great time.
(28:53):
If one of your teas has gotten a little stale,
like you didn't all use it fast enough, this is
a great use for it because it's gonna impart that
sort of richer, smooth flavor that the kognac adds to
the drink, and the whether it's like super fresh tea
is not as much. So you're gonna do that. Let
that you're only gonna need two ounces of it. But
if you reduce your proportions that much, it won't work.
(29:16):
So that's again, a half cup of low sugar, white
grape juice, a half cup of water, one tea bag
and you're good. And other than that, you make it
exactly the same way with your lemon and your your
strawberry dill syrup and then your club soda to top
it off with what.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
A delicious, refreshing drink.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I will say this, if you make this syrup and
you love it like I do. I also, just because
I had some that was a little too much to
fit into any of my containers that I'm keeping it
in to like put in the fridge and stuff, I
just poured some into some club soda and had like
a strawberry dill soda and it was super delicious and
very refreshing. So you have options with this one. You
(29:59):
can do a lot of fun things. You can make
a straight up Collins with it, and it'll be like
a really fun take on a summary Collins. I'm very
into playing with syrups again, so look out.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I'm very interested in this particular syrup. It sounds, it
just sounds so yummy.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It's so easy. And you better believe I ate those
blanched strawberries with dial right out of the street.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
We will be right back here next week. We are
going to do the big wrap up of the season,
so you're going to get favorite stories and favorite cocktail
lists from me and Maria and we hope you join us.
Thank you so much for being here today. Criminalia is
a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For
(30:43):
more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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