Patent Medicines.

Colonial Americans had imported from England a variety of patent medicines (so called because they had received official patents from the British government). When the Revolutionary War cut off the supply of Daffy's Elixir and Bateman's Pectoral Drops, enterprising Americans began creating their own packaged herbal remedies. The new confidence in the United States as strong enough to win a war against the most powerful nation on earth led to a belief that everything about America was special, including their own medications, which, because they were made from American ingredients, would have special curative powers for the people of the United States. As early as 1800 a newspaper warned that "the venders of patent medicines in almost every capital town in the United States are fattening on the weakness and folly of a deluded public." The colorful names and attractive...