In the days before the germ theory was established, many different substances were used to treat specific disorders. Indeed physicians so despaired of finding effective cures that many subscribed to a doctrine of "therapeutic nihilism," prescribing as little as possible and making no claims that the available remedies would work. Since governments did not regulate medicines, anyone could invent one and try to sell it. Patent medicines got their name because their manufacturers had secured or applied for government patents, granting them exclusive rights to make and sell particular remedies. Such a patent protected the seller, not the buyer, and attested to a product's originality, not its curative powers.

Marketing the "Cure-All."

Manufacturers of patent medicines typically claimed that they cured many ailments, sometimes a very long list of them. Many had scientific-sounding names, such as Lithiated Hydrangea, Extract of...