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[ INVESTIGATIVE FILES J OE NI CK E L L Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow and curator of the Skeptiseum (online at www.skeptiseum.com).

‘Pop’ Culture: Patent Medicines Become Soda Drinks

he soda fountains of yesteryear— vored soda waters caught on. macist created a formula that he billed a particularly American phenom- Some early soda bottles, such as those as a cure-all and offered to the public. Tenon—were in drug stores for a for English , had rounded bot- However, it was not actually marketed reason. Introduced in pharmacies at the toms, so they could not be stood upright. until Philadelphia pharmacist Charles end of the eighteenth century and in- This prevented their corks from drying Hires produced a liquid concentrate in creasing in the 1830s, they were an effec- out and shrinking, which kept the gas small bottles (see figure 3), introducing tive means of dispensing medications: pressure from causing them to “pop.”1 it at the Phila delphia Cen tennial Exhi- adding a small amount of flavoring Later “pop” bottles had patented stop- bition in 1876. By 1893 the Hires fam- along with some seltzer (effervescent pers (again, see figure 2), including the ily was selling bottled versions of their water) made medicine more palatable familiar one from 1891 still used today, carbonated drink, thus securing a place (New Orleans, n.d.; Mariani 1994, called the crown cork (a crimped metal in soft drink history (“History” 2010; 291). As part of my studies of snake oil cap with a cork liner) (Munsey 1970, “Root beer” 2010). One slogan was and other cure-alls (Nickell 1998, 2005, 101–10). “Join Health and Cheer/Drink Hires 2006)—which ranged over several years Root Beer and Sarsaparilla Rootbeer [sic]” (Munsey 1970, 274). and included collecting antique bottles Ironically, in time, root beer’s health- and ephemera and visiting such sites as Two plant roots particularly, sarsaparilla fulness was seriously questioned after the Coca-Cola museum—I was struck and sassafras (figure 1), were early recog- safrol (a substance in sassafras oil) was by the fact that several famous soft nized for their potent flavor and pre- found to cause cancer or permanent drinks had originated as patent medi- sumed medicinal properties. In 1830, in liver damage in laboratory animals. The cines, which in turn had their origin in his treatise on medical botany, Constan- U.S. Food and Drug Administration herbal and other folk remedies (see fig- tine Rafinesque described the American (FDA) banned sassafras oil in 1960, but ure 1). Pharmacists claimed the added sassafras tree (an aromatic member of the inventors soon discovered a process to ingredients “made medicines taste so laurel family) and its qualities, noting remove the harmful substance while good, people wanted them, whether they that “Indians use a strong decoction to preserving the flavor (“History” 2010). needed them or not, and that’s how soft purge and clear the body in the spring.” Another common ingredient of root drinks evolved” (New Orleans, n.d.). Sassafras has long been used as a tea and beer was sarsaparilla, which was origi- Advent of Soda ‘Pop’ “home-remedy spring tonic and blood nally sold for medicinal purposes. As purifier” (Rafinesque 1830). (I dug the early as 1835, the famous religious soci- Mineral water, including naturally car- root as a boy in Kentucky, seemingly ety, the Shakers, offered in their herb cat- bonated water (figure 2), has long been coming by my interest naturally: my alogs a syrup of sarsaparilla touted for a promoted as a curative for various ail- great, great grandparents, Harry and variety of ailments, including digestive ments. As early as the beginning of the Martha Mur phy, were Appalachian her - troubles, rheumatism, jaundice, “sec- sixteenth century, scientists tried to du- balists and folk doctors.) ondary syphilis,” and more. It contained plicate nature’s carbonation process. It Sassafras was an original, major in- not only sarsaparilla root but dandelion, fell to Dr. Joseph Priestley (discoverer gredient in many recipes for root beer, mandrake, Indian hemp, and other of oxygen) to advance the first practical which was brewed in the eighteenth roots, as well as juniper berries and addi- process in 1772, thus helping to launch century as a mildly alcoholic beverage. tional ingredients (Miller 1998, 84–85). the soda-water industry. In time, fla- Reportedly, in 1870 an unknown phar- Among many famous brands of suppos-

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edly curative sarsaparilla were Corbett’s (made by Shaker doctor Thomas Cor- bett), Hood’s, and Ayer’s (Fike 2006, 214–21).2 Like root beer, sarsaparilla evolved into a soft drink (figure 4), a flavored, carbonated concoction that was in time sold only for its taste (Sioux City Sarsa - parilla is a current major brand [“Sarsa - parilla” 2010]). Both drinks were original concoctions, predating colas and other popular soda drinks (“History” 2010). Other plant-extract-based drinks, such as birch beer (emerging in the 1880s to compete with root beer), gin- ger beer, and ginger ale, have histories paralleling root beer and sarsaparilla. Because ginger has been used for cen- turies for medicinal purposes, ginger ale predates most of the other medicinal soft drinks. Indeed, Vernors brand, said to have originated in 1866, has been called “the first U.S. soft drink” (“Gin- ger ale” 2010). Then there was Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, a celery tonic served in New York delicatessens from 1869 and sold as a bottled soda since 1886 (“Dr. Brown’s” 2010). Moxie Among the earliest patent-medicine- turned-soft-drinks was a New England- based variety, now of limited sales but still remembered for the slang expression, Figure 1. Assortment of bottles representing antecedents or contemporaries of famous early soft drinks—like “You’ve got a lot of Moxie”—meaning a Coca-Cola and —that began as patent medicines. Rearmost bottle: “Oil of Sassafras”; next row, left to right: lot of pluck or nerve. The drink was cre- “Elixir Kola-Nuces,” “Atwood’s Jaundice Bitters,” and “Cloverdale Lith-A-Limes/The Original Limes & Lithia”; next, ated by Dr. Augustin Thompson, who al- “Ayer’s Sarsaparilla”; and, in front, “The Shaker Extract of Roots or the Seigel Curative Syrup” (containing, among many ingredients, gentian and sassafras). (Author’s photo of his collection) leged that it contained extracts from a rare South American plant. Thompson claimed that the unnamed botanical was blend of bitter and sweet, a drink to sat- lanta and Fulton County had passed discovered by his “friend,” a Lieutenant isfy everyone’s taste.” Its unique flavor prohibition legislation, doctor and Moxie (“Moxie” 2010). Moxie was sup- has been attributed to a key ingredient, pharmacist John S. Pemberton created posedly a cure for “brain and nervous ex- “Gentian Root Extrac tives” (“Moxie” a non-alcoholic version of a coca wine, haustion, loss of manhood, imbecility 2010)—gentian root is an ingredient of then—accidentally it is said—one day and helplessness, softening of the brain, some types of bitters: a medicinal liquor added carbonation. The new drink was locomotor ataxia and insanity” (Klein made by steeping certain botanicals in soon marketed to other drug-store soda 1999). alcohol (Munsey 1970, 111–13; Balch fountains where carbonated water was Moxie was first formulated circa 2002, 70). (Again, see figure 1.) sold in the belief that it was healthful 1876, but, as its present advertising Coca-Cola (seltzers were touted, for example, as a notes, it has been marketed “Since cure for obesity [Munsey 1970, 103]). 1884,” by which time Thompson was This classic soft drink originated as a Pemberton claimed that his Coca-Cola selling the bottled drink as well as a patent medicine selling for five cents a cured such diseases as dyspepsia and bulk syrup intended for soda fountains. glass at Jacob’s pharmacy in Atlanta, impotence (Munsey 1970, 105; “Coca- Moxie was described as “a delicious Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Because At- Cola” 2010). It was billed early as “The

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Ideal Nerve and Brain Tonic. It res sion, went bankrupt (largely Cures Headache, Invigorates the due to speculation on sugar prices System” (CNBC 2010). Pember- that fluctuated wildly in the wake of ton also claimed the drink cured World War I) and its assets and morphine addiction. trademark were sold. A second In fact, the coca leaf and kola bankruptcy just eight years later put nut (figure 1) used in the drink the company in the hands of a candy yielded the addictive substances co- manufacturer, Loft Inc., whose retail caine and caffeine—hence the stores had soda fountains. Loft’s name Coca-Cola. However, in president, Charles Guth, was miffed time, the small amount of cocaine at Coke’s refusal to lower the price was reduced and finally eliminated on its syrup and intended to replace at the turn of the twentieth century Coke with Pepsi. He had his (Mariani 1994, 291). (The current chemists reformulate the syrup for- product contains only coca flavor- mula. In 1936, Pepsi introduced a ing.) Caffeine remained, but in double-sized, twelve-ounce bottle 1912 an amended U.S. Pure Food for ten cents, then responded to slow and Drug Act required that such sales by cutting the price to five “habit-forming” and “deleterious” cents. During the 1940s, a new pres- substances in a product be listed on ident, Walter Mack, targeted the its label (“Coca-Cola” 2010). African American market with eth- Figure 2. Carbonated water required bottles with strong closures, Until 1894, the drink was sold nically positive ads. In time, Pepsi like this one from historic Saratoga Springs, New York. (Author’s ex clusively at soda fountains. How- be came a serious rival of Coke photo of his collection) ever, on March 12 of that year, the (“Pepsi” 2010). first Coca-Cola was sold in bottles provided by the Biedenharn Candy Company in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Another popular American soda By 1895 the product was distributed was first served in about 1885 in throughout the United States and Waco, Texas. A concoction created its territories. Cans of the drink by Charles Alderton, the pharmacist were first marketed in 1955 (New in Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Orleans, n.d.; “Coca-Cola” 2010). Store, the drink was first dubbed a Pepsi-Cola “Waco.” Alderton gave the recipe to the owner, Wade Mor rison, who Coca-Cola’s main rival began as a christened it Dr. Pepper (seemingly carbonated soft drink first called after Dr. Charles T. Pepper of Chris- “Brad’s Drink” after its creator, tiansburg, Virginia, where Morrison Caleb Bradham of New Bern, once worked as a young pharmacy North Carolina. At his pharmacy clerk). there in 1898, he began to concoct a Dr. Pepper was initially sold as an fountain drink that was intended to energy drink and “brain tonic.” The both aid digestion and boost energy. drink was not nationally marketed Its main ingredients—pepsin (a di- until 1904. In the 1950s, the period gestive enzyme) and kola nuts—ap- punctuating “Dr” was dropped. This pear to have prompted its later was for stylistic reasons as well as to name, Pepsi-Cola. Its trademark ap- eliminate any suggestion of a med- Figure 3. Hires, one of the original root beers, was sold as early as 1876 in a concentrated “Household Extract” form (front), as plication was approved in 1903, and ical link to the product, which was was Hires ginger ale, and was also later marketed as a carbonated Bradham moved his operation to a called “The Friendly Pepper Upper.” beverage (left, right). Both “pop” bottles shown had crown caps; rented warehouse where, the follow- Courts have held that Dr Pepper is the one on the left dates from about the end of the nineteenth ing year, the drink began to be not a “cola” but a distinctively fla- century, and the other from after May 26, 1936, when that bottle was patented. The latter contained “plant extractives” of birch, shipped out in six-ounce bottles. vored drink. During the early 1980s, sassafras, licorice, sarsaparilla, ginger, and so on, as well as car- The first logo was created in 1905, after the Dr Pepper company bonated water, sugar, dextrose, caramel, “and flavor.” (Author’s then redesigned in 1926 and 1929. became insolvent, the Federal Trade photo of his collection) In 1931, during the Great Dep - Commission blocked its acquisition

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by Coca-Cola; it then merged with dangerous, but over the years the harm- Seven Up (to create Dr Pep per/Seven ful effects have been rather consistently Up, Inc.) (“Dr Pepper” 2010). addressed. We can now turn our atten- 7 UP tion elsewhere: to the dubious health and medical claims that continue to St. Louis businessman Charles L. Grigg proliferate under the term “alternative launched a new soft drink just two weeks medicine”—often old-style quackery, prior to the stock market crash of 1929. even if newly bottled. n Originally called “Bib-label Lithiated Acknowledgments Lemon-Lime Soda,” it contained lith - ium citrate. Lithium is an element found Kudos to my wife, Diana Gawen Harris, for in many mineral springs (mineral water suggesting the title “‘Pop’ Culture” and to my daughter, Cherie Roycroft, for the gift was often bottled and sold for its al- of the rare Kola-Nuces bottle shown in fig- legedly healthful properties), and it was ure 1. I am again grateful to CFI Libraries once prescribed for many ailments, in- Director Timothy Binga and librarian Lisa cluding gout, rheumatism, and kidney Nolan for their valuable research assistance. stones. It did little good for these prob- Notes lems, but it is known as a mood-stabiliz- ing drug. In marketing his drink, Grigg 1. English poet Robert Southey in 1812 de- scribed ginger ale as “a nectar, between soda water and used the slogan, “Takes the ‘ouch’ out of , and called pop because ‘pop goes the cork’ grouch.” The drink’s name was later when it is drawn” (qtd. in Munsey 1970, 104–5). Figure 4. Sarsaparilla famously transitioned from a changed to “7 UP”—supposedly the “7” 2. Although sarsaparilla continues to be pro- moted by naturopaths and other herbalists as a medicine to a soda drink. With the nineteenth-century indicated its seven-ounce bottle and the curative for “a wide range of systemic problems” Hood’s bottle (left)—from C.I. Hood & Co., Apothe- “UP” the rising bubbles from its strong and is allegedly “especially useful for rheumatoid caries, Lowell, Massa chusetts—is a flyer advertising carbonation (Klein 1999; “7 UP” 2010; arthritis” (Naturopathic 1995, 119), peer-re- that brand as a “cure” for “Rheumatism,” as well as viewed research generally fails to support the “Dyspepsia, Biliousness, Sick Headache, Indigestion, Nickell 2005). claims (“Sarsaparilla” 2010). General Debility, Catarrh & Kidney and Liver Com- Like other such “health” drinks, 7 UP plaints.” The soda version (right), from Rochester, New had problems. For example, toxic levels References York, dates from after 1903. (Author’s photo of his col- of lithium, which is still used to treat Balch, Phyllis A. 2002. Prescription for Herbal lection) manic depression, are rather near its ther- Healing. New York: Avery. CNBC Original Productions. The Real Story Be- lecting Bottles. New York: Hawthorn Books. apeutic levels (Nickell 2005). By the hind the Real Thing. Aired March 13, 2010. Naturopathic Handbook of Herbal Formulas, 4th ed. mid-1940s, lithium was fortunately no www.cnbc.com. 1995. Ayer, MA: Herbal Research Pub - longer listed on the 7 UP label. Over the “Coca-Cola.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. lications. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. n.d. 19th Cen- years the beverage has been reformulated wiki/Coca-cola. tury Patent Medicines. Reprinted in Klein many times: A diet version (called “Dr. Brown’s.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. 1999. “Like”) was discontinued in 1969 after Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ Nickell, Joe. 1998. Peddling snake oil. Skeptical wiki/Dr._Brown’s. Briefs 8(4) (December): 1–2, 13. cyclamate sweetener was banned; the “Dr Pepper.” Wikipedia. Accessed March 15, ———. 2005. Healing waters: Spas. Skeptical drink’s high sodium content was re duced 2010. Available online at http://en.wikipedia. Briefs 15(3) (September): 5–7. by substituting potassium citrate for org/wiki/Dr_Pepper. ———. 2006. Snake oil: A guide for connois- Fike, Richard E. 2006. The Bottle Book: A Com- seurs. Skeptical Briefs 16(3) (September): 7–8. sodium citrate; and 7 UP’s claim to be prehensive Guide to Historic, Embossed Medi- “Pepsi.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. Avail- “100% Natural” was dropped after the cine Bottles. Chadwell, NJ: Blackburn Press. able online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ Center for Science in the Public Interest “Ginger ale.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 7, 2010. wiki/Pepsi. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ Rafinesque, Constantine. 1830. Medical Flora, a threatened to sue on the grounds that its wiki/Ginger_ale. Manual of the Medical Botany of the United high-fructose corn syrup resulted from a “History of Rootbeer.” Accessed March 12, 2010. States. . . . In The Magic of Herbs in Daily Liv- manufacturing process (“7 UP” 2010; Available online at www.essortment.com/all ing, by Richard Lucas, 71. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing, 1978. Klein 1999). /historyrootbeer_rhnc.htm. Klein, Victor C. 1999. New Orleans Ghosts II. “Root beer.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. Metairie, LA: Lycanthrope Press. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ * * * Mariani, John F. 1994. The Dictionary of Amer ican wiki/Root_beer. “Sarsaparilla.” Wikipedia. Accessed March 12, As these major examples show, popular Food and Drink. New York: Hearst Books. Miller, Amy Bess. 1998. Shaker Medicinal Herbs: 2010. Available online at http://en.wikipedia. modern soft drinks evolved from late A Compendium of History, Lore, and Uses. org/wiki/Sarsaparilla. nineteenth- and early twentieth-cen- Pownal, VT: Storey Books. “Sassafras.” Wikipedia. Accessed March 12, 2010. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ tury patent medicines. Ironically, the “Moxie.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. Avail able online at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Sassafras. touted medicinal effects were actually wiki/Moxie. “7 UP.” Wikipedia. Accessed April 6, 2010. Avail able online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_up. somewhere between nonexistent and Munsey, Cecil. 1970. The Illustrated Guide to Col-

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