Scanning old newspaper advertising should be a standard school assignment. They demonstrate how similar we are to our ancestors when it comes to buying healthcare products. This one caught my eye.
The trademark image, ubiquitous in the late 1800s, shows a man in a suit about to rain blows with a baseball bat on a skeleton. The weapon, part brickbat, part wire brush, is spiked with bristles. The leering skeleton is raising his arms in defense, and the ground around him appears to be littered with broken bones. What the heck?
The logo once adorned jugs and bottles of Wm. Radam’s Microbe Killer. And yes he was a real guy. A Prussian florist by trade, William Radam immigrated to Texas. He theorized that the germs that plagued humans could be defeated in the same way that insects could be removed from the plants he raised in his nursery. Radam explained his theory in a book, Microbes and the Microbe Killer (1890).
The miraculous antiseptic guaranteed to kill “all diseases,” including tuberculosis, and was backed by the testimonials of “thousands” of satisfied users. A contemporary of Louis Pasteur, Radam promised that his patented pink liquid was the ultimate cure against the deadly germs infesting human blood. Radam urged his customers not to contact a doctor until they had drunk large quantities of his product, which he claimed had cured him of all ills.
There’s a lot more to the story, including lawsuits and court trials, and the exposure of quack doctors. But suffice it to say, Radam’s formula was 99% water. Using a steam process, Radam added a mixture of burned chemicals that included powdered sulphur, nitrate of soda, black oxide of manganese, sandalwood, and chloride of potash. Radam’s Microbe Killer was available at the local Portsmouth pharmacy. Have you read the label on your favorite sports drink lately?
READ ABOUT blood science in the Smuttynose Murder trial
© J. Dennis Robinson
Famous Men Hung Out with Kittery Carver