ADVICE
to 
BOOKSELLERS, PERFUMERS. &c.
not to 
Sell any more Stamps with their Medicines, 
(Patent once excepted,) 
For the
PUBLIC TO PAY FOR THEM. 
Founded on
Constitutional Principles
with
STRICTURES 
On the
MEDICINE ACT;
Respectfully Submitted to
HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY
And Both
HOUSES of PARLIAMENT. 
By Frs. SPILSBURY, Chymist, 
Soho Square








ADVICE
TO 
BOOKSELLERS, PERFUMERS. &c.
NOT TO 
Sell any more Stamps with their Medicines, 
(Patent ones excepted;) 
NOR THE
PUBLIC TO PAY FOR THEM, 
FOUNDED ON
CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES
WITH
STRICTURES 
ON THE
MEDICINE ACT;
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO
HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY
AND BOTH
HOUSES of PARLIAMENT. 
By Frs. SPILSBURY, Chymist, 
Soho Square.
LONDON
Sold by G. Wilkie, St. Paul's Church Yard;
and other Booksellers.
M.DCC.LXXXIV.




[3]
ADVICE 
TO THE 
BOOKSELLERS, PERFUMERS, &c. 
RELATIVE TO THE 
MEDICINE TAX. 
GENTLEMEN, 
AS the time will soon commence for you to 
renew your annual license for the dispensing 
of medicines, it is necessary to take a critical re- 
view of the medicine act as it now stands, and the 
mode of enforcing it by the commissioners of the 
stamps, and we may hope if the act of parliament 
is found defective, partial, oppressive, or abused 
by any party, the legislature will remedy the evil 
you hint at, with that readiness and attention 
which characterises a British parliament. 
In pursuing our enquiries relative to the medi- 
cine act, I scruple not to declare that you have
B more


[4]
more reason to blame yourselves for any tempo- 
rary sufferings and inconveniences you experience, 
by your timid compliance to a hasty misconstruction 
of the act,—than those persons to whom the power 
of enforcing the act of parliament was delegated. 
The medicine act is an act of parliament for 
laying a duty on patent medicines, vended through- 
out Great Britain; and those patent medicines on- 
ly are the chief object of this act of parliament. 
This position we will consider with attention, be- 
cause it is an opinion I imbibed on my first read- 
ing of the act, and in several publications ad- 
dressed to you in the news papers before the com- 
mencement of the act, strenuously maintained the 
assertion, encouraged by this maxim, that every 
new act of parliament of Great Britain has for its 
basis to act on prudential necessity, dictated by 
reason and guided by justice 
You may remember last year 1783, at the latter 
end of the sessions, when the minister was obliged 
by his station in government to open his budget 
for raising supplies to support the credit of the na- 
tion, he had but recently received a flattering
proposal, whereby a large sum of money might 
be obtained by taxing certain medicines, distin- 
guished by the appellation of quack medicines; and 
observed, That as these medicines had done much harm 
to the community it was fair game to tax them. At the 
same time Lord John Cavendish declared he did 
not understand the nature of such a proposition, 
whereby to form proper distinguishments of me- 
dicinal articles, or how to frame an ad to enforce 
the duty. The thought and the proposal met with 
a laughable reception in the House of Commons; 
and as no infringement of the liberties of the 
people, or the press, was understood, the London 
news papers teemed with sarcasm which the wits of
the


[5]
the age thought fit to display on the supposed re- 
formation or persecution of the order of quacks. 
Persons who supposed themselves the objects 
aimed at by the medicine act, were much biassed 
by the construction the London printers and ge- 
neral report had given to the act, so that neither 
those persons of the regular faculty, or the ven- 
ders of medicines, gave themselves the trouble to 
read and consider the act of parliament, as print- 
ed, with that attention the necessity of the occa- 
sion merited. Hence the strange confusion, mis- 
construction, and repeated murmurs arose, not to 
say even violation of the act of parliament. Gen- 
tlemen, explore the medicine act of parliament, 
the only criterion you have to go by. Divest your- 
selves of those prejudiced ideas relative to the act, 
not presuming to know more the intention of the 
act, than the said act, by express words, does ex- 
act of each party to conform thereunto; and you 
will find this act of parliament so much complain- 
ed of for its ambiguity, is clearly expressed, and 
the purport thereof, is to lay an impost on patent 
medicines.
That patent medicines should of all other me- 
dicines be first noticed by government, is a cir- 
cumstance remarkable, and in some measure de- 
serves the stigma. Which of you in the secret, 
does not know in what manner, and how easily a 
patent is obtained for a medicine even the most
frivolous one? Pay but the fees and the ceremo- 
ny is soon got over; then the news papers trum- 
pet forth the approach of the new-fangled mendi- 
cant for public favor, adorned with its gilded title. 
The people, strangers to the ways of courtly 
forms, read by his Majesty's Royal Letters Pa- 
tent, and form a conclusion which answers the 
schemer’s end; but by no means proves the good-
B2 ness,



[ 6 ]
ness, or the superiority of the nostrum. It is no 
wonder then, this bubble has proved a stumbling 
block to the minister, (if he meant to reap any 
great harvest from patent medicines) as this cir- 
cumstance had often deceived the just expectation 
of the afflicted invalid.* 
To resume our argument, to prove this medicine 
act, is chiefly confined to the vending of patent 
medicines, read the exceptions in the act. By this 
touchstone we are tried, cleared, or condemned to 
compliance. Inspect the following abstract from 
the act, which may enable you to form your judges 
ment. 
An act for granting to his Majesty a stamp duty on li- 
cences to be taken out by certain persons uttering or 
vending medicines; and certain stamp-duties on all 
medicines sold under such licences, or under the au- 
thority of his Majesty’s Letters Patent. 
And be it enacted, That from and after the first day 
of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
three, there shall be charged, levied, and paid unto and 
for the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, the
several rates and duties following; that is to say, all 
persons (except such as have served a regular appren- 
ticeship to any surgeon, apothecary, druggist, or chymist, 
or such as shall have kept a shop for the space of three 
years before the passing of this act, for the vending 
of drugs or medicines only, not being drugs or medicines 
sold by virtue of his Majesty’s letters patent) uttering or 
vending medicines in Great Britain, shall annually take 
out a licence for that purpose, in manner herein after 
prescribed: 
And
* Patents for any invention in the artists tract, have a fair 
substantial ground to purchase this mark of royal favor; but 
in science, particularly in the physical line, there is too much 
evasion of the general agreement between the parties. Nor
can


[7]
And where the persons so uttering or vending drugs 
or medicines, shall reside within the cities of London 
and Westminster, or within the distance of the penny 
post, on every such licence there shall be charged a 
stamp duty of twenty shillings: 
And where the persons uttering or vending drugs or 
medicines shall reside in any other part of Great Bri- 
tain, there shall be charged on every such licence a 
stamp-duty of five shillings. 
Upon every box, packet, bottle, or phial, or other 
inclosure, of any medicine under the price or value of 
two shillings and sixpence, which shall he uttered, vend- 
ed, or sold, by any person or persons taking out such 
licences, or by any person or persons under the authority 
of his Majesty’s letters patent, there shall be charged a 
stamp duty of three-pence: 
Upon every box, packet, bottle or phial, or other 
inclosure, of any medicine of the price or value of 
two shillings and sixpence, and under the price or va- 
lue of five shillings, which shall be uttered, vended, or 
sold by any person or persons taking out such licences, 
or by any person or persons under the authority of 
his Majejsty’s letters patent, there shall be charged a 
stamp duty of sixpence. 
Upon every box, packet, bottle, or phial, or other 
inclosure, of any medicine of the price or value of five 
shillings and upwards, which shall he uttered, vended, 
or sold, by persons taking out such licences, or by 
any persons under the authority of his Majesty’s letters 
patent, there shall he charged a stamp-duty of one 
shilling. 
And
can it be reconciled, that any person would give in the true 
prescription into the roll’s office, when any person may peruse 
it for half a crown and adopt the same medicine under his 
own name; and it is no unusual mode with the proprietor or 
proprietors, to obtain a patent for a new named medicine, 
before any general specific conclusion can be formed by ex- 
perience.


[8]
And be it further enacted, That nothing herein 
contained shall extend to any person or persons vending 
any drugs or medicines, who shall have served as a 
Surgeon in the navy or army, under any commission or 
appointment, where the same shall have been duly en- 
tered at the war office or navy office. 
You may perceive, Gentlemen, by the excep- 
tion parliament has made in favor of surgeons, 
apothecaries, druggists, &c. regular bred, or of 
three years standing, are excused the penalties of 
the act, but it is conditional, that they have vended 
drugs or medicines only, not being drugs or me- 
dicines sold by virtue of his Majesty’s letters pa- 
tent. Here is a clear distinguishing line drawn, what 
medicines parliament meant to tax, viz. medicines 
by letters patent; therefore no person by this act 
(except army and navy surgeons) may sell any pa- 
tent medicine duty free, or pleads an exemption 
from the licence, consequently the stamps, on his 
being regular bred, or keeping a shop for three 
years. His prevalent plea for excuse must be by 
this act founded on this principle, that he has not 
vended a patent medicine. As a proof, I will enter 
into the mode of enforcing the act, and the gene- 
ral ideas that arose on the occasion, with the differ- 
ent interpretations construed by the several per- 
sons interested in the receipt of the revenue. 
That the exception in the act relative to the re- 
gulars was such an exception, that very few of 
them, comparitively speaking, could plead as a 
substantial argument for remission, as they were 
conscious of having sold a patent medicine which 
involved them in the general group of the offen- 
ders of this medicine act, was a point universally 
allowed. Therefore, every chymist, apothecary, 
druggist, &c. who had vended a patent medicine, 
was by this act condemned to take out a licence, 
and sell no medicine or drugs but with a stamp;
this

[9]
this would include all their shop medicines, even 
those made up by the physicians prescription on 
emergent cases. Such was the opinion of the late 
attorney general, Counsellor Wallace; such like- 
wise was the opinion of many eminent sages of the 
law, who were consulted on the occasion by per- 
sons in the medical line, that the act was pointed 
and full relative to the vending of patent medicines. 
What was to be done in this case? Mr. Grenough, 
an eminent apothecary, and Messrs. Wilsons, whole- 
sale and retail chymists, in London, had purchased 
letters patent for a medicine each had in their pos- 
session unexpired. On application at the office, 
did the Commissioners insist on their taking out a 
licence? No; we will excuse you, sirs, the licence, 
because it involves your whole business under the 
necessity of using stamps to each article of your 
trade, but to your patent medicines you must put 
a stamp. On this ground then, Messrs. Dicey, 
and Messrs. Wrays, of London, who for many 
years had been in the chymist and drug line, deal- 
ing in general very extensive at home and abroad 
in medicines, claimed the like indulgence of the
exemption of the licence from the Commissioners: 
No, Gentlemen, you have sold a patent medicine, 
and therefore the act enjoins you to a licence; be- 
sides, those medicines which you sell, such as 
Dassy’s Elixir, Scot’s Pills, &c. are the medicines 
government meant to tax. But in reply to the 
Commissioners; Sir, if these very medicines to 
the regulars are allowed to be no more than drugs 
or medicines only, free of taxation, why then 
not so to another chymist, &c.? And if you only 
condemn us by having sold a patent medicine, 
how in the name of all justice do you, Gentlemen, 
undertake to frame an excuse for persons not hav- 
ing a licence who has actually a patent medicine
in



[10]
in their possession? Does the act make the differ- 
ence, or contain such language? In this in- 
stance the Commissioners persuaded, and rather 
insisted on Messrs. Dicey, and Messrs. Wrays, to 
take out a licence on the sole ground of having 
sold a patent medicine; and they, owing to the 
time being elapsed within a day or two of the com- 
mencement of the act, and the terror of the law 
genteelly hinted at, and the various perplexing 
opinions of the different counsellors, distracted these 
gentlemen, and they sacrificed their own and friends 
judgment to the dictates of prudential fears, and 
sold their articles with a stamp, whilst every petty 
shopkeeper in the chymist or druggist line of three 
years handing, sold, and continue to sell, all the 
same medicinal articles, patent medicines excepted, 
without licence or stamps. Strange doctrine! It was 
used as an argument in several private conversa- 
tions of applying to his Majesty for redress. The 
reply was, that he could not alter or suspend 
the act at present: Was it ever known in our 
memory for his Majesty to wave the operation of
an act of parliament, unless emergent reasons of 
the state demand it? And do the Commissioners 
modify an act of parliament, and excuse this per- 
son or that person? I do allow there was reason 
in one instance of softening the execution of the 
act, but had they power to do so? tell me in 
what part of the act it stands recorded; nor can 
I find any reason for refusing others equally in- 
titled to the same indulgence by the act, but 
one reason, and that was on their own side, viz. 
they were willing the tax should bring in some 
money to the Treasury, rather than not shew their 
desire to promote the interest of their employers, 
or that any negligence should be imputed to them; 
but why not act in a noble becoming manner suit- 
able to their honourable station, and fairly state
the

[11]
the case to his most gracious Majesty in council, 
that if the act did require more than the prosecu- 
tion of patent medicines, they could not enforce it 
but by oppression or partiality, and a more favour- 
able conclusion would have been announced by 
authority to the public, and to those persons who 
were immediately interested therein. I knew an 
instance not long ago. A complaint was made to 
his Majesty, or rather hinted to him, such was his 
gracious attention, that a bill was brought in soon 
after to redress the grievance. 
To proceed. Messrs. Wrays, on due reflection 
on the impropriety of his selling with stamps, and 
his neighbours excused by the discretional indul- 
gence of the Commissioners, discontinued selling 
medicines with stamps also; and, by his own desire, 
a friendly action was commenced to try the powers 
of the act, consequently the powers of the honour- 
able Board of Commissioners, at the same time 
avoided felling any patent medicine. The suit 
was carried on, and a day named to try the issue; 
but, as I have been informed, the Commissioners 
have withheld the trial. To illustrate another prin-
cipal point in dispute, which demands your atten- 
tion, viz, the word only, printed in the exception 
of the act, 12th line, last word, page 1340 of the 
act of parliament, or page 6 of this tract. This 
word lay dormant in the former disputes, and was 
clearly understood to be expressive, and distin- 
guished the different sorts of medicines taxable by 
this medicine act: for where the act does express 
and exempt a person who has kept a shop for three 
years for the vending of drugs or medicines only, 
the following words do further explain what it 
doth allude to, viz. not being drugs or medicines 
sold by virtue of his Majesty's letters patent. 
The Commissioners, and their solicitor, insist, 
the word only has a reference to printers, book-
C sellers,


[12]
ellers, perfumers, &c. who do not deal in drugs 
or medicines only, but in other articles, as books, 
perfumery, &c. Here I differed from their opi- 
nion, and stated my reasons, and insist, that, 
agreeable to the act, and mode of construction of 
the act, even by the Commissioners, it is not so.
Every bookseller, &c. who has kept a shop for 
three years, and with other articles in their line 
dealt in drugs or medicines only, not being (as the 
act expresses) drugs or medicines by virtue of his 
Majesty’s letters patent, stand excused by the me- 
dicine act. It is a melancholy circumstance when 
acts of parliament, which should be clearly ex- 
pressed for our direction, should be so worded as 
to leave room for doubt, the foundation of law 
suits. In the present instance we hear the re- 
peated sounds at the Stamp-Office, it means so 
and so, you are to understand it so and so. 
Heavens! is a British act of parliament to be thus 
twisted at pleasure to force a meaning? And 
what to do? To extort a few pence perhaps from
a poor distressed family, distracted by disease, or 
racked with pain. With what justice this act has
been enforced, let us further examine. 
The Commissioners plea for making the book- 
sellers subservient to the tax is, not their having 
sold a patent medicine, that does not signify; 
you have not dealt in drugs or medicines only, 
but books, &c. which renders you liable to the 
penalties of the act; therefore you must take out 
a licence, and sell no medicine of any sort but 
with a stamp. In reply, Sirs, does the act affect 
druggists, chymists, &c. although they should 
not have sold drugs or medicines only, but 
other articles foreign to the medical line? O, the 
act excuses them, and the word only does not sig- 
nify in that case, and they may continue to sell all 
the nostrums as usual, duty free, except patent
medi-


[13]
medicines, as Scot’s Pills, Daffy’s Elixir, God- 
frey’s Cordial, and fifty more of the same sort. 
How absurd the conclusion, to imagine that go- 
vernment should lay a tax on certain medicines, 
and yet permit every other shopkeeper to vend 
these identical articles scot free! 
Again; supposing a person, either regular bred, 
or kept a shop for three years, and is so situated 
in the country, a very common instance to be met 
with, that he finds his business too small to main- 
tain himself in the medical apothecary line of dis- 
pensing drugs and medicines made up in the dis- 
pensatory form, should he on the other side of his 
shop, whether from matrimonial connection or pru- 
dential necessity, vend drapery or stationary wares, 
is such a person, on application to the Commis- 
sioners, to take out a licence and sell his medicines 
with a stamp? No! the act does not mean you, 
you are excused; but if you sell a patent medicine, 
a stamp must go along with it. 
Another case: Every druggist, or druggist and 
grocer, which may be justly included in one 
title, in the country, they frequently vend a va-
riety of articles that may not strictly come under 
the nominal title of drugs, yet these are excused 
by the act and by the Commissioners, and can sell 
all the shop medicines as usual, patent ones ex- 
cepted. 
However the Commissioners may triumph over 
the booksellers forlorn state in the country, in 
forcing them to take a licence out because they 
have not sold drugs or medicines only, but books, 
&c. it is a notorious fact, that many printers and 
booksellers, had they not been conscious of selling 
a patent medicine, they would not have troubled 
themselves with the medicine act, but sold medi- 
cines as usual with other traders of three years 
standing; at the same time, in this instance, if
C2 the


[14]
the only inducement they had to take out a licence 
was the fear of being sued for having sold a patent 
medicine, they pay but a poor compliment to his 
Majesty, to the Legislature, to an English judge 
or jury, to suppose they would have been found 
trespassers in the eye of the law before an act of 
parliament was framed which constituted the vend- 
ing of patent medicines objects of taxation. 
Therefore, should your opinion coincide with 
mine, that the medicine act does not require you 
to be singled out, that it contains a language fo- 
reign to the partialities by which the law is made 
to operate against you, that it does entitle you as 
well as your neighbour to sell drugs or medicines 
only without a stamp, patent ones always ex- 
cepted;  give notice to the Commissioners or their 
agents, that you will not use stamps any longer, 
and are ready to meet them on a proper ground 
to decide the matter before an English jury. At 
all events be cautious how you renew your licence 
which militates so strongly against yourselves, and 
to so little purpose relative to the support of the cre- 
dit of the nation. Vend no patent medicines even
with stamps, return them, nay better return all 
your medicines to the different proprietors and 
sell not one, than sell on so disadvantageous, hu- 
miliating terms as you do at present; and the 
usage you have lately received from the Stamp 
Office is a matter of so aggravating a nature 
under your present circumstances that will jus- 
tify so laudable a proceeding, and let the public 
know you think yourselves intitled to the paternal 
care of his most gracious Majesty, and the pro- 
tection of both houses of parliament, equal with 
other subjects under the same government; even 
aliens claim this right:--indeed, in my poor judg- 
ment, the medicine act makes not this decisive dif- 
ference. Patent medicines are its object; and these
only,


[15]
only, by this act of parliament, should wear the 
stamp; but judge for yourselves. To proceed: 
What medicines are taxable agreeable to the Com- 
missioners construction of the act? 
No indifferent person can well guess at the 
trouble and vexation occasioned by the different 
constructions imputed to this act, whether by the 
vender of medicines, or the Commissioners, 
whom, I believe, only a zeal to serve Govern- 
ment has made them construe and enforce the 
act in such a manner which they cannot reconcile 
to reason or justice; and I will add, and others 
have in general, met with polite behaviour from 
them; and when I argue a public cause, and have 
occasion to speak of the Commissioners, I only 
speak of them in their official character, divested 
of every personal reflection. 
That the trouble given to the Commissioners 
relative to the inquiries what medicines were tax- 
able was trifling to what such a question involved 
the trader, who supposed himself amenable to the 
tax. The fears of penalties operating on one hand, 
and on the other desirous of acquitting himself as
a good subject, conforming to such laws as the le- 
gislature had thought proper to exact for his and 
the public benefit, has induced many persons to 
apply, with a list of their articles they sold, for in- 
formation to the Commissioners to know what they 
called medicines, and came under the cognizance 
of the medicine act. 
It is natural to conceive, gentlemen appointed 
by government, and their solicitor, would act con- 
sistent in the interest thereof, and where doubts 
occurred, to decide in favour of the legislature. 
Hence many compositions escaped censure, and 
many articles were at first allowed an exemption 
from the tax, have been afterwards countermanded
by


[16]
by the Commissioners on this plea, as having a me-
dicinal quality. 
Tell me, then, what article that we eat or 
drink, or use for any good intent, whether to sus- 
tain our bodies, or adorn our persons, or refresh them, 
but what must have a medicinal quality either to 
preserve health or restore it; even books have a me- 
dicinal quality of amusing and instructing the mind, 
therefore why not place a stamp on the bread you 
cat, and the raiment you put on, and even soap, 
when it is made up in that delicate manner the 
arts of perfumery have arrived to, for this also has 
a medicinal quality of purification. An oily oint- 
ment, &c. for outward application for sprains was 
first judged to be excused, but soon after it was ad- 
vertised, it must be taxed; and the reason was, it 
had a medicinal healing quality. How comes it 
to pass then that milk of roses, and many other arti- 
cles of the same species, are exempt? Could you not 
as well, as Pierre hints in Venice Preserved, stretch the 
tax to all the articles found in a bookseller’s or a per- 
fumer’s shop, even medicines for horses and other 
cattle, &c. &c. and if such taxes, instituted on
so vague a construction, are to be enforced by the 
caprice or discretionary judgment of a few men, 
where will the limits be fixed to such an act of 
parliament? or what is there in the perfumery or 
medical line, either as a cosmetic, a wash, a resto- 
rative, that may not be encompassed with a stamp 
duty? And each trader, on this distracted mode of 
proceeding, has reason to dread a prosecution every 
hour for having sold some article of goods with a 
medicinal quality without a stamp; it is a language 
hitherto unknown to the British constitution, and 
no act of parliament can be found, I trust, breath- 
ing such inimical principles to the peace of man- 
kind.
Say

[17]
Say not, my friends. Lord John Cavendish, or 
the medicine act has done this; it is yourselves 
have joined to weave the cord you are bound 
with. Consider your situation. Is there scarce 
a single article you vend, patent medicines ex- 
cepted, but may be bought at your neigh- 
bour’s in equal goodness, even at a grocer’s, and 
I may add at a shop scarcely a degree better 
than a chandler’s shop, duty free? Where then is 
the person to be found so complaisant to govern- 
ment, so unjust to themselves, as to give 3d. 6d. 
or is. for a useless piece of paper ? And how doth 
it appear to the public, chat the proprietors of 
medicines in London, except a few, pay any tax? 
The exemption is allowed not only by the act, but 
by all parties; yet if their medicine passes through 
a bookseller’s hand, a duty must be paid, on ac- 
count by the Commissioners construction of the act, 
you have not dealt in drugs and medicines only, 
but books, and Heaven knows what other articles 
in the way of trade,but the druggist is free. 
In the course of conversation concerning patent 
medicines, a question arose, how many patent me-
dicines are there in being, whose time, fourteen 
years, is not expired? Only five could be ascer- 
tained, viz. James’s Analeptic Pills, Greenhough’s 
Samaritan Water, Wilson’s Ague Tincture, Gale’s 
Spaw Elixir, and Grub’s Friar’s Drops: two more, 
I have heard, have been lately added. Oriental 
Vegetable Cordial, and the Antipertusis for colds 
and coughs. 
I have a question to ask of the printers and 
booksellers resident in the country: In what man- 
ner have you given offence to the Commissioners 
to receive such marks of resentment, so contrary 
to the usage of government, and of which you so 
bitterly complain of in your letters and discourse?
I will


[18]
I will state the matter to the reader, the world may 
judge the rest, as it is this circumstance “of mak- 
ing bricks without straw” which has given rise 
to this publication. 
The construction of the medicine act by the 
Commissioners, hard as it bore on the country 
printers and booksellers, from whom, in the print- 
ing of news-papers and advertisements, govern- 
ment receives many thousand pounds duty annually, 
they had the mortification of seeing their trade torn 
from them daily by an accidental act of parlia- 
ment, or a misunderstanding of the act; they were 
not left without hopes parliament never meant to 
single them out as objects of taxation, and would, 
when parliament met, give such relief as the mem- 
bers there should judge necessary. The Commis- 
sioners, to prevent unnecessary trouble, and to pal- 
liate matters, had sent and given orders to certain 
agents in the country to distribute out the stamps 
occasionally, as the consumer, or the proprietor 
of a medicine, had opportunity of disposing 
of them: for these medicine stamps no discount
is made at the office by taking a quantity, 
as is done in the receipt tax. About February 
last, the booksellers, &c. were exceedingly alarmed 
at an order from the Commissioners to their distri- 
butors in the country not to serve them any longer, 
but make each of them have their stamps from 
London. On receiving letters of complaint from 
several booksellers, I waited on the Commissioners, 
who declared, in compliance with a few proprie- 
tors concerned in patent medicines in London, 
they had given such orders. Much conversion 
ensued; they urged, it was not their desire to add 
to the vexation already experienced by the act, or 
create unnecessary trouble or expence to the ven- 
ders in the country, and, as I understood, they 
would


[19]
would countermand it. May 2, 1784, on re- 
ceiving a letter from Mr. C. Wheeler, printer, of 
Manchester, complaining of the hardship that the 
Commissioners should expect a tax from him, yet 
throw obstacles in the way to prevent its taking 
place, and desiring me to procure him for the pre- 
sent four dozen three penny stamps, two dozen 
six-penny ones, and only six of the shilling ones, 
I went to the office for the stamps, and was in- 
formed six only shilling stamps could not be had; 
no, I must take a whole sheet, consisting of nine 
stamps, for they did not chuse to divide a sheet. 
I insisted on having the exact number ordered in 
the letter, and went down stairs to inform the 
Commissioner they would not let me have the six 
stamps only: he wrote an order directly for my 
being served with the six stamps, which was ac- 
cordingly executed; at the same time the person 
in office declared they never had sold so small a 
number at one time, or cut a sheet before. 
What are the Commissioners motives for a diffe- 
rence of opinion relative to the distribution of the 
stamps in the country, and to oblige every book-
seller, printer, &c. to send to London to their 
agents to procure stamps, I cannot conceive, un- 
less it is to throw every impediment in the book- 
sellers line to hinder them from vending of me- 
dicines. The thirty shillings worth of stamps 
for Mr. Wheeler were sent per coach, and cost 
him 3s. 6d. carriage and postage. Now, suppose 
in future that printers are obliged to employ an 
agent in London to buy the stamps, he must be 
paid commission, and the carriage added thereto, 
in some parts two or three hundred miles, can a 
vender in this case afford a three-penny stamp un- 
der 4d. a six-penny one 8d. and a 1s. one in pro- 
portion ? And may not the sick and infirm procure
D all


[20]
all these medicinal articles at a shop, which is en- 
couraged by this step, where no duty is paid? Again, 
if it is not convenient on these terms for the prin- 
ters, &c. in the country to sell medicines, the 
proprietor of these articles, whether he lives in the 
country or London, will of course open an account 
with the druggists in the country towns, who are 
empowered to sell without licence or a stamp, 
which in the end must frustrate the intention of the 
act, if it was meant to raise supplies for Govern- 
ment. 
Is it the Commissioners wish to see the London 
Stamp Office reduced to the appearance of a little 
trading shop? One person coming for six, another 
for three stamps, or a hundred, and some perhaps 
for one stamp, and then assume the important 
look of consequence, we can’t make you a shil- 
ling’s worth, you must have so many, we cannot 
sell less. To think that a person at Manchester 
should be obliged, by order of the Commissioners, 
to send up to town for his stamps, and then, if a 
Commissioner had not been in the way, he could 
not have his order executed; and, what is infinitely
worse, health may be trifled with. How do we 
know who might have wanted a medicine, (in the 
six days time taken up to convey the message and 
the stamps back) or how near death the party 
might be even with a fever, and the vender durst 
not deliver the medicine wanted without a stamp ? 
Had Mr. Wheeler been refilled the six stamps at 
the office, or even one, that moment he would 
have been liberated from his bondage, and he 
then had a right indisputable to sell his medicines 
without a stamp, rather than any person’s life 
should be endangered by further delay;--the 
distribution of these medicine stamps, with pro- 
priety, never can be placed on a similar footing
with


[21]
with other stamps, because health is so infinitely 
more valuable than other accidental external affairs 
relative to life. 
As the writer has endeavoured to delineate a 
fair representation of the medicine act, and the 
mode of enforcing it, he has done it with this 
view, that it may serve as a mirror to all parties 
concerned, whether the Legislature who ordains 
the law, the Commissioners who are bound to en- 
force it, and the vender or consumer who may be 
the objects of this act in question; should it on 
enquiry be allowed my remarks are dictated with 
a candour and a becoming freedom, suitable for 
a native of Great Britain to express, whole with 
tends only to redress abuse, ease the oppressed, 
and, by holding up a beacon, may serve as a law 
to guide another minister in this perplexing laby- 
rinth; for, in my conception, it is not an easy 
matter to frame a medicine act, with proper dis- 
tinguishments between the regular or the irregular 
line of physic; and I have seized this opportunity 
to lay my remarks before the public, because a 
new parliament, a new minister, stands forth, from
whom every relief which reason and justice point 
out may be expected. 
With what propriety medicines should be taxed 
so heavily, is another pertinent question, and well 
deserves our consideration. 
It is universally acknowledged, that the situation 
of this country is such as to require heavy additi- 
onal taxes to support its credit; when the minister 
tolls the alarm bell for a new tax, generally expresses 
a wish to lay the intended impost rather on the su- 
perfluities than the necessaries of life. Had these 
medicines (now supposed to be the object of taxa- 
tion) never witnessed the hand of power in ex- 
acting a duty, or were used in a luxurious unne-
D2 cessary



[ 22 ]
cessary indulgence, rather than to support life un- 
der the affliction of illness, there might be a justi- 
fiable reason for a minister being caught with the 
specious appearance of an artful tale of a person, 
who perhaps had no other view in commending 
such a tax but the receiving of a bribe. 
When Lord John Cavendish proposed the tax, 
he might not recollect how heavy these articles 
were already taxed through all the different stages 
in which they pass, viz. in the drugs first im- 
ported; 2dly, the glass; 3dly the paper; 4thly, 
spirits of wine; but chiefly in the duty of half a 
crown paid to the King on each advertisement in- 
serted in the news-papers, magazines, &c. on their 
account, which amounts to an enormous sum in 
the course of a year; and this is a tax which has 
been often complied with by the inventor of a me- 
dicine; and after having paid several hundred 
pounds for advertising, frequently the medicine, 
not having Sufficient merit to recommend it to the 
public, has sunk into oblivion. We might also 
alledge, if magazines were stamped as news-pa- 
pers are, it would bring in much money to the
revenue. These already pay a heavy tax, so great 
as to render it scarce worth their continuance to 
the proprietor, who is obliged to advertise it fre- 
quently, and the advertisements seldom fall short 
of 5s. 6s. 7s. nay 10s. a time. 
However great the sum may appear to the con- 
sumer who buys a medicine, the original proprietor 
does not get a fourth clear; for not only duty and 
other necessary expences are deducted, but there 
must be a discount for commission to the vender 
in the country, and he is often obliged to allow 
another discount for conveyance to the afflicted; 
and what is the medicine tax but a receipt tax in 
another name? Had any minister proposed a re-
ceipt


[23]
ceipt tax in proportion to the medicine tax to be 
levied, I leave the consequence to the reader’s 
imagination. A tax was proposed on play-houses, 
two or three years ago, and a few murmuring news- 
papers quelled that motion; yet here, one of the 
most heavy unexemplary taxes laid on misery and 
disease is to be exacted* by what authority I know 
not, for it is not so in the bond, as Shylock says. 
That there are a great number of these medicinal or 
embellishing articles sold is granted; but are they 
not as so many heralds proclaiming the infirmities 
and decays of human nature? But say on; they are 
pernicious destructive articles, mere delusion to the 
public, and, as it was said by the proposer of the 
tax duty, they ought to be taxed on that account; 
No, from one end of the kingdom to the other it 
is echoed, ask the question, and the answer will 
be, No. At a bagnio, where the unhappy fair 
one
* Mrs. Rogers, an apothecary’s widow, in St. Edmund’s 
Bury, has continued to sell one of her husband’s preparations, 
an ointment for the itch, in pots of 1s. 6d. From respectable 
persons, I have been informed, it may be said to be a specific 
for that loathsome complaint. On the commencement of the
act she got a friend in London to know of the Commissioners, as 
being an apothecary’s widow, and not having sold a patent me- 
dicine, whether she was not excused by the act in conversation? 
It was allowed she had commenced bookseller, and, as having 
sold books, she was ordered to take out a licence, and put a 
three-penny stamp on this pot of ointment for the itch, as hav- 
ing a medicinal quality. I declare frequently some poor 
wretched beings, with this loathsome distemper apparent on 
them, which added to their poverty, they were unfortunately 
shunned like those on whom a pestilential plague had made its 
appearance. I have directed them to Mrs. Rogers’s agent here 
in London; yet here was a three penny tax demanded by the 
Commissioners, and must be paid by these unhappy distressed 
creatures before the desired remedy could be had. In such a 
case, will not humanity whisper even in a King’s ear ? Is this for 
your honour? His Majesty may truly say. What act of parlia- 
ment requires this rigour? Speak! and my people shall find me 
more ready to redress than they to complain.


[24]
one enters poundage, is a familiar phrase, the ad- 
vantage is taken of her melancholy situation, and 
she must comply; but where is the man, the gen- 
tleman, the nobleman, the senator, the acting mi- 
nister of Great Britain, will maintain such lan- 
guage? No, if these advertised medicines, cos- 
metics, &c. are pernicious and destructive to the 
community, suppress them.
But to follow other accusations held out as 
a pretence for taxation, they are delusive. In 
answer to the sorry arguments made use of by 
the inexperienced bye-stander, that medicines 
of this class are made of indifferent drugs, little 
better than powder of post; are the public so un- 
discerning? Does mankind encourage those shop- 
keepers whom they find have imposed on their ci- 
vility? It is not so in the general walks of life, 
why then do you pay so bad a compliment to your 
derstanding, as to suppose this medicinal line is 
an exception? You reply, look at the hand-bills, 
read the news-papers; do not the advertisements 
tell us to beware of counterfeits, and impostors, 
whose only design is to pick your pockets and ruin
your constitution. What reply can now be made? 
Here is a fact established; we only heard of the 
rumour before, but now it is acknowledged by 
your own fraternity. 
I own the charge is specious, that here is some 
degree of foundation for censure, that inventors 
of medicines do not all possess the same ingenuity, 
integrity, or their nostrums are of equal efficacy, 
stands confessed; but mankind will ever make al- 
lowance, and distinguish between a plain adver- 
tisement advertising no more than experience may 
justify, and the Katerfeltonian stile, which deals in 
wonders on wonders, and is not singular to this
class


[25]
class of men, but may frequently be observed in
other adventurers, as wine merchants, who finding 
themselves not noticed so much as they imagine for 
their honesty, is entitled to, take care to add a line 
at the bottom of their advertisements by way of a 
friendly hint. N.B. The above wines are free from 
the vile practice of adulteration! And many more 
samples might be collected of the like Merry-an- 
drew’s observations in different tracts ot business, 
which may shew the asserter does understand some- 
thing of the counterfeit part, yet we shall be puz- 
zled to find out a wine merchant guilty of this vile 
practice, as a well-disposed brother vintner hints; 
so I hope as in charity bound, the accusation of 
mal-practices in medicine is not to be identified. 
However, let it be understood I am no advo- 
cate for the continuance of these supposed reme- 
dies for certain complaints, but from a persuasion 
they are beneficial to mankind. Should it be 
proved otherwise, they are destructive to health* 
the legislature is the best judge how to act on so 
important an occasion, and make proper distinguish- 
ments. As I am not desirous of stifling the in-
sinuation of any accuser, who may be an advocate 
for this medicine tax, so permit me to indulge 
imagination on a prospect drawn from substantial 
evidence, that much good, great improvements are 
witnessed by these medicines in question, and every 
benevolent mind must own with great reason a 
verdict may be given in their favour. 
Physic is the hand maid of science, which is 
not to be chained down by any certain rules; her 
vast
* If medicines are taxable on a supposition of doing hurt to 
the human body, what is to be said to the many obscene in- 
delicate advertisements inserted in some news papers.


[26]
vast genius soars above all the pomp and parade 
of regular mechanic proceedings, that would en- 
deavour to confine her either to time, place, or 
person. In other arts it is not the mere serving 
of seven years to a business will constitute the ex- 
pert artizan; yet here, in medical science, a boy 
living with a country apothecary for 3, 4, or 5* 
years, is dubbed regular bred. I despise the 
word regular when it is handled as an argument 
to prove that no person can learn a trade but him 
that was regular fettered, or be acquainted with 
a science in his riper years, because his parents, 
not knowing what fruit the plant would produce, 
sent him forth into the world ere his judgement 
blossomed to another different vocation. To 
train a child in the usual regular form of proceed- 
ing, I allow, is the road most likely to succeed; 
but do not confine the genius of man, which, 
like the butterfly, is a stranger to that consine- 
ment it experienced as a worm, and was then des- 
titute of an expanding power.
If the general observations made in life were 
realized, respecting physicians and other gentlemen 
of the faculty, that the power of restoring health 
was invested in them, and them only, it would 
be a blessing each of us at times would have rea- 
son to rejoice in such an appointment; but the 
abler the physician, the more diffident you will 
find him, who beholds disease, in various shapes, 
stalk along our streets triumphant over the uni- 
ted endeavours of art or science; the just reproach 
of any presumptuous man, whether dignifyed with 
an M.D. or the itinerant powerful quack, who 
pretends
* There is no regular set time for country apothecaries 
apprentices, the more money given with the boys the shorter 
the time the better for the master.



[27]
pretends he has nothing more to do, but hold out 
his nostrum, and even nature will tremble before 
him. Where is the sensible, the experienced phy- 
sician or surgeon, who has not viewed those dis- 
eases so difficult of cure, entitled the consumption, 
the cancer, madness by the bite of a mad dog, the 
evil, the leprosy, and the gout, that does not breath 
a wish for a more potent remedy to be discovered 
in these cases than hitherto experience has stamp- 
ed with her seal? And if medicines by being taxed 
should receive any check in their progress of im- 
provement, where is the encouragement for any 
one to proceed in his tiresome expensive researches? 
Or what doth it signify a great reward being held 
up for the discoverer, when the door which should 
be open to convey it to public notice from whom 
the premium is to be gathered, is shut and barred 
with insurmountable difficulties? You must either 
allow physical knowledge to center in one set of 
practitioners, or leave it exclusive to the rest of 
mankind, like the book of nature, free for discus- 
sion:
Many of the medicines now fettered with a 
stamp-duty, illustrious as they are for their emi- 
nence, and possessing superior virtues than what is 
commonly met with in the dispensatory confined 
catalogue of medicines will be honoured with the 
attention of mankind when in distress; they have 
been discovered by dint of perseverance and an ap- 
titude joined to knowledge in the composer to re- 
dress certain complaints, as Dr. Norris’s drops and 
Dr. James’s powders for fevers, Glasse’s and Hen- 
ry’s magnesia, Daffy’s elixir, and many others whose 
excellence depends chiefly on their being made up 
with the best drugs, great skill, and care, and have 
nothing else to support their credit but their 
merit; and if they were made up of bad materi-
E als



[28]
als, or proved destructive to the human constitu- 
tion, in either case they must fall into disrepute. Al- 
lowing that these proscribed medicines, made up 
by the regular and irregular practitioners does pos- 
sess a virtue equal to any other medicines or what 
denomination so ever, is it confident with the 
honour of Great Britain to insist on an additional 
taxation? Does her safety rely on this mode of 
encreasing the revenue, which indiscriminately 
falls on a poor labouring man as well as the rich? 
Supposing then a man of middling circumstance, 
or a menial servant, for himself or children, has 
occasion to fly for a remedy to any of these adver- 
tised established medicinal articles, let it be a bottle 
of Daffy’s elixir for the stomach and bowels, a 
bottle of Godfrey’s cordial, or Dalby’s carmina- 
tive, Steers’s opodeldock, Le Cure’s oil for a 
sprain, a bottle of Dr. Norris’s antimonial drops 
for a fever, and can scarce raise the stipulated sum, 
trifling as it may seem to those who loll in plen- 
ty’s lap, yet is a treasure to many individuals whose 
situation in life may enable them only to make a 
decent appearance,—would government wish in
this case for any of their officers to step forth and 
say, you shall not try the remedy you conceive 
may heal you, until you pay the duty levied by 
their order? What is there not in our reach which 
human nature would not part with to gain ease 
when in pain, or preserve life! Does the welfare 
of Great Britain require this tax on humanity? 
or is the nation so reduced in a few years to ex- 
act a duty from a fellow-creature, because the com- 
mon accidents incident to human infirmity have 
stretched him on the rack, and forces him to pay 
it before the hope of relief is administered? If 
this is the case, well might Mr. P. say, Britannia 
was at her last shift when she was reduced to the
necessity


[29]
necessity of draining the sick and the infirm for a 
supply. Who would not imagine physic was be- 
come a luxury, and those powders for the teeth 
and other preservatives so conducive to cleanliness 
was carried to such a height as to require the in- 
terposition of the legislature to bridle such strange 
vitiated passions? 
Advocates for the tax may urge, that by the 
commissioner’s construction of the act, individu- 
als may save the three pence duty exacted on a 
sixpenny bottle of Godfrey’s cordial, ditto on a 
box of Scots or Hooper’s pills, or on Daffy’s elixir, 
&c. by applying to a druggist or apothecary, who 
whether he prepares them himself, or vends for ano- 
ther, stands excused; or they may furnish him with 
a medicine more suitable to the complaint. Grant- 
ed; in reply, how many villages throughout Great 
Britain are so situated, that cannot afford a main- 
tenance to an apothecary or surgeon, and the 
town where one of this profession does reside, is 
several miles distant? and how many of these me- 
dicines, such as Daffy’s Elixir, Turlington’s Bal- 
sam, Bateman’s Drops, Scot’s Pills, and several
other cheap and efficacious medicines, are made 
by the regular apothecary or chymist, and left 
for sale either at a chandler’s shop, perhaps an 
alehouse, or the clerk of the parish, and account- 
ed for only when sold, and these medicines are 
frequently retailed out again in pennyworths or 
two pennyworths to the poor labouring people or 
servants? But every medicine cannot with pro- 
priety be divided for sale, any more than a ge- 
neral conclusion can be drawn from the words 
of this act of parliament; to tax discretionary, every 
drug or goods in various shapes, and vended in 
different shops. 
How far a vague construction of this act,
may be extended, in the manner this medicine
E2 act


[30]
act has been made to operate, who can tell? 
Who would imagine the Sweeds tea or English 
coffee, composed of herbs used for breakfast in 
the room of other tea, should be strained to the 
duty, because the proprietor has informed the af- 
flicted with a weak constitution it is good for 
consumptive habits? Is it so? It was ordered by the 
judges and commentators of the act to stand on 
the left side, as having been found guilty of har- 
bouring a medicinal quality. Look to yourselves! 
who keep a tavern, an oil, or a confectionary 
shop, see you vend nothing with a medicinal qua- 
lity, expunge those articles, or woe may attend 
you. Reader, construe the act either way, it is 
an unconstitutional one, whether a commissioner 
grounds his plea for inflicting the penalty on a 
person for having sold a patent medicine before 
the act commenced, or that he has not dealt in 
drugs or medicines only, but books, perfumery, 
&c. &c. 
Therefore I repeat my advice to every book- 
seller, and all persons in a like station respecting 
the act before mentioned, not to vend any more
stamps, with their drugs or medicines they sell, 
not being patent ones; unless you can find a British 
act of parliament which makes the distinction, and 
inflict a penalty which brands you for selling a 
medicine, and allows a next door neighbour to 
sell the same nominated medicine unfettered, 
though guilty of the same misdemeanor in point 
of consequence to the community: Further, how 
can any of you be ensured a prosecution may not 
be commenced against you, for extorting money 
from distressed objects under the pretence of an 
act of parliament, which act you acknowledge 
you do not understand; but you are exempt from 
the tax.
Another


[31]
Another circumstance I have received from re- 
spedable authority. 
The commissioners in their official capacity wish 
to enforce a rule that all medicines, drugs, &c. 
proved to have a medicinal quality, whether it be 
nominated a preservative, restorative, or cosmetic, 
embellishers of the ladies persons, or the humble 
blacking cake for the preservation of a shoe, should, 
as the undertakers do by a dead body, soder it 
down, and inclose the medicine, whether packet, 
box, or bottle, with the stamp pasted or glued 
thereon; so that the afflicted person shall not have 
an opportunity to inspect as at present, he is in- 
dulged without tearing a threepenny, a sixpenny, 
or a one shilling stamp, to inspect whether the 
medicine or other article he buys is complete, and 
in the usual perfection he is accustomed to; and 
if not, is returned to the proprietor, what would 
be the consequence? 
Many of these articles are sent out on condition 
if not sold, they are returned. Many are the ac- 
cidents, both by sea and land, where liquids are 
packed up, one bottle breaking will spoil and
stain many others, so as to render them unsight- 
ly in the eye, thereby unsaleable; and new wrap- 
pers are often obliged to be sent the next convey- 
ance, or have the goods returned. Again, sup- 
posing the medicines are in boxes, packets, &c. 
consisting of powders or pills only, will any per- 
son say, the virtues of these medicines are made 
of drugs, whose virtues will not evaporate, or 
will remain equally efficacious for a series of time, 
who can answer the question in the affirmative, 
and are not these articles inspected into, and chang- 
ed? When a new trader comes into an old shop, 
or the sale of those articles has not been called for 
in the usual expected time of sale, whether a 
month or year, who would stand to the loss of the
stamps,


[32]
stamps, which must be torn off if pasted on, and 
a man’s health is trisled with, and a medicine de- 
signed to preserve life is put on a footing with a 
pack of cards ? By this means a person might fre- 
quently buy an insignificant medicine, and the 
disease gain ground before another could be pro- 
cured, or the cause discovered. Government 
would in this instance truly certify the proverb, 
selling powder of post. In what other light can you 
compare a medicine, thus embalmed in royal par- 
liamentary state, but to the opening of a stately 
monument, where the form may be preserved, al- 
tho’ destitute of an active principle. *If such sen-
timents 
* A remarkable circumstance occurs to my memory which 
well deserved a tablet to be placed in Westminster Abbey to 
record the fact. Some gentlemen of the society of Antiqua- 
ries being desirous to see the actual state of Edward Ist’s body, 
who died July 7, 1307, aged 68, on account it had been 
mentioned in Rymer’s Fœdra, that writs had been issued from 
the Treasury, in Edward the IIId. and Henry the IVth. to re- 
new the wax about the body, obtained leave of the dean, and 
on May 31, 1774, they opened the large sarcophagus in which 
it was deposited on the North side of Edward the Confessor’s 
chapel, where, in a coffin of yellow stone, the royal body lay in 
good preservatlon (except under the chin) wrapped in two 
wrappers, one of them in gold tissue, strongly waxed and 
fresh; the outermost more decayed. The corpse was habited
in a rich mantle of purple paned with white and adorned with 
ornaments of gilt metal, studded with red and blue stones and 
pearls. Two similar ornaments lay on his hands. The man- 
tle was fastened on his right shoulder by a magnificent sibula 
of the same fort of metal, stones and pearls. His face had 
ever it a silken covering so fine and closely fitted to it as 
to preserve the features entire, which was of a brown oaken 
colour; round his temples was a gilt coronet of fleury de lis; 
in his hands, which were also entire, were two scepters of gilt 
metal, that in the right surmounted by a cross fleury; that in 
the left, by three clutters of oak leaves and a dove on a globe; 
this scepter was about five feet long. The feet were envelop- 
ed in the mantle and other coverings but found, and the toes 
distinct. The whole length of the corpse was five feet two
inches.



[33]
timents should prevail in the Commisssioners breasts, 
sacrificing reason and the dictates of humanity to 
the mercenary view of enriching the treasury by 
impoverishing the subject; Quick’s reply is ap- 
plicable (when acting the Judge in the new piece 
of Robin Hood) to a criminal who desired him to 
hear reason, retorted, I do not sit here to hear rea- 
son, but execute the law. But no such fangled law 
exists, which would even undermine the power of 
the tax, if it was designed to raise money, by hinder- 
ing the promulgation of any medicine, however sa- 
lutary, and reduce the venders and inventors of me- 
dicine, already crampt with heavy taxes, to the 
situation of a poor insect caught to please a child, 
that had its wings plucked off to prevent its flying 
away; but complaint being made it crept too fast 
for the child to overtake it, had its legs cut off, the 
only forlorn hope left the fly to seek its sustenance. 
Now as much mercy would be exercised in chop- 
ping the fly’s head off; so if these drugs or medi- 
cines, or the venders of them alluded to, are, on 
parliamentary enquiry, found pernicious to the com- 
munity, stifle them at once, but do not invest the
scourge of imaginary power in any set of men to 
act in a manner which honour, for the credit of 
of the nation, will not allow of even to a King, 
however mild, however beloved by his subjects. 
That the number of various perfumed medicinal 
articles are numerous, and were a tax laid on each 
one sold only of one penny, it would bring in 
much money is not denied. The same reasoning 
for taxing other necessary or voluptuous articles 
used in life, whether the partaking of the play- 
house, Ranelagh, &c. or on the purchase of a 
hat, a pair of stockings, shoes, and other raiment, 
would encrease the amount to a stupendous sum;
but


[34]
but fond as any minister may be of inflicting the 
striped stamp on the people inhabiting Great- 
Britain, time will prove the situation of this coun- 
try similar to a valuable piece of silver plate, whose 
beauty of workmanship is destroyed, and the value 
thereof diminished by each brushing the servant 
gives to revive its lustre. 
The public in this instance, I presume, have a 
right to refuse paying for a stamp, until they have 
scrutinized into the act, and know on what ground 
it is demanded; and should any bookseller or 
renter of a medicinal shop of three years standing 
at the Royal Exchange in London, which the act 
never encompassed them to use the stamps unless 
they had been guilty of the crime of vending a 
patent medicine, I say, if they chuse to deck their 
drugs and medicines only with the red cross when 
the act does not require it, let the afflicted, who 
stand in need of these applications, step over the 
way to Messrs, Wrays, Birchin-Lane, or other 
mists and druggists, where no duty is required. 
As a strong proof that the medicine act is a de- 
sultory one at best, and does not give the Com-
missioners that power to enforce the act in the 
manner it is, read one of their own advertisements, 
and in which, though they give an abstract of the 
act, leave out the exception relative to the sea or 
navy surgeons.*
For 
* NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE, August 23, 1783. 
Stamp-Office, Newcastle upon Tyne, August 8, 1783. 
NOTICE is hereby given to dealers in medicines in the 
county of Northumberland, town and county of Newcastle 
upon Tyne, and borough of Berwick upon Tweed, that an act 
hath passed in the last session of parliament, imposing a duty 
upon medicines, usually denominated quack medicines, of 
which the following extracts are given for the information of 
those who deal in that article. [Here follows an abstract of the
act


[35]
In our comments of the Commissioners address 
by their agent to the public, we may observe, the 
language held forth to the faculty and other ven- 
ders of medicines, is in doubtful strained expres- 
sions, as, It is to be understood from the act, &c. &c. 
That an act hath passed in the last session of parlia- 
ment, imposing a duly upon medicines, usually deno- 
minated quack medicines. No such expression in the 
act; therefore it would be equally necessary to 
know of the commissioners what is meant by a 
quack medicine, and who are the persons that 
vend quack medicines; in other words, cheating, 
delusive, destructive medicines.* The act is silent 
relative
act, and then the advertisement goes on.] It is to be under- 
stood from the act, that all booksellers, stationers, shopkeepers, 
and others, required to be licenced, who mean to continue to 
sell any medicines whatsoever, whether called patent or not, 
are chargeable with the duties according to the value of them; 
and also, that regular surgeons, apothecaries, and persons who 
have kept shop for three years before the passing the act for sell- 
ing drugs and medicines only (such drugs and medicines not 
being patent drugs and medicines) though they are exempt 
from taking out licences, must nevertheless stamp all the pa- 
tent medicines they sell, or leave off dealing in that article, 
&c. signed, THOMAS DAVIDSON, Collector. 
*The word quack seems to be generally mentioned as a 
mark of contempt, and applied to several persons who may 
be suspected of deceit, in their pretensions for remarkable 
skill, or superior honesty, over their neighbours; and we may 
perceive in this instance, the commissioner’s agents’ advertise- 
ment, exhibits to public notice, in a similar manner, what is 
the meaning of a quack’s advertisement—no more than that 
they would have the public underhand they have, in their 
possession, a nostrum necessary to be applied or taken for their 
good; by which means money, that little spring, the primum 
mobile of worldly enjoyments, may be obtained. Now here 
the commissioners have a nostrum too, called a Medicine Act; 
I say a nostrum is a term applicable, and they have a right to 
claim it as theirs in the present instance, although they are no 
benefited by it, because the medicine act, as it is enforced
F chiefly 


[36 ]
relative to those matters, and draws no inference, 
makes none of these exceptions. Patent medicines 
are particularly mentioned throughout the act; and 
such is the strictness of the act, that any book- 
seller, perfumer, &c. newly set up, or even a per- 
son not regularly bred, or who has not been three 
years in that line before the passing of the act, 
should he set up as an apothecary, he must, by 
this act of parliament as it now stands, take out
a licence, 
chiefly by their authority alone, for I am persuaded no King, 
Lords, or Commons will be found to justify or approve of 
such diferetionary powers, to abate or inflict on any person 
more punishment than a British act of parliament expresses; if 
they do, let me be thought a worm, and with the foot of power 
crushed to death; for I think but poorly of any man, who 
arose to defend the cause of the distressed individuals, and not 
even resign himself to martyrdom, rather than give up the 
opinion he conceives to be just. The commissioners hold up 
to the public the medicine act, or their charm or nostrum, or 
whatever you please to call it, and advertise. It is to be under- 
stood—What is to be understood?—Why, it is necessary for 
you and you to place a stamp on all the several medicinal arti- 
cles you vend, if it is only a bottle of Bristol, Bath, or Spa
water, by which means we shall enrich government. Can 
any quack, or other imaginary being whom fancy creates, ex- 
press his meaning in more vague artful terms, to answer his 
ends, than this very advertisement dictates?—it is to be un- 
derstood— From this unison in sentiment of power and neces- 
sity, relative to the address to the public, for their compliance 
in bringing the desired omnium of their affections as a tribute 
due to merit or to law. We find the word quack has been 
always misunderstood; it is not a found that implies shame:  
it is no more than a familiar phrase to express a natural desire 
of obtaining money, under certain different lawful modes, 
which is as essential for the preservation of national dignity; 
or private life, as blood is to the body; and had not gain 
been the object of the medicine act, rather than the reforma- 
tion of supposed nuisances, or the protection of health, we 
should not have witnessed this Proteus act, which outstrips 
the alchymist, whose ambition extends no further than the 
transmutation of base metals to gold, but here gold is to be 
produced by a transmutation of Words.


[37]
a licence, and then he could not sell a medi- 
cine, even by a physician’s prescription, without 
a stamp; and if he does not take out a licence, 
then he is liable to be prosecuted for selling any 
medicine without a licence. As to such a doc- 
trine of excusing the licence, and only exacting the 
duty; the act knows it not; the terms of the act 
required are expressive and decisive. If the fra- 
mer of the act has in words deviated from his in- 
tention or meaning, we cannot allow him now to 
put in his plea, and say to the public, it is to he 
understood so and so. We put a negative on such 
proceedings, and are justifiable in refusing to ac- 
knowledge any other law than what our national 
constitution requires; and if lenity is held out to 
one person, another claims the same privilege, 
in the same predicament. Such alterations and 
constructions of an act of parliament was never 
experienced in so short a time, as to alter the very 
features of the act, that it can no longer be said 
to be the act of the legislature, but the commis- 
sioners act, supported by an avaricious principle, 
to fill the coffers of government, insensible to the
pleadings of justice or humanity; as if the same 
agent who drew up the ad was disappointed in his 
extensive grasp, by which such riches were to flow 
into the treasury, and as no words in the act are to 
be found to force compliance, imagination is on 
the rack of invention, by adding, it is to be under- 
stood; and for what end, to encompass that noble 
work of adding distress to a wretched being, per- 
haps labouring under the bite of a mad dog, by 
exacting a shilling duty before he can obtain the 
only remedy at present known to be held out as 
possessing a virtue in some degree to combat so 
horrid a calamity. Not Mackbeth’s character and 
irregular conduct was more strange or altered, in
F2 point


[38]
point of ferocity, or in his ambitious view to en- 
compass his define of a diadem, after he had seen
the witches,* than this medicine act of parliament 
has changed its friendly purpose, by various mis- 
conceptions and interpretations, to oppress man- 
kind rather than relieve. 
When I was last at the Stamp Office, to get 
Mr. Wheeler’s stamps, a young gentleman in the 
office held up a small bundle, and with a smile de- 
clared there was fifty pounds worth of stamps.— 
Let the commissioners obtain a treasure, ten times 
a larger sum than was stated at the opening of the 
budget, viz. £.15000, then go and carry it to 
court, and in triumph tell his Majesty how it was 
obtained; scatter it before him;—will he listen to 
them with complacency, to hear this three-pence 
laid on a six-penny medicine, was torn from a 
person whole garments on his back they would 
disdain
* Macbeth is a play worked up in so extraordinary a man- 
ner, relative to the witches corrupting Macbeth’s principles, 
in foretelling he should be a king, that it is no wonder it is 
so much admired.—-Mrs. Montague, that eminent lady in li- 
terature, who has commented on this play, Professor Rich-
ardson, of Glasgow, and Johnson’s Edition of Shakespear, 
with several other authors I have consulted, they have not, 
to my knowledge, noted a similar piece of writing of great 
antiquity, from which it is no presumption to suppose Shake- 
spear drew his portrait, viz, the history of Hazael going to 
Elisha the prophet to enquire whether the sickness his master 
laboured under would prove fatal? the answer was, he might 
recover--but he would die; —— also foretold him he should be 
a king.—-On which he goes home, murders his master, and 
reigns in his stead. 2 Kings, c. viii. And may we not also 
suppose the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor railing Sa- 
muel’s apparition; also gave Shakespear a hint for raising up 
the witches in the scene where Macbeth views Banquo’s pro- 
geny. Dr. Blair, and Mr. Farquar, both eminent divines, 
who have discoursed largely on the subject of Hazael, are si- 
lent relative to Macbeth in their observations; nor do I know 
any critic who has drawn a parallel line of the two characters.


[39]
disdain to have touched?—-Or, that the mother's 
boy was in a fever, and she pawned her wedding 
ring before she could purchase the medicine, on 
account of the six-penny stamp, to save if pos- 
sible her child from death.—-And from another 
—-imagine the rest--.I will not harrass up paternal 
feelings. Had the young gentleman been ac- 
quainted with distress by illness as I am, he would 
have shed the tear of pity at the thought of those, 
whose necessitous melancholy situation had doom- 
ed them the objects of such a lash, for on them 
the tax is laid. 
What would have been his late majesty’s royal 
sentiments should any person have suggested to 
him proud as he had reason to be, to reign over 
such a people such a kingdom as he then pos- 
sessed, would, a few years hence, witness a tax 
drawn from the sick and diseased objects?—Bri- 
tain, if thy fate demands fresh taxes, let not thy 
honour be sported with; believe me, you who 
glance at the page, if you should censure my que- 
rulous complaint as painful to the tender frame, 
is but the echo of a shriek when distress enters a
family in the shape of disease—terrible in appear- 
ance, often dreadful in its consequence. 
It has been hinted to me, that by publishing
these remarks, however justifiable the cause, the 
revenue may be injured by persons, such as non- 
regulars, booksellers, perfumers, and other traders, 
who have kept a shop for three years before the 
passing of the act, and, with other articles in their 
line of business, have vended drugs or medicines
only not being drugs by the King’s patent, fol-
lowing my advise in ceasing to sell their medicines 
without stamps any longer than the act does require: 
What arguments will some men produce! As if 
the state of this country was reduced so low, that
the


[40]
the only means left to recruit it’s finances were 
unjustifiable means, contrary to the usage and the 
law of the land; and if oppression, allowing it 
to be through a misconception of the act, pass un- 
censured in one instance, it may increase till custom
confirms law. The commissioners are only em- 
powered to receive the duty laid on certain medi- 
cines, and direct where the stamp is to be placed, 
by this act; but transfers no power of extension, 
limitation, or exception. 
It is my desire in this arduous undertaking, re- 
lative to a reformation of the act, to reason from 
facts, and not to hint an iota to give offence to my 
Sovereign; nor do I wish to express any sentiment 
that may reflect on the honourable proposer of the 
ad on patent medicines, and am extremely sorry 
to find his name not enrolled in the present parlia- 
ment. From his well known good disposition he 
possesses, I should not fear to trust the cause in his 
hands, although in his first shot he has hit the 
lovely pidgeon instead of the carrion crow. For 
this medicine act, enforce it as the words direct, and 
it militates against the gentlemen of the faculty in
a stronger manner than against others, supposed to 
be the intended objects in the first onset; for where 
is there one of the desultory practitioners, mowers 
of diseases, in London, who advertises, and gives 
hand-bills at every corner of the street, that is af- 
fected by this act? nay, have they not been known 
in their advertisements to laugh at the minister, 
and express that the act made against quacks does 
not affect them?— Therefore if Lord Cavendish 
was so unlucky as to wound the bird he did not 
mean to hurt; if the commissioners, in pity to the 
sufferings of the faculty, mitigated the act; a 
right, (if that right is denied to my King) I will 
dispute with them. Was it justice, or consistent
to


[41]
to reason, to mark and seize on other worthy cha- 
racters, on mere supposition, it is to be under- 
stood you are the objects government meant to 
and say, of you. Sir, the act requires this thing  
of another, that performance; and compounds 
with a third, as discretionary judgment dictates-- 
And when a person goes to the Stamp Office, for 
information to guide himself is informed, Sir, if 
you have any questions to ask relative to the me- 
dicine act, you are to put it down in writing, and 
our Solicitor will answer it. Fie on it!--You 
who have given,—if you have given, such powers, 
to harrass your own subjects whom you ought to 
cherish, by holding up an act of parliament over 
their heads fluttering, which, like the ravenous 
kite pounce on their prey, to-day a lark, to-mor- 
row a partridge, and the next day new game is 
started; for by this mode of going on, there is not 
a single article will be found in a perfumer’s shop, 
but what such law would encompass; whilst we 
observe a little cephalic snuff, so called to distin- 
guish it from other snuffs, in Six-penny bottles 
three-pence duty exacted; by whom? not by the
act of parliament; and yet justly inflicted to 
scourge a proprietor’s folly, if he is that person 
who harbours so bad an opinion of the legislature, 
to allow such proceedings, and, contrary to his 
own reason and judgment, pays a duty which he 
cannot find expressed in the act, and believes no act 
of the legislature requires, or will justify. 
Knowing on what constitutional principles I act, 
and having experienced the injuries in my pro- 
perty, which fails far short of what others witnessed 
by these over-zealous proceedings, shall we not in 
decent terms complain? Let the Commissioners 
say, whether they ever knew such extensive pow- 
ers or constructions granted by parliament to any
person


[42]
person in the land; and if their own property was 
invaded by such arguments as imagination might 
suggest, to wrench an act of parliament for so mor- 
tifying a circumstance, as to demand your hat to- 
day, to-morrow your shoes, the next day your coat, 
and, like Virgil’s harpies, as Wharton translates: 
“ With loathsome claws they snatch the food away. 
"Scream o’er our heads, and poison all the prey.” 
Would not each of you declaim against such an 
act of parliament in pathetic founds, more moving 
than either a Wells,* a Siddons, or a Crawford, were 
able to express in their tragic scene of woe. And 
is not this a just representation of the booksellers 
mutilated state; their neighbours vend ninety me- 
dicinal articles free of duty out of a hundred, 
which not only deprive them of selling those spe- 
cies of medicine as usual to their friends, but leaves 
a canker-worm in their breast, when reflection 
places their situation in a comparitive view. 
Let these gentlemen, and their superiors in pow- 
er, view what opposition has been made to the Re- 
ceipt Tax, and now again a petition from the City 
of London is to be presented to the Legislature
for an abolition. Take heed, ye citizens, the mi- 
nister does not refuse your petition, repeal the pre- 
sent two-penny ad, and make a new one of three- 
pence. This present receipt tax is not a thou- 
sandth part so inimical to the welfare of the inha- 
bitants, or so partial or so oppressive as the medi- 
cine act; which almost demands a tax from arti- 
cles, at certain times, as important as the bread 
you
* Mrs. Wells played Isabella for her benefit at Drury Lane; 
her playing is in a stile between Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. 
Siddons, pertaining of the manners of both; her person is 
pleasing, her voice is harmonious, but not so finely deep toned 
as Mrs. Crawford's. She is allowed in general to come short 
of Mrs. Siddons’s acting, but in some passages excels her.


[43]
you eat, whilst any person in an ague must pay the 
duty, if he wishes to have the remedy, even under 
the king’s patent; and who cares for a few in- 
dividuals? But are you not concerned for a king’s 
honour, the dignity of the nation? Look at this 
picture, which calls for the sting of a scorpion to 
penetrate the inventor’s breast, who first drew the 
design—a lamb in close compact with a toad, link- 
ed by solemn league to promote each other’s inter- 
est; here is seen justice railing against prostitution, 
yet joining hands to share its wages. Here, dread- 
ful! find a softer term if you like, it is the truth, 
behold honour is forced from the throne of ma- 
jesty to embrace the essence of supposed vileness; 
or, as the poet expresses, “a god kissing carrion.” 
Quacks, thus corporated, need no more the art of 
gilding their nauseous wares; no, a mantle is wove 
at the king’s house, and the toad is divested of its 
deformity by the fleece of the lamb; say, will such 
a representation be an ornament to any country; 
because the prospective glass by which it is viewed 
is mounted with gold.—-One sessions has passed 
over, and the expected relief has not been heard
of; and so may the present sessions, if justice did 
not demand their timely consideration. 
The receipt tax is grounded on necessity, indis- 
criminately laid on all, and he that pays most mo- 
ney is the best off. A consideration is held forth 
in the exemption of small sums under forty shil- 
lings; but in the medicine act, 3d. is required of 
6d. or 3d. out of 3d. only, if a medicine was sold 
for that low sum. The receipt act is fairly drawn, 
and clearly understood what it doth exact; but I 
challenge any of the Judges or able Counsellors 
of the Law to prove the equity, the necessity, or the 
perspicuity of the medicine act, as it is enforced at 
present on a few individuals. In the receipt tax, 
modes have been thought of to evade the tax. In 
this tract I am no advocate for evasion: No, a


[44]
ling; and if any person has paid the tax through fear 
or threats, which the act does not justify, then 
such sum or sums of money has been extorted from 
the public by specious pretences, and, if possible, 
should be returned. 
If the necessities of the state require additional 
taxes, humanity, and the honour of the nation, will 
plead for medicine to go free on account of it’s uti- 
lity, and the distressed situation of those who pay 
it; secondly, by reason of the heavy taxes paid 
through the different stages it passes;* thirdly, be- 
cause other taxes may be produced in lieu, less 
burdensome to the subject, equal in respect to mag- 
nitude, and gathered with less expence and trouble. 
Two such imposts I could name; but let it not be 
understood I mean to throw a weight on another’s 
shoulder, to case my own, without bearing an equal 
share in it’s consequences. 
For the justness of my observations, and in vin- 
dication of the injuries experienced by a set of re- 
spectable and loyal men, well wishers and supporters 
of government, and for the hopes speedy relief may
be obtained for those whose misfortune it is to la- 
bour under sickness-—I leave the medicine act at 
the foot of the throne, and appeal with all due 
deference and respectful submission to his most gra- 
cious Majesty, and to both Houses of Parliament, 
* It is no uncommon circumstance for a proprietor of me- 
dicine, as myself, to pay 5 or 600l. Per annum for advertising; 
a stranger will dart at the idea—stop a moment—in Great Bri- 
tain there are about 90 different news-papers; now, supposing 
a small pamphlet is only advertised twice in each news-paper, 
this pamphlet pays, king’s duty, half a crown on each adver- 
tisement, comes to 22l.10s By the same rule, in 600l. paid 
in a year for advertisements, at least 200l. of it goes to the 
king. Also when an additional tax was laid on glass, the 
price of bottles was raised in proportion from 15 s. a gross to 
1l. 4s.—A question might be suggested. How came the prin- 
ters in the country to be the general venders of medicines, in 
preference to the druggists, &c.? Because, in conveying their 
news-papers to the purchasers, they have an opportunity of
- medicinal articles at the same time.



[45]
POSTSCRIPT. 
On the EFFECT of ADVERTISED 
MEDICINES. 
BEFORE any person embarks his name in the 
news paper, as a discoverer of a salutary im- 
provement in the preservative or embellishing arti- 
cles, censure seems to be a conditional tax, how- 
ever ill founded, he must submit to; whatever be 
his real principles it matters not a jot, he advertises, 
that is sufficient; and the gentleman who plays at 
cards for much money, however scrupulously fair, 
may as well hope to escape calumny, as him that ad- 
vertises a medicine, and yet, I assert, in this bewitch- 
ing amusement of gaming, there is more honour 
and justice to be met with than in other walks of 
life, where persons, under the mask of fair deal- 
ing, commit many shameful depredations unno- 
ticed by the unsuspecting traveller; therefore, 
whilst general prejudiced clamor reigns, no regular 
debate can take place, permit us to lay before you 
our sentiments printed on paper, that when passion 
subsides Charity may be introduced, who hopes 
that few persons, for the fake of a little lucre,
would sacrifice their good name, by indiscriminate- 
ly preparing or vending medicines if they imagined 
they were of a pernicious nature, destructive to 
the welfare of society: nor do I entertain a doubt, 
that whenever either party, whether the preparer 
or the vendor of the medicine, is called on to give 
evidence relative to their effects on the human body, 
substantial evidence will be produced sufficient to
G2 expunge


[46]
expunge any malicious aspersions Rumour lays to 
their charge. As an encouragement to others in 
the medical line, let a medicine which in a parti-
cular manner I am connected with, be our present 
consideration. When facts are stated, the public 
will discriminate. For this purpose, several attes- 
tations of cures performed by my medicine are re- 
printed, with their several dates and names of re- 
spectable personages annexed, as they appeared in 
the different news-papers throughout Great Britain, 
at a period of time when opportunity afforded the 
inquisitive agent, whether from curiosity or neces- 
sity, to inspect minutely into the report of cures 
so very extraordinary and almost past belief. In 
whatever light the descriptions of these cases may 
appear to the reflecting mind, they are the just: de- 
lineations of a grateful heart, conscious of emerg- 
ing from disease to health; and to doubt the vera- 
city of the cures, you impeach the respectable wit-
nesses who have subscribed their names in testi- 
mony of the truth. 
Greater cures in this confined medical line of 
profession as I am situated, no person I either know
or heard of, ever produced to the inspection of 
public scrutiny so minutely attested. These, and 
many more, have been performed by the admini- 
stration of my Antiscorbutic Drops, in the disor- 
ders denominated Scurvy, Leprosy, Gout, Rheu- 
matism, Childrens Eruptions, Nervous Complaints, 
&c. 
Thus encouraged, is there not reason to con- 
clude, a Specific is brought to light to mitigate 
those evils: But in all my advertisements, have I 
declared my medicine was an infallible one; or, in 
other words, cure every afflicted one. The page in 
my Treatise on the Scurvy and Gout would retort 
severely on me wherein I own, I experience the mor-
tification



[47]
tification of not succeeding agreeable to the wish hu- 
manity dictates, or the necessities of my patients re- 
quire. Truth, solemn truth, inscribes, such are the 
combined extensive powers of these disorders, con- 
centered in terms of Scurvy, Leprosy, Evil, appear- 
ing in so horrid a form that facinates the beholder: 
Imagination may conceive, but cannot express by 
words, the melancholy dreadful situation of those 
distempered beings, who harbour diseases conti- 
nually preying on the vitals of life, rendering the 
poor remains of human form a living tenement, 
the sepulchre of stench and rottenness; whose 
strength is so exhausted that they scarce have power 
left to knock at a door whereon a friendly invita- 
tion is engraved,* which bids them hope. 
Dare
* Mr. SPILSBURY; Dispensary, instituted 1773, for the poor 
afficted with the Scurvy, &c.
Although the exact form was published a few years ago, 
with copies of the tickets worked off from copper-plates, and 
copies of the forms from the printed register books, and of 
the certificates, there are many persons who now may wish to 
know the particulars of the plan; which we will describe. A 
person who pleads circumstances, as a large family, &c. or be- 
ing only a servant, is informed, he may receive the indul- 
gence, paying only one shilling a bottle instead of four shil- 
lings, the present price of a small bottle of the Drops, which 
generally serves a week in the administration. If he objects to 
this, as being too much, he is told to get a certificate, either 
signed by the churchwarden, minister, or two housekeepers, 
recommending him; he is then admitted, paying one shilling 
for six weeks: after that time, should he find it necessary for a 
continuance, he pays one shilling a month. There are many 
objects who are admitted gratis.—-No subscription has ever, 
been asked, to assist in the relief of those unhappy objects. 
The number benefited to the present time, are 7027. The 
bottles, &c. have been included in the above expence.— 
From the desire of doing the poor a real service, they are 
dispatched in a quarter of an hour; a circumstance great- 
ly in their favour, as they are often kept at hospitals and 
other dispensaries, for several hours, which is often the oc-
casion


[48]
Dare any person, thus situated, trifle with his 
fellow creatures, and sport with the infirmities of 
human nature, who is daily awed by them? If 
it is done; say, would you, or you, bear wit- 
ness to such transaction? Nor has envy or malice 
challenged a misrepresentation of my cures, but 
urge the well known hacknied plea of making use 
of antimony and mercury, in the preparation of 
the drops, which may hurt the constitution, and 
endanger the life of the patient. This is a won- 
derful discovery, that excess in certain ingredients, 
whether administered as medicinal or dietical, are 
pernicious. 
So far from being ashamed of the charge of 
encompassing the powers of these minerals, it is 
my pride to acknowledge it in my Treatise on the 
Scurvy, and in my folio bill it is hinted; and 
could I make a further progress in the cure of 
those ills we are treating of, by a safe preparation 
of arsenic, hemlock, or any other poisonous in- 
gredients, could be fought and selected, either 
from within the bowels of the earth, or on the 
surface, I would chearfully embrace their friendly
principles, as charms to drive away those brood- 
ing ills which harrass mankind. 
Talk
casion of the loss of a day’s work.—We will beg leave to 
add, although the number has been sometimes greater than 
we could conveniently dispense with, yet we cannot charge 
ourselves with refusing any single person the desired relief, if 
they came in the morning of the day which is the time of ad- 
mission. Add to this, applications from respectable persons in 
the country have always been attended to, which form an ad- 
ditional number of patients. What further benefit might ac- 
crue from a general subscription, to enable the proprietor the 
better to discharge his trust on a more extensive scale, and to 
enforce other experiments which the revolving mind suggests, 
is left to the public consideration to determine. It is a cir- 
cumstance, however necessary, we are not anxious to solicit.—- 
If these assertions have been falsifyed, you that have experi- 
enced this treatment proclaim it abroad.


[49]
Talk of the fear of death to those who bloom 
in health. Here the afflicted have nothing left to 
dread, scarce that pretty flatterer, even Hope, 
can be prevailed to accompany them any longer, 
when such is their situation obliged to resign the 
sweets of society, and become voluntary exiles, 
a prey to misery and grief. 
To answer the insinuation of designing persons, 
who on such masked stilts would recommend 
themselves to public notice, let them remember, 
in my professional line, every patient who may be 
dissatisfied, need not be ashamed to complain. 
The case is not so in complaints where certain re- 
medies are held forth, there, let the patient ex- 
perience any mortification or disappointment— 
modesty and discretion proclaim silence. 
But, once more—Should any person be so hap- 
py to encompass the desired end of subduing these 
hydra monsters, as Scurvy, Leprosy, Evil, whose 
power branches out in several named districts, yet 
one virulent power acts and feeds the rest, I say, 
should any one be enabled to find an antidote in 
the more safer walk of medicine, whether amidst
the roots, or herbs, or barks, I honour him; I
care not who is the inventor, it is a blessing pro- 
ductive of so much happiness to all around, that 
not to wish it, even at the sacrifice of my own 
medicine, I must be insensible to the feelings of 
human nature. 
If, upon an exact scrutiny relative to my cures, 
as stated in the scroll, it shall be found truth is on 
my side; say, shall such a medicine wear the hereti- 
cal cross,* merely because its peregrination to the 
afflicted
*In a catholic country when the priest enters the chamber, 
he holds up a cross or crucifix to the sick person as a favourable 
omen, who may, by faith, as on Jacob’s ladder, mount his
thoughts


[50]
afflicted in some remote part of the kingdom, it 
should pass through a bookseller’s hand, when it 
is
thoughts from earth to heaven, from anxiety to the hope of 
felicity; as this is not the cross the commissioners have adopted, 
and theirs is of so different a complexion and intention, the 
word heretical is added to distinguish them in the reader’s idea; 
and I thought it a better expression than jesuitical. For what- 
ever high opinion the world has formed of the ingenuity and 
powers of a quack, they are here eclipsed in their utmost stretch 
of invention by the commissioners. It has been, in all ages, a 
desideratum to discover a medicine for the mind, but not one of 
the levellers, in all their pop-gun advertisements, ever asserted 
they had discovered a sentimental medicine, endowed with 
powers to operate on the mind—Here it is in the shape of a 
red cross, equally pointed East, West, North, and South; 
when the sick views the medicine in this solemn array. Thought 
retrogrades; for instance, a young person before he breaks the 
seal, the cross arrests his attention, and brings before his ima- 
gination the cause of his illness, and what further penalty he is 
likely to undergo; here is much prositable discourse in a silent 
figurative piece of paper. Take physic pomp here it is, 
this trifling cross, this little symbol of adverse purposes, shall 
read a lecture suitable to any age or station in life; and when
the mind is seasoned with wholesome reflection, pass into the 
inner court, and there is something for the body; happy 
thought! Thus here is physic for the mind, and medicine for 
the body, united in one packet at a trifling advance. Ingenuity 
was never stretched to a more happy effect than when it con- 
trived a medicine on so extensive a scale; this, in after ages, 
will be mentioned by the philosophers of the age; this con- 
junction of powers, and the Georgeanian Star, were both dis- 
covered about the same time.- When the medicine act passed, 
it was a natural consequence to wish something emblematical 
might be designed for the stamp, to commemorate so extraor- 
dinary a union as the interest of government and quacks con- 
solidated in one. Several designs were thought of and pro- 
posed, no doubt; we will indulge the supposition, that there 
was no precedent in the case, this was to stamp medicine;— 
now, in my mind, I should have hinted the serpent, from the 
Mosaic history, on which whoever looked that were ill were 
instantly cured; a very proper device, but unfortunately the 
idea conveyed a poisonous intent, and quack medicines are no- 
torious and remarkable for dealing in viparious ingredients, and 
this would hinder the sale of stamps and medicines. It was
hinted


[51]
is free in the proprietor’s hand, and free in other 
chemists and druggists, whilst in their charge? 
I scruple              
hinted again, it might be construed the design was taken from 
the Cavendish family, who introduced the bill, and whose crest 
is a wreathed viper or snake, and it was never supposed they 
belonged, or wished to be united, to the family of Quacks; 
who were like so many ignis fatuus, here, there, no-where 
to be found, and like glow-worms in the dark, made a 
dazzling appearance; search for them by day, not one to be 
found, consequently this devise would not do. And although, 
it might be said the act was founded something on the supposed 
Jewish corrupted principles, yet Moses, their great law giver, 
inculcated humanity in every precept he dictated; and there- 
fore, as we failed in getting a Jewish symbol, why, as it was 
a Christian act, and the misfortunes of the country were found- 
ed on crosses, this gave hint for a cross, and cross proceedings, 
throughout the whole, have justifyed that the stamp should be 
in form of a †; and when I consider the advantages of 
taking in goverment, or the commissioners, as partners in the 
profit of quack medicines, who now say quack on, so we have 
a moiety of the profit, l am more reconciled to the mode; 
because, if any medicine, or as the commissioner’s agent dubs 
them quack medicines, is alledged to do harm, the quacks
will always have a subterfuge, as proving the commissioners 
medicine, the red cross, was first administered, and that created 
certain perturbations in the mind of the patient, so that the 
bodily medicine had not fair play; ergo, they are not in fault, 
and therefore stamp on; for though powder of port is packed 
up now, it will always have a good appearance, and the quacks 
may hope, if the act should be taken up again and signed by 
his majesty; why, in that case, should he deign to come among 
this royalized society of quacks, his majesty will find these 
fairy beings sociable and loyal ones, something like the Lord 
Mayor in Charles the Second’s time, as the Spectator relates. 
when the King going to depart, the Lord Mayor swore he 
should have the other bottle ; the King, ever a lover of society 
and wit, when diverted of personality, very obligingly turned 
back. Therefore, as all decrees should run in the usual form, 
as the story goes of Lord Chesterfield and the late King, who 
was desirous of putting some person in a good place, but was 
opposed by his ministry, the King, on being asked the second 
time whom they should set down, replied hastily, the devil if 
you will; on which Lord Chesterfield desired to know of his 
Majesty if the writ should run in the usual terms. Dearly be-
H loved


[52]
I scruple not to declare I am not for having such 
distinguishments made, between a medicine wrap- 
ped in the dispensatory sold, and that one disco- 
vered by accident, or through difficult researches, 
any more than a friendly plant, discovered in the 
field, should be despised because none of the same 
species has been ever known transplanted into a 
garden. 
Physic, whether practiced on the regular or ir- 
regular scale, has its advantages and inconveni- 
encics attending the professors and their medicines, 
which has remained at variance ever since gold was 
held up as a reward to him who was the most di- 
ligent in his sphere, and is likely to continue so.- 
We may as well suppose the church of Eng- 
land and of Rome would each embrace and re- 
sign their tenets to each other; than draw any 
other conclusion. Each of their votaries conceive 
theirs is best, and despise the other; each have 
ready substantial arguments for support of their 
religion; each are allowed to be good by the un- 
biassed person, and it is proper each party should 
remain unmolested, unless good proof is brought 
such limitations are hurtful to the community.
loved cousin?—-So now I presume I may put a question to the 
commissioners, as our brotherly connexion seems to be woved 
by the cord of interest, whether there may not be a danger of 
losing some of our patients, by their undergoing a mental and 
corporeal casligation at the same time? and therefore on the red 
stamp it would be prudent to give this line of advice:— 
N.B. If the patient seems to be too much alarmed at the fight of 
the red cross, let him postpone the taking of the bodily medicine 
for six hours, or till nature recovers.
COPIES


[53]
COPIES of ADVERTISEMENTS as appeared 
in the several LONDON NEWS-PAPERS. 
From the English Chronicle, Aug. 21, 1783. 
A general Answer to Country Correspondents, Venders, &c. 
relative to the Medicine Act, by their humble Servant, 
Soho Square, London, F. SPILSBURY. 
Aug. 20, 1783. 
Gentlemen,
IN London we have no other guide to go by than the Act 
of Parliament, which by reading the second page, you will 
find it thus:—All apothecaries, druggists, regularly bred, or 
venders of medicines, &c. who for the space of three years 
have kept a shop, and in that time have not sold a patent me- 
dicine (of which there are about four or five not expired) are 
excused the licence, consequently the stamps; therefore the 
proprietors of medicines in London take out no licence nor 
stamps on their own account, unless they have been concerned 
in vending of a patent medicine. The like indulgence is grant- 
ed by the act to country apothecaries, chemists, and other 
venders of medicines, who have kept a shop for selling medi- 
cines and drugs only, not being patent medicines. Therefore 
all printers and booksellers who have acted agreeable to the 
act of parliament, and have not sold a patent medicine, are 
excused the licence and stamps, otherwise to what purport
would you, as some justly observe, take out a licence, and get 
stamps, when your next door neighbour stands excused, and 
can sell these medicines, not being patent ones, without the 
additional duty, as there are a few persons who come under 
the act, and must have a licence, consequently stamps. The 
proprietors of medicines in general feel for their situation, and 
the distress of patients, therefore intend to lower a half crown 
medicine to them a penny, which then only requires a three- 
penny stamp indead of a six-penny one. Relative to my me- 
dicine I have so ordered a bottle, that those persons who are 
obliged to sell with a six-penny damp, the consumer shall not 
be loser, he having a proportionate quantity for 5s. as him 
who pays only 4s. a bottle. As to our procuring a licence 
for country venders, we are informed you must apply to the 
officer in your respective county, appointed bv the commis-
H2 sioners


[54]
sioners, who will also furnish you with stamps; if you are so 
situated as to have sold a patent medicine, or not kept a shop 
three years. 
I wish persons in the medical line, and others, would read 
the printed act, and not go by general report, the cause of all 
the confusion, trouble, expence, and delay of business. 
From the Morning Post, Aug. 27, 1783. 
To Apothecaries, Venders of Medicines, &c. &c. 
Gentlemen, 
RELATIVE to your enquiries whether you are obliged, by 
the Medicine Act, to take out a license, and sell no medicines 
but with a stamp, it depends on your answer to this question, 
viz. Have you sold a patent medicine, (of which there are 
about four unexpired) if so, then the act informs you, you 
must have a licence, even if you are regular bred to physic, 
and then cannot sell a dose of salts, &c. without a stamp, or 
incurring a penalty. Again, persons, booksellers, perfumers, 
&c. who have kept a shop, and sold medicines only, not pa- 
tent ones, for three years past, they are entitled, by the act to 
vend quack medicines, and all others, (patent ones excepted) 
without licence or stamps; so that here in London some will 
continue as usual to sell without a licence, &c. whilst others, be- 
ing connected with patent ones, must have a licence.—-The 
whilst his next door neighbour runs away with all the business, 
in using no stamps, owing to the first having accidentally sold 
a patent medicine. I agree with you it is oppressive, and with 
you will join in opinion Government never meant so partial, 
or rather an ex post facto act. You will read the act, page 2d, 
and not go by general report, and then judge, and let the dif- 
ferent proprietors of medicine know of your situation, and 
they will pack up your orders accordingly, with or without 
stamps. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Your most obedient servant, 
F. SPILSBURY,  Chemist.
Soho Square, London, 
Aug. 21, 1783. 
From


[55]
From the Gazetteer, Aug. 25, 1783; 
To Venders of Medicine, who are concerned in the Medicine Act 
which commences Sept. 2, 1783. 
Gentlemen, 
Aug. 22, 1753. 
WHEN yon send your orders for medicines to the different 
proprietors in London, please to mention whether the packets, 
&c. are to have stamps, or be without; for we cannot tell who 
are excused the licence, &c. Also observe on reading the act, 
you will find it more favourable to many booksellers, per- 
sumers, &c. than general report has allowed. For all venders 
of medicines only, not being patent ones, and who have sold 
drugs or medicines for three years, are excused by the act; so 
that Dassy’s Elixir, Scots Pills, Turlington’s Balsam, God- 
frey’s Cordial, &c. &c. are exempt, if the proprietors or 
venders of these articles have not sold a patent medicine. 
Again. A patent medicine, of which there may be four or 
five now in force, even an apothecary (or surgeon regularly 
bred, unless belonging to the army or navy) must not sell it 
without a licence and stamp; but they may sell all other 
nostrums, &c. as usual. Persons not regularly bred to physic, 
and have not kept a shop for three years as a vender of medi- 
cines, they must take out a licence, and have stamps. For 
I have provided a bottle on purpose, for my Antiscorbutic 
Drops, in proportion to the 4s. one, which will be sold with- 
out a stamp, as usual. 
Soho Square, London. F. SPILSBURY. 
From the Morning Chronicle, Sept. 1, 1783, 
MEDICINE ACT. 
To Apothecaries, Chemists, and other Venders of Medicine, 
Gentlemen,
TO-MORROW, Sept. 2, 1783, the Medicine Act com 
mences, an ad which has engrossed the attention of the public


[56]
to decide the lawful meaning of the legislature. Eminent 
Counsel have been consulted on the occasion. They disagree- 
ing, application to the Attorney General became absolutely 
necessary, to clear up certain points relative to the wording of 
the act, which comprehends all apothecaries, wholesale drug- 
gists, &c. in town and country, who have dealt in patent me- 
dicines, to take out a licence, and then they cannot send out 
any medicinal drug or mixture without a stamp. The Attor- 
ney’s answer is waited for with great anxiety in London, which 
may in some measure alleviate their fears of a general stop to 
trade. As for my opinion in this intricate business, it is but 
an opinion; and such a one as I do not wish any person to rely 
on; but consult the act, which is peculiar, and pointed against 
patent medicines only.
All nostrums, not being patent ones, are denominated by 
the act as drugs or medicines only, and the apothecary, &c. 
may continue to sell them without licence or stamp —so may 
other persons; but as the act admits of various readings, and 
as several booksellers and perfumers observe, the licence is 
not worth contending for, the duty does not fall on us, there- 
fore we comply rather than be threatened with law suits; but 
our other objection is peculiarly hard:—Suppose we take out 
a licence, and have stamps; our next door neighbour may sell 
all his chief articles in the medicinal line without stamps, pa- 
tent medicines excepted, who then will buy of us? Again, 
the proprietors in London of medicine are by the act in gene- 
ral excepted, unless the patent ones, and have no stamps. 
Why are the country people so hard borne on by an act of par- 
liament, and no remedy pointed out? Gentlemen read the 
act passed, and judge every one, if there be not occasion for 
remarks, and for a public explanation by authority. 
Your’s, &c. 
Soho Square, London, F. SPILSBURY, Chemist. 
Sept, 1, 1783. 
From the Morning Post, Sept. 3, 1783. 
MEDICINE ACT. 
To Apothecaries, Druggists, and Venders of Medicine. 
Gentlemen, 
YESTERDAY, Sept. 2, 1783, the Medicine Act took 
place.—Although the words of the act leave a doubt on the
mind

[57]
mind of many individuals, whether booksellers, perfumers, 
&c. selling medicines only, not being patent ones, are ex- 
empt from the licence and stamps. From a collective corres- 
pondence on this matter, it seems to be the general sense of 
the booksellers and perfumers in town and country to take out 
a licence, and for the following reasons:—The fine is small, 
a law-suit is neither pleasant or profitable, the additional duty 
on medicine, heavy as it is, is torn from distressed objects, 
and does not fall on them, but the unhappy consumer. For 
other partial hardships they suffer at present by the act, they 
do not doubt, but legislature will be better informed, and 
consider how far medicines, which now pay 40 per cent, to 
government, will bear this extra impost, and rectify accord- 
ingly. Relative to the opinion of the Attorney General, con- 
cerning the most interesting part of the act, on which eminent 
counsel of the law are divided, the faculty may expect to be 
acquainted with in a little time, as a person set off express to 
consult the Attorney General on Wednesday last. The point 
under consideration is, whether the faculty in general, who 
have vended patent medicines, are obliged to take out a li- 
cence agreeable to the expression of the act, and then they 
must not sell any drug or medicine without a stamp. Those 
persons who may labour under any doubt from reading the 
act, whether they are the objects of this Medicine Act, they
had better suspend the licence, and the sale of medicines a 
few days, than run any risk. of the law. When at leisure I 
propose drawing up my reasons for difference of opinion, with 
remarks on the act, for the consideration of the public. 
Soho Square. F. SPILSBURY, Chemist.


ERRATA. 
Page 21, line 16, for law, read clew: 
Page 27, lines 19, 20, 21, read to center in one set of 
practitioners, exclusive to the rest of mankind, or leave 
it like the book of nature, 
Page 30, last line, dele but you are exempt from the
tax.
CURES