Dr Bateman's Pectoral Drops (also known as ‘Batemans Original Pectoral Drops’, and 'Bateman's and Stoughton's drops’) was a popular

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

for disorders of the chest or lungs during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries in Britain and North America. It was later marketed as a remedy for ‘all Rheumatic and Chronic complaints, in pains of the limbs, bones, and joints, for influenza, and in violent colds,.

Ingredients

The medicine was similar to

paregoric Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as ''tinctura opii camphorata'', is a traditional patent medicine known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties. According to Goodman and Gilman's 1965 edition, "Pareg ...

; a

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemist ...

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which ...

and

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel ('' Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the k ...

. To this was added

catechu ( or ) is an extract of acacia trees used variously as a food additive, astringent, tannin, and dye. It is extracted from several species of ''Acacia'', but especially ''Senegalia catechu'' (''Acacia catechu''), by boiling the wood in water ...

together with

anise Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and t ...

flavouring and a colouring agent. Over the years there were several different formulas. Bateman’s Drops were advertised as being intended for infants and adults and was dosed accordingly.

Origins

The original formula was developed by Benjamin Okell of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, before 1711, when a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...

was granted for its manufacture. Advertisements are first known in the ''

Northampton Mercury The ''Northampton Mercury'' was an English news and media company founded in 1720. Published in Northampton, it was sold throughout the midlands, as far west as Worcester and as far east as Cambridge. When it ceased publication in 2015, it was ...

'' newspaper in 1720.

Marketing

UK

Okell went into partnership with the proprietors of the ''Northampton Mercury'',

William Dicey William Dicey was a newspaper proprietor, publisher of street literature, printseller and patent medicine seller, in Northampton and later in London. He was also the co-founder and proprietor of the Northampton Mercury newspaper from its establishm ...

and

Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was educated at The Crypt School Gloucester. He was noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Family Raikes was born at ...

, and from August 1721 the medicine was advertised in the imprint of the newspaper. From 1722, John Cluer of Bow Churchyard joined the partnership and marketed the medicine in London. About 1724 Okell published ''A short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's pectoral drops: the nature of the distempers they cure, and the manner of their operation,'' printed by Raikes and Dicey. In 1726 the patent was re-issued to Okell, Dicey, Raikes and Cluer. Cluer published ''An abstract of the patent'' in the same year. John Cluer died in 1728 and his business was continued by his widow (William Dicey’s sister), until 1731, thereafter by Thomas Cobb (her second husband) until 1736, when the business was assigned to William Dicey. Raikes last advertised the medicine in ‘’The Daily Gazetteer’’ 14 July 1741, but thereafter it is only advertised as produced by William Dicey and Co. Benjamin Okell died circa 1753 and his widow, Elizabeth, took over her husband’s share, although Benjamin’s name continued to be mentioned in advertisements for the medicine until January 1755. William Dicey’s will of 1756 mentions his having only a one third share in the medicine. After William’s death that year the medicine was marketed by

Cluer Dicey Cluer Dicey (28 January 1715 – 3 October 1775) was an English newspaper proprietor, publisher of street literature, printseller and patent medicine seller, in London and later in Northampton. He was also proprietor of the Northampton Mercury ...

& Co until c.1770 and thereafter Dicey & Co. In 1759 Cluer Dicey & Co. described as the ‘original proprietors’ of the medicine won a case brought against Thomas Jackson for counterfeiting the medicine. About 1792 Dicey & Co. went into partnership with Edward Beynon at 10 Bow Churchyard. After Beynon's death in 1800 it became Dicey and Sutton, and later to Messrs W. Sutton & Co. of Enfield Middlesex who continuing to market it throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. W. Sutton & Co. (Druggists' Sundries), London, Ltd., of Enfield, in Middlesex, successors to Dicey & Co. at Bow Churchyard, currently sells Bateman's Pectoral Drops in the early 1950s. By the mid-nineteenth century there were a variety of different manufacturers and formulae on the market, Thus an advertisement in ''The Derby Mercury'', for 5 January 1842, is for ‘Barclays’ Bateman's Drops’,.

United States

In 1731 the medicine was advertised in the ‘’New-York Weekly Journal’’ advertised “An Abstract of the Patent,” printed by

John Peter Zenger John Peter Zenger (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a German printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed ''The New York Weekly Journal''. He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the royal governor of New York, but t ...

with the name of James Wallace as local agent authorized to sell it. After the United States gained independence, American apothecaries marketed their own counterfeit versions. Versions continued into the 20th century when, for example—thanks to the 1906 Food and Drug Act—in 1918 a Reading, Pennsylvania, firm was fined fifty dollars for marketing an “adulterated” and “misbranded” version as Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops.

Dangers

Richard Reece, writing in 1822, criticised the medicine in the following terms. "The active ingredient of this composition is opium, which in chronic rheumaticism and chronic cough may, in one case out of a hundred afford temporary relief. In ‘’acute’’ cases as ‘fever, colds, and cough,’ it is capable of doing irreparable mischief, by disordering the head, constipating the bowels, and accelerating the circulation. In humid asthma and constitutional cough this remedy, by checking expectoration, would prove very injurious. It is in fact a disguised solution of opium which in the hands of ignorance is a very dangerous remedy."Richard Reece, 'Bateman’s Pectral Drops,' ''The Monthly Gazette of Health; or Medical Dietetic, Antiempirical, and General Philosophical Journal'', Vol. VI, 807.

References

{{reflist Patent medicines