Abstract
Patent medicines had a status of their own that was distinct from both orthodox medicine and irregular practice. Branded proprietary medicines became visible in the seventeenth century, and medicine patenting started in the early eighteenth century. Several strands of evidence indicate that sales were substantial, and all but the poorest purchased them, with the middling and upper members of society probably being the best customers. Most patent medicines were aimed at a limited range of problems, and choosing to take one was a rational decision. Some regular practitioners owned patent medicines, and others were sympathetic to their use, with the state providing an inadvertent official endorsement through the patenting system and the medicine excise stamp.
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Mackintosh, A. (2018). The Status of Patent Medicines. In: The Patent Medicines Industry in Georgian England. Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69778-9_2
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