Turlington’s Balsam of Life bottle with a flared lip and a pontil mark circa 1800 – 1840 and was probably American made.

On May 4, 1824, a twelve-page pamphlet was released in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the title: Formulae For The Preparation Of Eight Patent Medicines, Adopted By The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.  This College was the first professional pharmaceutical organization established in America (founded 1821).  The brochure of a dozen pages was its first publication.

The dissertation concerned medicines of English origin – Anderson’s Scots Pills, Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, Dalby’s Carminative, British Oil, Hooper’s Female Pills, Godfrey’s Cordial, Steer Opodeldoc and Turlington’s Balsam of Life.  These patent medicines chosen by the Philadelphians were not newcomers to the pharmaceutical scene, but were from 50 to 200 years old.

Turlington’s Balsam of Life (named in the brochure) was a medicine patented in London, England.  Robert Turlington made an application for Patent No. 596, on January 18, 1744, and a patent was granted by King George II in May, 1744.  Turlington’s (“A specifick balsam, called the balsam of life”) contained 27 ingredients of herbs and chemicals and was supposed to cure “the stone gravel, cholick, vomiting and spitting of blood, and other weaknesses and decays.”  The elixir had gained fame as a cure-all in England and throughout the American Colonies.

Turlington claimed the “Author of Nature” has provided “a remedy for every Malady.”  “Men of learning and genius (have) ransacked the Animal, Mineral and Vegetable World” to find them.  He claimed his research had perfected his Balsam and it was “a perfect Friend to Nature, which it strengthens and corroborates when weak and declining, vivifies and enlivens the Spirits, mixes with the Juices and Fluids of the body and gently infuses its kindly Influence into those Parts that are most in Disorder.”

In a 46 page Turlington brochure dated 1755 – 1757 and given “gratis with each bottle,” testimonials occupied most of the pages.  People from many walks of life swore that they had received various benefits from the “Balsam of Life.”

Even Turlington’s 2-page “Bill of Directions” given with each bottle contained a “Short List of Persons who had received Relief by Turlington’s Balsam of Life.”  The 129 persons listed cited such benefits: Capt. Samuel Barker, of Suffolk, discharged gravel and stones surprisingly large.  Mrs. Esther Ladd, near Putney, in Surry, was cured of a complication of distempers.  Mr. George Longtofft, of Yorkshire, cut his great toe almost off and was cured.  James Lee of London was cured of the dry gripes.  Mrs. Elizabeth Beers, of the City of Philadelphia in the province of Pennsylvania claimed she was cured of rheumatism and dropsy.

Turlington’s Balsam of Life bottle with a sheared lip and a pontil mark circa 1800 – 1860 and was probably American made.

Alas, competition reared its ugly head and many balsams like Friar’s Balsam appeared on the pharmaceutical market.  Some even used Turlington’s name.  In 1754, Turlington, in an effort to combat the counterfeiters, began to market his balsam in distinctive pear-shaped bottles.  Naturally, he thought his new bottle would put an end to “Persons who buying up my empty bottles, have basely and wickedly put therein a vile spurious Counterfeit-Sort.”

His small new bottle bore the embossed legends “BY THE KING’S ROYAL PATENT GRANTED” on the face and “TO ROBT. TURLINGTON FOR HIS INVENTED BALSAM OF LIFE” on the reverse side.  One side stated “LONDON” and the other side “JANUY 26, 1754.”

This new move by Turlington hardly made the copiers miss a step, for shortly thereafter they were reproducing the balsam and the glass bottle as well.  Some of the reproductions omit the TO between GRANTED and ROBT. and others have shortened JANUY to JANY.  Still other pear-shaped bottles appeared with only THE KINGS PATENT on one side and TURLINGTON’S BALSAM on the other.

The original Turlington’s Bill of directions was signed by Robert Turlington.  Some years later the directions were signed in the name and with the handwriting of Hilton Wray and the bottles were sealed with a seal bearing his coat of arms (three martlets) and the coat of arms of Robert Turlington (three leopard’s heads).  Sometime after 1754 the directions mention that the Balsam of Life was being prepared and sold by Martha Wray (Turlington’s niece) and Hilton Wray successors of Robert Turlington, the patentee.

Accounts seem to substantiate the fact that the use of English packed medicines in America was not common before 1700.

Advertisements for Turlington’s Balsam were noted on June 7, 1750, in the pages of the Boston News-Letter and in 1766 the Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Virginia, April 4) announced the receipt of the following shipment from England: “Large and genuine assortment of Drugs and Medicines…Glauber and Epsom salts, camphire, saffron, antimony, saltpeter, borax, alomel………Florence and palm oil…Bateman’s Drops, Anderson’s pills, Stoughton’s, Turlington’s Balsam of Life….”

In Philadelphia (1768), Thomas Preston announced to his fellow citizens that he had just received a supply of Anderson’s, Hooper’s, Bateman’s, Daffy’s, Stoughton’s and Turlington’s remedies.

It appears that English medicines could be obtained and not only at apothecary shops but were handled by postmasters, printers, grocers, tailors, hair dressers, goldsmiths, cork cutters, booksellers, colonial physicians and by the post-rider between Philadelphia and Williamsburg.

Paper labels were seldom applied to the glass bottles. They were generally wrapped and sealed in one of the advertising broadsides which praised the product.

Colonial doctors had no qualms about prescribing packaged medicines. An English doctor who settled on the Virginia frontier often recommended Turlington’s Balsam as well as Bateman’s Drops and others.

On September 29, 1774, John Boyd of Baltimore in advertising a fresh supply of English drugs available in his “medicinal store” also warned his customers that perhaps these English medicines would be hard to obtain in the near future.  At the time of Boyd’s advertisement, the first Continental Congress in session was soon to declare that all imports from Great Britain should be halted.

As early as the 1750’s at least two of the patent medicines (Daffy’s and Stoughton’s Elixirs) were being made in the colonies and packaged in empty bottles shipped from England.

In the 1780’s Jonathon Waldo, a Salem, Massachusetts, apothecary shop owner noted in his account book that the imported brand of Turlington’s was “very dear” at 36 shillings a dozen while “his own” Turlington’s was selling at 15 shillings for the same quantity.

Turlington’s Balsam of life bottle with a smooth bottom, c1880 -1900, probably American made

Wholesale drug firms catalogs of the early 1800’s specified two grades of patent medicines for sale, “English” and “American,” “true” and “common,” or “genuine” and “imitation.”

In the early 1800’s, Robert Rantoul (a Beverly, Massachusetts druggist) began making and bottling Turlington’s Balsam.  Records state that he imported Turlington bottles in two sizes from London.  His formula book notes: Jany 4th, 1804, filled 54 small Turlingtons with 37 oz Balsam “and” Jany 20th, 1804, filled 144 small Turlington’s with 90 ¼ oz balsam and 9 Large Bottles with 8 ¼ oz. 

By the 1820’s, American bootlegging of English patent medicines was in full swing.  With little regard to the originator’s rights, Americans were spending days in compounding the ingredients, cleaning bottles, corking, labeling, stamping (with clever replicas of the English government stamps) and wrapping prominent British nostrums.

In London, Bow Churchyard, Cheapside, was the English center where medicinal exports to America were warehoused.  Dicey’s (William Dicey, John Cluer and Robert Raikes) had a large warehouse in this section as well as Robert Turlington, King’s Arms, No 14, Birchen Lane, near the Royal Exchange.  Turlington in 1775 was not only selling his Balsam but was also vending Daffy’s, Godfrey’s, Stoughton’s and many other medicines.

The standard cost for most English medicine bottles was about $5.50 a gross.  In the 1820s, Thomas W. Dyott of Philadelphia started making bottles and by 1830 succeeded in cutting the price of bottles to under two dollars a gross. 

The Free Will Glass Manufactory (1835) made Turlington’s Balsam, Godfrey’s Cordial and Opodeldoc bottles.

“The Glassblower’s List of Prices of Druggist’s Ware” (1848), a broadside preserved at the Smithsonian Institution, lists Turlington’s Balsam, Godfrey’s Cordial, Dalby’s and Opodeldoc bottles, among other American patent medicine bottles.

Turlington’s Balsam of Life was an important and widely popular medicine in America in the late 1700s and the 1800s.  Adventurers, explorers and traders usually carried a bottle somewhere in their gear.  History notes that Turlington accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition in 1804.

In 1952, two pear-shaped Turlingtons were excavated by a Smithsonian Institution River Basin Surveys Expedition on the site of an old trading post known as Fort Atkinson (Fort Berthold II), located about 16 miles southeast of Elbowoods, North Dakota.  The North Dakota Historical Society found a third Turlington nearby. The Hidatsa and Mandan Indians were served by this post for a 30-year period from mid-1850 to mid-1880.  These Turlingtons were of cast glass, light green and American made.

A Turlington made of English lead glass was unearthed in a grave in an Indian burying ground in 1923 near Mobridge, South Dakota.

Turlington’s Balsam remained on the American medicinal scene until about the end of the 19th century.  American pharmaceutical glass manufacturers continued to offer various English patent medicine bottles until about 1900.

Emil Hiss’ Thesarus of Proprietary Preparations and Pharmaceutical Specialties published in Chicago in 1899 termed Turlington’s, Godfrey’s and Bateman’s medicines as “extinct patents.”

In 1824 the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy committee instead of finding the formula complex (twenty-seven ingredients) described by Robert Turlington, proclaimed Turlington’s as a Compound Tincture of Benzoin, with balsam of peru, myrrh and angelica root added.

Recipes for early English patent medicines are still available.  Turlington’s Balsam remains as an official synonym of U.S.P. Compound Tincture of Benzoin.  Your dentist may use Benzoin in treating gum infections.

Today Turlington’s Balsam of Life is manufactured by the firm known as Beaton, Clark and Company, Ltd. in England.