Dr. H. JAMES CANNABIS ELIXIR:

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Dr. H. JAMES CANNABIS ELIXIR:
The following was taken from the Chicago Daily Tribune [May 19, 1858 ppO_2]:

The Retired Physician whose Sands of Life have Nearly Run Out" . . .
"The Retired Physician; His Adventures--His Aliases--His Swindles--his Profits."

"About two years and a half ago a comparatively young journeyman printer, born in Vermont, but reared and instructed principally in Connecticut, having failed in various newspaper enterprises (among them the Empire city, the golden [De???] and the Cheerful visitor, which was anything but a cheerful visitor to many of the subscribers, who paid their money but did not get their paper;) conceived the brilliant idea of going into a new style of business. He selected the patent medicine trade, as that offering the greatest inducements, and employed a literary man connected with the Sunday press to write him a scheme. The scheme was written. It was that of the "Retired Physician, whose sands of life have nearly run out." The basis of this medical scheme was Cannabis Indica, or, in other words, East Indian Hemp, a powerful drug, which can only be procured in small quantities, and then merely at intervals, and at great expense. A skillful story, which our readers have often perused, was contrived to make the medicine "go down." There is no old or young Dr. H. James who was in the East, or even the West Indies; there is no Cannabis Indica in the medicine sold, it being merely a compound of cough simples, (liquorice, slippery elm decoction, and honey prominent, costing, the bottle included, sixteen cents. The real Dr. H. James is the printer afore-said--Oliver P. Brown. He hires an old man Euided Kuyper to represent to represent Dr. H. James, and pays him a mere stipend for the personation. . . . . "
If one were to take the above at face value [and this author for one has learned to be skeptical of all things], Dr. James Cannabis Indica Elixir contained, "NO CANNABIS." -- Hummmm!!! ----[a quack medicine if ever there was one]

However, whether it did or did not is irrelevant ---- One need only look at their various advertising claims to know that something is wrong. Just those that run in the Saturday Evening Post [see pictures] claim it to be a cure for:

Consumption, Asthma, Bronchitis, Coughs, Colds, and General Debility, Night Sweats, irritation of the Nerves, Difficult expectoration, sharp Pains of the Lungs, Nausea at the Stomach, Inaction of the bowels, the wasting of the Muscles. That someone gained 15 Pounds in three weeks, and that it was a Cured for Consumption. [While true cannabis can be used to treat some of the above, still consumption, night sweats?? Again, I for one have learned to be skeptical of many things]






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