"Glad Tidings of Good Things" -- Advertising Patent Medicine for Venereal Diseases, Impotency, and More
New York, New York: Civiale Remedial Agency, c.1880. A booklet advertising quack/dubious remedies for "Sexual and Urinary Diseases" sold by the patent medicine manufacturer Civiale Remedial Agency in the 1880s. True to the times, it begins with a sensational lament of promiscuity in the country's youths and its effects on their health: "How little the youth who, in ignorance of the terrible consequences of his vice, steals away to the secrecy of his chamber or his bed ... that he may let the hot waves of lust and passion run riot in his mind, and dry up every spring of healthy thought and action ... how little does he think that the vile demon he is raising up will, like a vampire, suck his very life-blood ... unsex and unnerve him, render him feeble, wavering and imbecile, dog his footsteps to the very steps of the altar, to curse and blacken and disappoint those joys of parentage and marital right should be his ... until the poor victim, driven too far, sinks into an early grave by disease or suicide, or is lost to the world and to all joys and friends behind the doors of an insane asylum" (p. 1). Interesting to note the vampire metaphor as an indicator for how strong Victorian anxiety over sex and sexual health was at this time (Dracula would be published soon after in 1897, for context). The booklet goes on to blame venereal disease, impotency, sterility, madness, and female diseases to any kind of "sexual excess" -- i.e., masturbation, promiscuity, or sex outside marriage. Advertises the company's "Urethral Crayon" cure, tonic and lotion, and an apparatus that attaches to male genitalia to treat varicoceles. A fascinating look into how patent medicine companies preyed on desperate patients in the 1880s (much like a vampire). Single vol. (6.75" by 5"), pp. 32, with in-text line drawn illus., in original illus. wrps with image of heralding angel on front. Very good. Toned, modern tape repair to upper wrapper.
Price: $200.00
Item #25001923