Ghost Pills! October 6, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
How do you get rid of supernatural worries: call the priest, the alienist or the local bobby? Why no, you buy a tube of nineteenth-century vitamin pill, of course! This at least was the solution offered by one Irish newspaper in 1840.
The belief in supernatural appearances has generally prevailed during the superstitious ages has been gradually giving way before the light of science, and what formerly would have been chronicled as a fearful ghost would now be considered symptom of a diseased imagination proceeding from a morbid state of the nerves that this arises from neglecting to keep the stomach relieved by mild aperients [gentle laxative (had to look this up)], has been frequently demonstrated by the first medical authorities. As some cases of phantasia have been attended with fatal termination our readers cannot do better than, acting on the adage that ‘prevention is better than cure’ take Frampton’s Pill of Health, which has been found most salutary and certain in all cases of consumption. Wex Conser 26 Aug 1840, 3
To be clear, whoever wrote this brief advert, believed that there was a market for men and women who were in the habit of seeing ghosts and who felt that a change in digestion might banish the same. Can anyone report other similar marketing campaigns from the nineteenth century: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com. As to laxatives stopping visions of goblins and ghouls is this just an 1800s version of the idea that cheese gives you bad dreams? Maybe.
A few words, meanwhile, on Frampton’s Pill of Life. These pills were advertised in the British and Irish press and out in the Dominions from about 1835-1880, so they were kicking around for a generation at the very least. Their advertising campaigns were sometimes rather desperate. Here is, for example, a link to Greek philosophy of the life pills: Beach is often shocked at how poor Victorian adverts were; perhaps there is something to be said for ad agencies after all. The supernatural adverts for the pills seems to have been, meanwhile, relatively rare: in fact there is the suspicion that they were limited to Ireland, which makes this advert not just an ineffective attempt at selling sugar drops, but also a rude British reflection on ‘the sister island’. The lack of follow-ups in the later 1840s suggests that Frampton’s sales did not spike dramatically in Wexford after the above paragraph appeared in a local paper…
11 Oct 2015: Lisa writes: Your post about Ghost Pills reminded me of this clipping from the “Bedfordshire Times,” February 10, 1911. It seems that the notion that ghosts were merely the end result of a bad dinner was fairly common in those times!
Chris from Haunted Ohio Books adds: As for adverts for “ghost pills” and such, they are annoyingly popular in the US papers. Although I can’t cite the worst offenders, they are highly disruptive when doing keyword searches for paranormal or lurid subjects. I’ve been fooled several times by reading the opening paragraph of the damned things, which suddenly shift from a haunted house story to talk of digestive troubles.
I don’t see your Wexford ad as actually suggesting that ghosts are caused by constipation, just using it as a hook on which to hang the useful question of diseased nerves. And the specific was also touted as curing consumption. Attached is an example of a Paine ad from May 19, 1890, Paper: Bay City Times (Bay City, Michigan), Page: 6
Here’s another example of a ghost ad, January 27, 1897, Paper: San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California), Page: 6
Lehmansterms writes: I’m surprised you didn’t draw any lines of parallel thought to Dickens, writing for his popular audience at approximately the same time.
Scrooge at first vainly attempts to ignore the ghostly apparition of the long since departed Marley as being the result of indigestion rather than any actual haunting.
“What evidence would you have of my reality, beyond that of your senses?” “I don’t know,” said Scrooge. “Why do you doubt your senses?””Because,” said Scrooge,”a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
There seems to be a suggestion shared by this passage and the advertising article you presented that there was at that time a general belief that digestive problems were at the root of many phenomena, formerly attributed to the supernatural, and formerly believed to be ghostly. I never really gave this any consideration before – but it seems possible that it is the effect of some popular belief (a “new age” superstition, even) and beyond mere coincidence.
5 Aug 2016: Southern Man with some fine contributions,
