History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morses Indian Root Pills | Page 7

cure-all, and Frank Cushing pried the
secret of a stomach renovator from the Zuni. (Frank, a famous
ethnologist, had gone West on a Smithsonian expedition.) Besides
these notable accretions to pharmacy, there were Modoc Oil, Seminole
Cough Balsam, Nez Perce Catarrh Snuff, and scores more, all doubtless
won for the use of white men by dint of great cunning and valor.
[Footnote 4: Young, James Harvey, _The Toadstool Millionaires, A
Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal
Regulation_. Princeton University Press. 1961.]
Judson's Mountain Herb Pills, a companion product of the Indian Root
Pills, had an even more romantic origin--so remarkable, in fact, that the
story was embodied in a full-scale paperback novel published by B.L.
Judson & Co. in 1859. According to this book, the remedy was
discovered--or at least revealed to the world--by a famous adventurer,
Dr. Cunard. Dr. Cunard's career somehow bore a remarkable similarity
to that of Dr. Morse. He was also the scion of a wealthy family who
spent much time traveling throughout the world, and in this process
becoming fluent in no less than thirty languages. Eventually he
encountered an Aztec princess about to be tortured and sacrificed by
Navajo Indians; he interrupted this ceremony only to be captured
himself, but by virtue of successfully foretelling an eclipse (happily he
had his almanac with him) he won release for himself and the princess.
Thereafter he led her back to her home, in some remote part of Mexico,
and lived among her people for a year. As a boon for having saved the
princess, he was given possession of the ancient healing formula of the
Aztecs. Upon returning home Dr. Cunard, in an experience very similar
to Dr. Morse's, found his mother on her death bed, but he effected an
instant cure by the use of the miraculous herbs he had brought with him.

The news spread, soon a wide circle of neighbors was clamoring for
this medicine, and in order that all mankind might share in these
benefits, Dr. Cunard graciously conveyed the secret to B.L. Judson &
Co.
These stories were told entirely straightforwardly, with the intention of
being believed. How widely they were actually accepted is difficult to
say. In retrospect it seems extremely curious that persons as prominent,
as successful, as wealthy as Dr. Morse and Dr. Cunard were never seen
or heard by the public, were never mentioned in the newspapers, never
ran for public office, their names never listed in any directories,
biographies or encyclopedias, and in fact they were not noticed
anywhere--except in the advertising material of Comstock & Co. and
B.L. Judson. Perhaps such credulity was not unusual in the 1850s,
before the advent of widely distributed newspapers and other means of
communication, but more than fifty years later, in the early years of the
present century, essentially the same version of the history of Dr.
Morse was still being printed in the Comstock almanacs.
*The Struggle for Control of the Indian Root Pills*
The agreement of August 10, 1855, between Andrew J. White and the
Comstocks established a partnership "for the purpose of manufacturing
and selling Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills and for no other purpose," the
partners thereof being A.J. White as an individual and Comstock &
Brother as a firm. The new partnership was named A.J. White & Co.,
but White contributed no money or property--nothing but the right to
Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. The Comstock firm supplied all of the
tangible assets, together with the use of their existing business premises.
In turn, Comstock was to receive three fourths and White one fourth of
the profits. In brief, the new firm, although bearing White's name, was
controlled by the Comstocks.
It is not clear why Moore, the originator of the pills, was not taken into
the new business or otherwise recognized in the agreement. As we have
seen, White claimed absolute ownership of Dr. Morse's Indian Root
Pills, but Moore evidently did not agree, for he continued to
manufacture and peddle his own pills, at the same time denouncing
those prepared by A.J. White & Co. under Comstock control as
forgeries. Moore had previously been in business in Buffalo, at 225
Main Street, under his own name; an announcement in the 1854

Buffalo City Directory (the _Commercial Advertiser_) describes his
firm as successor both to C.C. Bristol and to Moore, Liebetrut & Co.
The same directory shows White as merely a clerk at Moore's place of
business, although he was made a partner sometime during 1854.
Cyrenius C. Bristol, whose business Moore took over, had entered the
drug trade in 1832, initially in partnership with a Dr. G.E. Hayes. In the
drug field his best known preparation was Bristol's renowned
sarsaparilla, and he is credited with having originated the
patent-medicine almanac, along