The Vancouver World vs Baby Killers: Patent Medicine in BC
The Tragic Case of Baby Duncan in Victoria, BC
[By Lani Russwurm]
Baby Duncan of Victoria BC was sixteen days old when his parents gave him three drops of Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy for colic in the early hours of December 10th, 1905. By eleven that night, he was dead.
Dr Fraser told the coroner’s inquest that the Duncan baby was perfectly healthy when he delivered him. But on December 10th, Fraser arrived at the Duncan home to find the infant showing signs of an opium overdose and performed artificial respiration to revive him. After the doctor left, the baby’s condition deteriorated, and he died.
Victoria Daily Colonist headline, December 13, 1905.
The Dangers of Patent Medicines
“Children are much more susceptible to opium poisoning than any other poison,” Fraser said, “so much so that a medical man rarely if ever gives opium to a child under one year of age.”
William Duncan, the baby’s father, told the jury that he “did not know there was opium in the medicine. Had I known there was, I would not have used it.”
Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy bottle.
Coroner Dr EC Hart told the jury that Chamberlain’s Remedy was “what is known as a patent medicine, and we do not know what other things it contains.” Patent medicines were over-the-counter remedies whose makers made lofty and dubious claims about the healing power of their secret formulas.
These “quack medicines,” Hart explained, “are made in an uncertain and irregular style, and it is quite possible the bottle of medicine Mr Duncan had contained more opium than ordinary. On the other hand, it may be that the medicine is also standardized so that each bottle holds the same. At any rate … it seems to have been fatal to the child.”
Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy ad, Province, September 16, 1909.
Aftermath and Public Outcry
The jury returned a verdict that that the baby died from the opium contained in Chamberlain’s Remedy. Because the parents were unaware that they gave their baby opium, it was ruled a death by misadventure.
In reporting the case, the Daily World newspaper highlighted how extremely profitable patent medicines were and that there were “hundreds of trashy and harmful patent nostrums on the market.” The paper argued that forcing manufacturers to list ingredients on the label was one way to rid the market of worthless medicines. More importantly, it would take government regulation to “prevent the manufacture of harmful nostrums altogether. The law regulates the sale of poisons. Why does it not take patent medicines in hand?”
A wall of patent medicines and health products in the Health Department at Woodward’s Department Store, ca. 1910. City of Vancouver Archives #809-15.
Chamberlain’s Response and Legal Battles
Responding to the bad publicity of the coroner’s inquest, the Chamberlain Medicine Company published an open letter “to the people of Canada” in newspapers across western Canada. Chamberlain disputed the inquest’s findings, and re-interpreted testimonies reported in the Victoria Daily Colonist to conclude that the cause of death could not have been from Chamberlain’s Remedy.
Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy ad, Province, June 29, 1905.
In response to Chamberlain’s open letter, the World published an editorial entitled “A Quack Medicine” noting that Chamberlain didn’t deny that opium was indeed an ingredient in its Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy. The paper proudly refused to print Chamberlain’s letter and the accompanying advertisement. “The World is reaching out for business,” they wrote, “but not the skull and crossbones business that follows in the train of a Chamberlain Medicine advertisement.”
Headline reporting Chamberlain’s lawsuit against the World newspaper. World, January 22, 1906.
Legislative Efforts Against Patent Medicines
Chamberlain fired back with a lawsuit claiming it had been libelled by the World’s editorial. The paper characterized the suit as “a dire conflict between the forces of quackery and quillery,” and gleefully doubled down on its criticism.
LD Taylor ca. 1915. City of Vancouver Archives #Port P1765.2.
LD Taylor had recently taken the reigns of the Daily World after working for several years at the rival Province newspaper. Taylor would go on to build the landmark World Building (now called the Sun Tower) and would be elected mayor of Vancouver more times than anyone before or since. But back in 1905, the death of the Duncan baby was an opportunity for a campaign that could raise the profile of his paper. Coincidentally, Chamberlain advertised in the Province, but not in Taylor’s paper.
Banner illustration for Collier’s Weekly series exposing the patent medicine industry, October 7, 1905.
Taylor and the World were tapping into a movement led by several American publications, notably the Ladies’ Home Journal and Collier’s Weekly, that were successfully campaigning against unregulated patent medicines in the States. Media exposés helped pave the way for the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 in that country, which required patent medicine makers to list ingredients on the label.
The World newspaper announces its battle with the Chamberlain Medical Company over its patent medicine, January 23, 1906.
Public Health Concerns and Regulation
Besides Chamberlain’s, several other remedies containing narcotics were gaining a reputation as “baby killers.” Probably the most successful and infamous was Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, a concoction of alcohol and morphine marketed as a treatment for teething babies and diarrhea. A few weeks after the Duncan baby’s death, a mother in Fernie BC accidentally killed her twelve-day-old baby by treating it with Mrs Winslow’s.
Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup bottle, probably the most successful of the “baby killer” patent medicines. The nickname came from reports of overdose deaths due to its morphine and alcohol content.
In the aftermath of the Duncan baby’s demise, BC’s Attorney General directed provincial health officer Dr CJ Fagen “to investigate the conditions attaching to the sale of all proprietary remedies containing poisons, with a view to the introduction, if necessary, of legislation safeguarding the public in their use.”
Dr CJ Fagan, BC’s public health officer at the time of the Duncan baby’s death. BC Archives #A-02133.
Fagan had been raising alarm bells about patent medicines since at least 1904 when he spoke to a meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in Vancouver. He noted that the narcotic drugs often found in quack medicines could indeed be effective, but were dangerous if not used correctly:
“Cocaine and opium are freely used [in patent medicines], and no doubt their use gives a favorable first impression,” Fagan told the meeting. “The question as to when, how, and how much is to be given in each individual case is often a perplexing one even to the medical attendant. All practitioners are aware that these medicines, and others too, which relieve present symptoms are actively injurious and may lead to serious consequences.”
Advertising card for Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, 1880s.
Legislative Changes and the Future of Patent Medicines in Canada
Dr Fagan’s efforts culminated in a bill being drafted for the BC Legislature to consider. The World published the draft on its front page and collected names on a petition to pressure lawmakers in Victoria to pass it.
Death of a baby from an overdose on Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup in Fernie, BC. World, February 1, 1906.
Pharmacists and physicians consulted with the government and their concerns with the bill were addressed through amendments. However, lobbying by the Proprietary Articles Trade Association of Canada (PATA) effectively killed the bill. Richard McBride’s Conservative government was sensitive to PATA’s critique that the bill would undermine free enterprise by giving physicians and pharmacists exclusive rights to produce and sell patent medicines while unfairly barring private businessmen from doing the same. Labelling requirements, moreover, would render their intellectual property – their secret formulas – worthless and destroy the industry. The anti-patent medicine bill was shelved after one reading in the legislature.
“Death’s Laboratory” illustration from Collier’s Weekly, June 3, 1905. Collier’s campaign against unregulated patent medicine was very influential in the move to regulate the industry.
The World took the the failure of the bill personally, claiming that it was due to the government’s hatred of the World, and that the “lobby of the patent medicine fraudists” was “all-powerful.” Meanwhile, other provinces were similarly trying and failing to enact regulations on the patent medicine industry.
Anonymous letter from “A Mother” to the World claiming her baby died from a soothing syrup. World, January 29, 1906.
Chamberlain dropped its lawsuit against the World at the end of March 1906. Two years later, the federal government passed the Proprietary or Patent Medicine Act of 1908. The act outlawed cocaine in over-the-counter drugs outright, banned excessive amounts of alcohol, and opiates and other narcotic drugs or poisons had to be either clearly listed on the label or specifically approved by the government on a case-by-case basis. Stricter legislation followed in subsequent years, but the 1908 act was the beginning of the end for unregulated and often deadly patent medicines in Canada.
