Fortunes from Patent Medicines

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 46, 14 November 1907, Page 24

Fortunes from Patent Medicines

The attempt which is being na.de in New Zealand to compel the propraetors of patent medicines' to specify ttier constituents of such articles, reminds us that enormous fortunes have _ been made by the makers of such medicines as have ' caught on ' wi-th the public. The icey-note of success has, in' many instances, been advertising, constant and persistent advertising. An English exchange writing of the fortunes made by the proprietors of patent medicines and other specifics, recalls the generosity of the late Mr. Hollo way. It says :— Those two great pil&s of buildings at Virginia Water and jigham known as the Holloway Sanatorium andthe uoyal Holloway College, bear testimony not only to the huge fortune he made, but to the large-hearted chantry of the late Mr. Thomas Holloway, the proprietor of the famous .' Holloway' s Pills /awd Ointment.' SpJS 7p7 p Wh *n M \ ?o llowa y m^e out of his famous medicines will probbMy never be -known. At his death in 1883, his personal estate (that is, exclusive of real estate) was returned for probate at £596,355, and out of that he left £200,000 to the funds of the Royal Hoi' loway College at Egham, which only two years previously he had built, furnished, and partly endowed at a cost of over £800,000. In adciitioS to this he had ?^ ejl fnr V^ £250 > 000 to fou *d toe Holloway Sanat6rium, and foi many years before his death he had been most £2 ln^ f chaiatablß gifts. It is estimated that the I, r?L m « c ,, b y k lm£or public ob J ects at his death and during the last few years of his life amounted to not «?fl+ 1h ? n .. £ 2, 000 .o°o_sterlingr-and all made Irom the^ piolits of his famous -tnedicine.

1,-vr, f p + m + ap Pf- ar io prove *y far the m ost lucrabin L P £ S medl^nes, some very large fortunes have r" n e ff fo^f 0^ other specifics. For instance, Mr. tl ff, of Newcastle, who, before discovering his Consumption Cure,' ,was working as a" shoemaker in that city, died only two years aeo and lefV "crt bv S Mr" 11 w\? > 8^ \ Six ' fi^ fortunfAs also ortetor 7 if Yy T °^ 9 w^"dge, of Hull, the protootrpsi fflt^^sior-a rthß' Areca .Nut Tooth Paste, 1 • Mr. Robert Dyer Cornmans a chemist of Bath, who died at tlio age of eightytwo left, as the result o£ his proprietary rights' in that article a fortune returned: for profiate .at ; £119 777 Patent foods wouM seem to be scarcely less profitable T?Ji # 6i6 i r the Pr o -bate Registry returns, for Mr. fS '1611I 611 h^ 6^ 01 .' ?? c Of the P r PPrietors of « Benger's £4%^ a ll a + at th fx age Of Bfc rt*-I*ree years, left £427 507. A fortune of £114,218 was left by Mr Jn. < a M 1 r a ? % USt^ c Mellin ' oAe of the Proprietors of Mellin's Food,' who died at the age of seventy-two

Another example of ' the great oaks that from little acorns _ grow ' is furnished by the fortune of £664 431 which was the value of the personal estate-exclusive o? real properfy-left at his death by Mr. James Dyson Perrms, of the firm, of Messrs. Lea "and Perrins of Worcester, ;Ehe proprietors nf the famous Worcestershire bauce. It is_understood that this sauce was first made from a recipe for a kind of Indian curry, which recine was bought for half a guinea from the coot of a Wor cestcrslure coloneL- on his return home after a sojourn in Tndia A notice to this effect-but omitting any mention of the price -Supposed- to have been paid for the recipe-appears on the label of each bottle. Mr Wil ham Lmsday Stewart, of Birlingham House, Pershore frit £T20 P Su0 ncr mthefirm ' bodied -last February,

• A fortune of £259,740 was left by Mr. George Bor> wick, of Torquay and of Walthamstow, the Brourietor of •.Berwick's" Baking Powder,' who died'in JaSS2S 1880 -We Know that the older makers of blacking^an'd boot polishes made some large fortunes from theirproducts *? .m?. m ?, st 1 . o n ! M . t i u>ir businesses have been formed into limited liability companies' of large capital Another ■ polish", unheard of a few years age—the < ■ rWeet » SSlf Si -has in a very short time M fde some handsome °fo£ tunes for its lucky proprietors, for MrTPfeSe Pa ?l Kitte one of the crack oarsmen of his day, who was largely interested in this polish, left at his death at valued for probate at £rD0,373. y fortune

Dr. O'Brien has commenced the practice of his mL fcssion at 40" Papanui Road, Christchurch... P