Blue Mass

Late in the summer of 1850, there was sickness around Hobart, and people were coming to our shopkeeper (probably George Earle himself) for cures. He sold them quinine, an effective cure for malaria, discovered in the 17th century and still used today. He sold them boxes of nameless pills and bottles of nameless medicine. He also sold them the now-notorious "blue mass" pills.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The active ingredient of "blue mass" was mercury. People who took the pills developed mercury poisoning, which causes a number of unpleasant symptoms and may result in death. We don't know what John Phelps was intending to treat with the blue mass he bought, since it was prescribed for a range of medical problems, including syphilis, tuberculosis, constipation, toothache, parasitic infestations, and the pains of childbirth (according to Wikipedia). It actually cured nothing.

In researching blue mass, I learned that historical evidence seems to indicate that Abraham Lincoln took such pills and suffered neurological symptoms as a result; but he eventually recognized that the pills were causing problems and stopped taking them. You can download an interesting article about Lincoln and his blue pills here.

Finally, I am curious about that purchase by J.B. Albee on September 4: "1 bottle of pain extractor." This is the first I've ever heard of the term "pain extractor." Looking around on the internet, I find numerous advertisements dating to the latter half of the 19th century for Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor, but no information about what its ingredients might have been.