By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent. Dr. Brodum's Nervous Cordial, and Botanical Syrup
period advertisement · 1801
LINK
SUMMARY
Brodum's own royal-patent advertising pamphlet, the PRIMARY source for the product, its claims, and the explicit longevity pitch. Wellcome catalogue work hcza4zdf, production '[London]: [Walker], [1801?]'; the catalogue note reads 'Testimonials and advertisements for Brodum's patent medicines and "Guide to old age". List of suppliers on p. 8.' Rights confirmed as Public Domain Mark on the IIIF presentation b30354596 (fetched 2026-06-15). Verbatim passages copied from the digitized full text (Internet Archive b30354596): the header 'By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent. Nervous Cordial, and Botanical Syrup'; sale 'of all the Booksellers, Printers, Druggists, and Medicine Venders, in the principal Market Towns in the Three Kingdoms'; the address 'To Dr. Brodum, No. 9, Albion-street, Black-friars'; the longevity claim 'the health of thousands been preserved to extreme old age' and that the cordial 'will protect them from the infirmities of old age and a wretched dissolution'; the mechanism phrase that it gives 'vigour to the functions of life'; the indication list ('delicate, weakly, and relaxed constitutions ... loss of memory, impaired vigour, tabes dorsalis, nervous consumptions'); the youthful-excess framing ('the HABITS of SCHOOL BOYS, or the INDULGENCE of MATURE AGE', and the assurance that constitutions 'destroyed beyond redemption by those imprudent practices' could be recovered, having cured 'the most emaciated'); and the advertisement within it for 'A GUIDE TO OLD AGE; Or, a Cure for the Indiscretions of Youth', 'WITH THE DOCTOR'S PORTRAIT', 'DEDICATED TO THE King's Most Excellent Majesty', 'in German and in English, Price 3s. 6d.' The product's full name, the 'Restorative Nervous Cordial', is grounded in the pamphlet's own text: a Durham testimonial dated June 1801 describes the medicine as a 'restorative nervous cordial', and a companion royal-patent advertisement held by the Wellcome Collection is catalogued as 'By His Majesty's royal letters patent, the restorative nervous cordial and botanical syrup' (Wellcome work k9qy6efz). Cited for the products and their name, the royal letters patent, the advertised claims, the longevity pitch, the mechanism language, the national distribution, and the persona. Also the archive source for two artifact-role media entities drawn from the pamphlet's pages: brodum-broadside-advertisement-1801 (the opening royal-patent page with the supplier list and 'A List of Cures') and brodum-guide-old-age-advertisement-1801 (the page advertising the book A Guide to Old Age).
NOTES
This royal-patent advertising pamphlet is Brodum’s own voice and the primary source for the medicines and their claims. Headed “By His Majesty’s Royal Letters Patent. Nervous Cordial, and Botanical Syrup”, it lists the London houses and the booksellers, printers, druggists, and medicine venders “in the principal Market Towns in the Three Kingdoms” who carried the trade, gives Brodum’s address at No. 9 Albion Street, Blackfriars, and prints a “List of Cures” of testimonial letters. It is the source for the case’s longevity claim (“the health of thousands been preserved to extreme old age”; the cordial “will protect them from the infirmities of old age and a wretched dissolution”), the mechanism language (“vigour to the functions of life”), the indication list, the secret-vice marketing, and the advertisement for A Guide to Old Age at 3s 6d with the doctor’s portrait. The Wellcome copy carries a Public Domain Mark.