Holloway's Pills, in More Secret Remedies: What They Cost and What They Contain
book · 1912
LINK
SUMMARY
The British Medical Association's second series of independent chemical and microscopical analyses of proprietary medicines. The 'Holloway's Pills' entry (pp. 96-97) records that the pills were supplied by Thomas Holloway, London; that a box priced 1s. 1.5d. was found to contain 49 pills; that the advertisement stated they 'have positively no equal for thoroughly cleansing the system and putting the liver and kidneys in functional order, without pain or griping'; and that a wrapper pamphlet, 'A Key to Health', set out the 'Hollowayian System of Medicine' and prescribed the pills and ointment for a long list of complaints including gout, rheumatism, sciatica, paralysis, liver complaints, asthma, bronchitis, bad legs, ulcers, tumours, piles, fistulas, dropsies, jaundice, impotency, venereal diseases, erysipelas, scrofula and diarrhoea. On analysis the pills had an average weight of 1.4 grain and showed the presence of aloes (Barbados), or a preparation of aloes, powdered ginger, and soap, with no evidence of mercury or calomel. Ingredient text and the advertisement/pamphlet quotations were copied from the archive.org full text of the 1912 volume; page numbers 96-97 confirmed from the volume's index ('Holloway's Pills ii. 96, 97').
NOTES
The British Medical Association’s More Secret Remedies (1912), the second series of its independent analyses of secret proprietary medicines, is the composition and advertising source for this bundle. Its ‘Holloway’s Pills’ entry (pp. 96-97) reproduces the marketed claims (‘the Hollowayian System of Medicine’, the pills and ointment prescribed for some forty named complaints) and then reports the laboratory finding: aloes, powdered ginger and soap, with no mercury or calomel present. Cited for the chemical analysis and the reproduced advertising text, not as a clinical trial of efficacy or as the bundle’s direct assessment of the marketed effects.