Way ahead of his time, W.S. Ballou advertises his anti-smoking medication in 1867, called the Tobacco Disinclinator:That the use of Tobacco shortens human life from Five to Twenty years, decreases manly vigor in the same ratio, causes a majority of the sudden deaths usually attributed to heart disease, and renders the subject more acceptable and less able to withstand any disease, is the opinion of our most eminent physicians. How shall we rid ourselves of this accursed habit, and prevent the uninitiated from falling into it? We answer simply by using the DISINCLINATOR, according to the directions. Thirty years' experience qualifies me to judge something of its effects. And years of abstinence and FREEDOM FROM ALL DESIRE enables me to appreciate the difference between its use and disuse; being now perfectly healthy and vigorous, and weighing some Fifty Pounds more than when a Slave to Tobacco.
Send By Mail a Receipt of Five Dollars, Office 833 Clinton Place (8th Street), New-York.
Ballou may or may not have been a Universalist minister of the same name, although I have not found anything to link him explicitly with the Tobacco Disinclinator. There were very few Ballous in New York City at this time, and none with the correct initials who were old enough to have had thirty years' experience with the product.
I really like the name of this product, and wish I knew just what was in it - perhaps some extract of nicotine, which would have made this similar to the use of nicotine in patches and chewing gum today.
Image from the Library of Congress
[Digital ID: cph 3c02485; Source: b&w film copy neg.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-102485 (b&w film copy neg.)]
14 comments:
I, too, love that name! I've been sitting here for the past hour trying to figure out how I could use "disinclined" in my writing but it just sounds too forced.
And I am disinclined to write in a way that sounds forced.
This is amazing...he was certainly before his time!! I wonder why it didn't catch on? Perhaps the dose was too high or low...or perhaps the ingredients were horrible!!
A brilliant ad...thank you!!
And he was 50 lbs heavier after he disinclined the dreaded weed!
Love the ad, very visionary of him :)
Dr. Julie-Ann - I would try and use it too but I'm also disinclined (it's a little late in the day for me to get tricky with words!)
Cen - I guess it didn't catch on because too many people liked to smoke and Ballou was sort of a lone anti-smoking voice...I tried very hard to find out more but there was just nothing (that I found!)
Jayne - Well, I know that it does suppress the appetite so maybe that was part of it. It was such an amazing ad to see, stuck there in the LOC archives, minding its own business as it were...
This is really fascinating. He really was ahead of his time. And he had learned, just by observation over the years, facts that were denied strenuously despite medical evidence, all these years later when people refused to believe smoking could do any harm.
I like the name too. And I like his use of "inveterate." He sounds quite educated and he knew how to write a nice descriptive ad, too.
Perhaps and ancestor of Billy Mays.
The pothole was so big it had its own gift shop, David Letterman says in my background. How am I supposed to make intelligent comments?
Just another voice in the chorus of "Wow this guy was way ahead of his time!"
Phyl - He does sound very modern.
Max - I hope that he made other products or wrote books and that I can find them (that's the key right there). I like his style, too.
Your second comment was a bit of a non sequitur for me, although it may be that I just need more caffeine.
Hairball - He sure was!
Pretty amazing that this was in 1867. Yet, in the 1940's or so ads showed doctors recommending smoking.
Da Old Man - And they used to say candy was a good snack, back in the 50s, too!
It would seem that there really isn't anything new under the sun! www.satisfiedsole.com
WOW! That long ago, something anti smoking, pretty amazing isn't it.
Sandy
Pam and Sandy - It really is hard to believe, isn't it?
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