Tutt's Pills (press plate)

Icewing

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Jan 5, 2016
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NW Arkanslaw
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I found this unique printing press plate today and thought I'd share it with all of you.
I haven't found a lot of info but from what I can tell they went into business in about 1855.

It's nearly impossible to read but It's an advertisement for Dr Tutt's Liver Pills, for Torpid Liver.

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Upvote 21
That's cool!!!. I found a feedsack full of plates in SWMO from the early Joplin Globe (years ago under the floorboards of a Mill). It had the construction of the Conner Hotel, Lakeside on Center Creek...etc. Sadly the owner claimed them and they have never been seen again...
 

Good stuff post a pic if you do a ink stamp from it
 

Awesome relic recovery, congrats! :occasion14:
 

Hope someone comes along and finds a newspaper with it in it. I think old printing plates are so cool
 

I was unable to find an exact match but this one ran in several papers in the early 1900’s. Some of the Tutts ads were as far back as 1872. Several of the ads also claimed the liver pills would fight constipation. It seems amusing if you can imagine that after finding that his pills were giving people the “runs” he just went with the “flow” and made loose bowels a selling point!

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I had to look it up, I could use some of these wonder pills for my torpid brain?

tor·pid
/ˈtôrpəd/Submit
adjective
mentally or physically inactive; lethargic.
 

From 1895: “The Fly-wheel of life” ??? Wow, now that’s some kind of testimony!

A25930BE-826E-430B-B9A8-5C67AB93A9D1.jpeg
 

In 1915 the US Attorney brought action against the false claims of Tutt’s Pills. The three defendants, two brothers and a woman, were found guilty and each fined $10.00 from the court filings here are the ingredients of Tutt’s Pills:

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Mercurial Chloride was undoubtably the most active ingredient. It was a favored medicine in the 1800’s and know mostly as a purgerative- it made people barf and crap! If you ever delve into the history of the Mormon Battalion, you will become familiar with “Dr. Death” as the Mormons called him. Every morning he would line up the sick and ailing and administer a huge dose of crap and puke medicine via an old rusty iron spoon!

Even Lewis and Clark brought along some mercurial chloride during their famous journey, crapping and barfing their merry way through the heart of America:

“Lewis and Clark brought along the wonder drug of the day, mercury chloride (otherwise known as calomel), as a pill, a tincture, and an ointment. Modern researchers used that same mercury, found deep in latrine pits, to retrace the locations of their respective locations and campsites.”
 

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Hi, nice find. Congrats:icon_thumright:
 

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