Dr Miles Restorative Nervine

[robertk]

Bottle Vitals​

	Date	Color	Shape	Size (Height x Width x Depth)	Value*
Dr Miles Restorative Nervine	1890s	Aqua	Rectangular	8.25" x 2.75" x 1.5"	$15.00

Bottle Views (click to enlarge):

Front	Back	Side	Side	Bottom
Dr Miles Restorative Nervine

Dr Miles began selling his "Restorative Nervine" in Elkhart Indiana in the early 1880s. In 1884 he formed the Miles Medical Company to further distribute this tonic. His restorative nervine was advertised as a general cure-all for a variety of maladies, including nervous exhaustion, headaches, insomnia, backaches, epilepsy, tobacco overuse issues, sexual weakness, and miscellaneous pains and spasms. It probably actually worked, since it was a bromide sedative, similar to modern day tranquilizers. It was supposedly free of "dangerous" drugs and could be taken by anyone at any time, and for just about any reason.

Dr Miles advertised heavily, with an annual advertising budget over $100,000 in the 1890s. This was not only print and newspaper advertisements, but their own printed calendars, almanacs, and other promotional materials. Here are a couple of examples.

He even managed to get it into the Worlds Fair and ran full page ads about that fact. It's huge, so click to enlarge if you're curious.



Sales of Dr Miles' remedies were brisk, and competition was fierce. In the early 1900s, Miles Medical Company sued several competitors for trademark and contract pricing violations. One of those cases went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1911, where it was held that the contract pricing was illegal price fixing (though the court also gave them a way to do it by using consignment through their dealer network, rather than selling to wholesalers). They reformed their contracts and went on to even greater success.

Dr Miles Restorative Nervine was still sold into the middle of the 1900s. By that time, Miles Medical Company had been renamed to Miles Laboratories. Public opinions and temperament were changing, and engineers at the companies wanted a way to put the nervine into an effervescent pill. But after some experimentation, it was decided rather than the bromide sedative, to use a bicarbonate of soda concoction. The result was the effervescent tablets we know today as Alka-Seltzer. Miles Laboratories was acquired by Bayer in 1979, in what was at the time the largest buyout of an American medical company by a foreign investor.

Here is the before and after for this particular bottle. Just soap and water and brushes to clean this one.



*Value based on average sold eBay listings (price plus shipping) as of the date of posting, and varies with condition.

 

[Limitool]

Another great write-up Robert. Looks like it cleaned up pretty good also. Elkhart is just about 20-25 miles south of where I found all those bottles. But great write-up guy as usual.

 

[robertk]

Thanks. I thought it would be a hard one but it turned out to be easy. Lots of info out there on this company, probably because of the court case and the Alka-Seltzer. It helps to stay in business for a century. Trivia: Apparently Alka-Seltzer is the number one remedy for hangovers. Not sure who decided this.