We here at the Bellamy Mansion Museum recently acquired a great bit of Bellamy history: medication bottles from Robert Bellamy’s pharmacy.
 Bellamy and Son Drug Company |  Robert R. Bellamy |
The bottles, branded with the Bellamy name, are from Robert Bellamy’s Bellamy and Son Drug Company here in town. The business, began in 1885, was located at the corner of Front and Market Street, and operated until its sale by Robert’s grandson sometime after 1950.
While some of the bottles are missing their labels, a few remain which provide insight into some of the popular medicines of the time: quinine, cathartic pills, Godfrey’s Cordial, and white pine compound syrup.
While some of the bottles are missing their labels, a few remain which provide insight into some of the popular medicines of the time: quinine, cathartic pills, Godfrey’s Cordial, and white pine compound syrup.
The quinine (pictured right) is a powdery substance that was used as an anti-malarial medication. Mixed into food or drinks, it has a bitter taste and was (and still is!) used widely to give tonic water its signature flavor. Quinine is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, a flowering plant native to South America. At one point during the 1800s, demand for quinine became so great that prices soared to an at-the-time preposterous $6.63 an ounce.
The cathartic pills (pictured left) were essentially laxatives. These pills were used to “cure” stomach ailments by simply flushing out the digestive system. One advertisement for Ayer’s Cathartic Pills states they were a “remedy for costiveness, jaundice, indigestion, headache, dizziness, transient attacks of numbness, biliousness, and all other diseases resulting from a disordered digestive apparatus.” Coated with sugar to make the taste more pleasant, these pills contained ingredients such as extracts of colocynth and jalap and pulverized gamboge – all plants with natural purgative properties – and chloride of mercury, more commonly known as calomel.
The Godfrey’s Cordial (pictured right) label tells us each fluid ounce of this cordial contains 1.3-5 grams of opium and 5.5% alcohol. Also known as “Mother’s Friend,” Godfrey’s Cordial could be given to children as young as one week old, and had a sedative effect that made it a medication of choice for mothers and nurses dealing with fretful, fussy babies. This narcotic was freely prescribed and very commonly used to manage a wide variety of ailments in children without a lot of regulation. As a result, Godfrey’s Cordial and similar medicines have been linked to a high infant mortality rate in the 19th century.
Lastly, the mentholated white pine compound syrup (pictured left) was the 19th century equivalent to modern day cough syrup. There seems to have been a number of companies making this medication at the time, but the bottle we have says this mixture was prepared specifically for Robert Bellamy. Containing ingredients like chloroform, alcohol, three kinds of tree bark, and of course, pine tar, this medicine was an expectorant used to soothe “coughs, colds, bronchitis, sore and inflamed throat[s], hoarseness, and loss of voice,” and had the added perk of a mild sedative effect upon consumption.
These are just four examples of the many interesting drugs Robert sold in his pharmacy; just like today, there were a variety of medicines available for nearly any conceivable ailment – though whether or not they were all safe for human consumption is another question. In any case, Robert “[devoted] his closest and constant personal attention to the details of his enterprise” and was regarded as one of the most prominent and successful physicians in Wilmington during his working years.
Researched and written by Bellamy intern and UNCW Professional Writing/Philosophy major Chantai Thomas.
Researched and written by Bellamy intern and UNCW Professional Writing/Philosophy major Chantai Thomas.
