"P" is for Patent Medicines. Like other English colonies, South Carolina dosed itself primarily with remedies from Great Britain, but there were some home-manufactured remedies. One, produced in Charleston, promised to cure everything from the flux and fevers to worms. After the Revolution the number of American-made nostrums increased, but most of them were produced in the North. Among the locally manufactured patent medicines were Pellagricide and Ez-X-Ba, manufactured in Spartanburg and promoted as a cure for pellagra. William F. Edwards, an African-American from Orangeburg, concocted Dy-O-Fe, which was marketed as a virtual panacea for black Carolinians. Among the most famous patent medicines produced in the state was developed by Dr. G.A. Neuffer of Abbeville during World War I. Dr. Neuffer's Lung Tonic [which promised to combat influenza and prevent consumption] flourished until banned by the Food and Drug Administration in 1975.
"P" is for Patent Medicines
