Carter's Little Liver Pills Explained

Carter's Little Liver Pills (Carter's Little Pills after 1959) were formulated as a patent medicine by Samuel J. Carter of Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1868.[1] [2]

Ingredients

The active ingredient was changed when the product was renamed in 1959, to be the laxative bisacodyl; the original active ingredients were purported to be NaNgr of aloe and 0.062gr podophyllum resin.[3]

History

Carter's trademark was a black crow. By 1880 the business was incorporated as Carter Products. The pills were touted to cure headache, constipation, dyspepsia, and biliousness.[4] In the late 19th century, they were marketed in the UK by American businessman John Morgan Richards.[5]

Carter's Little Liver Pills predated the other available forms of bisacodyl and was a very popular and heavily advertised patent medicine up until the 1960s, spawning a common saying (with variants) in the first half of the 20th century: "He/She has more _________ than Carter has Little Liver Pills". In 1951 the Federal Trade Commission required the company to change the name to "Carter's Little Pills", since "liver" in the name was deceptive.[2]

Legacy

The senator Robert Byrd, after winning re-election in 2000, is quoted as saying, "West Virginia has always had four friends, God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, Carter's Liver Pills and Robert C. Byrd."[6]

A Carter's Little Liver Pills ad was featured in Joe Dante's 1968 collage parody film The Movie Orgy.[7]

Notes and References

  1. News: Henry Hoyt, 96, Dies; Headed Drug Company . Perhaps the company's best-known product was Carter's Little Liver Pills, which had been developed in the 1870s by Dr. Samuel J. Carter, a druggist in Erie, Pa. Mr. Hoyt changed the name to Carter's Little Pills in 1959 after the Federal Trade Commission objected to advertising claims that the pills increase the flow of bile from the liver, and the United States Supreme Court refused to intervene. . . November 7, 1990 . 2011-09-24 .
  2. News: Cut Out the Liver . https://web.archive.org/web/20071108214845/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814704,00.html#ixzz1YtSDgVtq . dead . November 8, 2007 . One of the most familiar of all trade names was booked for a major operation last week. The Federal Trade Commission told the manufacturers of Carter's Little Liver Pills to cut the word "liver" out of the product name. ... . . April 16, 1951 . 2011-09-24 .
  3. Ivy . Andrew C. . Roback . Robert A. . Stein . I.F. . Do the ingredients of Carter's little liver pills cause the gall bladder to contract, and stimulate the flow of bile by the liver? . Quarterly Bulletin of the Northwestern University Medical School . Winter 1942 . 16 . 4 . 298–301 . 3802406.
  4. Web site: Carter's Little Liver Pills . Lowcountry Digital Library . 2014-09-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140903102116/http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl%3A60447 . September 3, 2014.
  5. George Fulford and Victorian Patent Medicine Men: Quack Mercenaries or Smilesian Entrepreneurs?. Lori. Loeb. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. 16. Spring 1999. 1. 125–45. 0823-2105. University of Toronto Press. 10.3138/cbmh.16.1.125. 14531402. free.
  6. News: Robert Byrd, Longest-Serving U.S. Senator, Dies At 92. NPR News. David. Welna. June 28, 2010. 2021-12-04.
  7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7fp4v8bTEo "TFH Exclusive: A Clip from THE MOVIE ORGY"

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