Saturday, February 13, 2016

Dyspepsia's Pangs

Bottles of Hostetter's Bitters were discovered in a recent excavation on the Bowery. Apparently they tend to find lots of these bottles when excavating around the locations of 19th Century saloons. It was 47% alcohol, (94 proof) and contained coriander and anise oils, vegetable bitters and lots of sugar. Looks like the stuff was marketed for about 100 years starting in the early 1850s. Below the bottle is the brilliant and gloomy text of an old ad for it.










Hostetter's Bitters
Dyspepsia's pangs, that rack and grind
The body, and depress the mind;
Slow constitutional decay,
That brings death nearer, day by day;
Nervous prostration, mental gloom,
Agues, that, as they go and come,
Make life a constant martyrdom;
Colics and dysenteric pains,
'Neath which the strong man's vigor wanes;
Bilious complaints, -- those tedious ills,
Ne'er conquered yet by drastic pills;
Dread Diarrhea, that cannot be
Cured by destructive Mercury;
Heralds of madness or the tomb;
For these, though Mineral nostrums fail,
Means of relief at last we hail,
HOSTETTER'S BITTERS medicine sure,
Not to prevent, alone, but cure.