Wingate's "Sprucine" etc.
"The most reliable preparation yet introduced to the public..."
Ad in The Maritime Farmer and Co-operative Dairyman, Volume 13
Publisher R.D. Robinson Pub. Feb. 11 1908, p.203
Title A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century: To Be Taken Three Times a Day
Authors John Crellin, Dennis B Worthen
Edition illustrated, reprint
Publisher CRC Press, 2004
ISBN 0789018454, 9780789018458
Length 340 pages, p.70
"Almanacs" were popular vehicles for drug companies to present their potions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The information below was taken from p. 34 Wingate's 1903 Almanac as archived at Archive.org
In the absence of scientific data, consumers had to rely on word of mouth. Until 1906 drug companies were not required to list proportions of their ingredients--or even any ingredients at all! The only thing customers had to go on were "testimonials." Here are two for Sprucine from the same page as above:
