Dr. BJ Kendall's Quick Relief c. 1910

3D Model

Dr. BJ Kendall (1845-1922) was a Vermont physician and entrepreneur. In 1879 set up the B.J. Kendall Co. By the end of the 19th Century the company had a $75,000 advertising budget. Our bottle, Dr. B.J. Kendall’s Quick Relief was a topical, all-purpose pain reliever, containing 86% alcohol and 0.1% opium. It was recommended for humans and horses for neuralgia, colic, toothache, sprains, stomach and bowel pains. In the 1880s, Dr. Kendall published several books, including The Doctor at Home. Kendall recommended ten recipes containing opium and five with morphine. His recipe had 16oz of alcohol (72%), 1oz of tincture of opium, 1oz each, of oil of hemlock, turpentine, origanum, tincture of cayenne and gum camphor. In 1906 of The Pure Food and Drug Act passed Congress, which prohibited false advertising for nutritional and medical products, the company was forced to change its content and labeling but not its habit of exaggeration. The company discontinued operations in 1957. Description by Andrew Spielman.