With all the medicines, remedies, and supplements available to cure what ails ya, the name Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats Essence stands out as being particularly benign and natural. What could be more wholesome for your body than oats? And Scotch oats, to be exact! This patent medicine, introduced in 1886, promised to relieve the pain of "sciatica, headaches, neurasthenia, hysteria, ovarian neuralgia, epilepsy" and even alcoholism and drug addiction. That's a pretty broad range for any medicine. It was quite popular for a short time.
But in 1888, a pharmaceutical magazine published an analysis of Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats Essence that revealed its active ingredients were alcohol and morphine. Alcoholics and drug addicts who took it appeared to get better, because they didn't have to seek out other sources of drugs! Further research revealed that there was no such person as Dr. Buckland. Read the story of Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats Essence and the medical practitioner who was really behind it at The Quack Doctor. -via Strange Company
(Image source: Boston Public Library)