n the regular list, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688
brought an end to such an exercise of royal power without consent of
Parliament. A list of patents in the medical field later published by
the Commissioners of Patents[4] includes only six issued during the
17th century, four for baths and devices, one for an improved method of
preparing alum, and one for making epsom salts. The first patent for a
compound medicine was granted in 1711, and only two other proprietors
preceded Benjamin Okell in seeking this particular legal form of
protection and promotion.

As early as 1721, Bateman's Pectoral Drops were being regularly
advertised in the _London Mercury_. The advertisements announced: "Dr.
Bateman's Pectoral DROPS published at the Request of several Persons of
Distinction from both Universities...." The Drops, priced at "1 s. a
Bottle," were "Sold Wholesale and Retail at the Printing-house and
Picture Warehouse in Bow Churchyard," and likewise "in most Cities and
celebrated Towns in Great Britain." "Each Bottle Seal'd with the Boar's
Head." So stated the advertisement, which itself contained a crude cut
of this Boar's Head seal.[5] Elsewhere in this issue of the _Mercury_,
we learn that John Cluer, printer, was the proprietor of the Bow
Churchyard Warehouse. This same John Cluer, along with William Dicey
and Robert Raikes, were named in the 1726 patent as "the Persons
concerned with the said Inventor," Benjamin Okell, who, with him,
should "enjoy the sole Benefit of the said Medicine." It was this
partnership which was to find the field of nostrum promotion especially
congenial and which was to play an important transatlantic role. Soon
after securing their patent, the proprietors undertook to inform their
countrymen about the remedy by issuing _A short treatise of the virtues
of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops_.[6]

[4] British Patent Office, _Patents for inventions: abridgements
of specifications relating to medicine, surgery, and dentistry,
1620-1866_, London, 1872.

[5] _London Mercury_, London, August 19-26, 1721.

[6] _A short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral
Drops_, New York, 1731. A 36-page pamphlet preserved in the
Library of the New York Academy of Medicine. This is an American
reprint of an English original, date unknown.

It was the 18th century, and the essay was in fashion. The proprietors
prepared a didactic introduction to their treat