The Patent Medicine Curse

Pinkham issued a statement noting that the Mrs. Pinkham mentioned in the advertisement was Lydia's daughter-in-law Jenny, and she supervised the company's correspondence with female customers. The idea that some women might be suffering agonizing, disabling pain doesn't seem to have occurred to Edward Bock. As for the women themselves, Bock sneered at their symptoms. They feel sluggish after the all-winter indoor confinement. They feel that their symptoms need a toning up. But then, despite the fact that he edited the lady's home journal, he was almost proud to declare, weirdly in the third person, that he knew nothing about them.