Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound

Adverts for the Pinkham Company actively encouraged suffering women to write in for advice. No man would ever read their letter, they were assured. Lydia Pinkham recommended instead the dry form of her compound which was alcohol-free and supplemented by some healthy living. Bathe yourself all over every night in hot water, eat farinaceous food and broths, ride out and walk out, dig, use the trowel, take the compound according to instructions and let doctors alone. That might work or it might not, but it sounds better than chalomel. But then what did the doctors have to offer that was better? Nothing.