1880's Booklet-Captain Collings Hernia Rupture Cure-Truss &Lotion-Quack Medicine

Description

Here's an old booklet selling a cure for "ruptures" or hernias.  It's called "Captain Collings Case-A Thrilling Story of Suffering and Privation."  Captain Collings was an Englishman who ran away to sea at age 14 and was a sailor for 20 years.  At some point he emigrated to the US and sailed on the Great Lakes.  He had to retire due to a hernia.  He was dissatisfied with a truss he was given and invented his own-the Collings Elastic Truss.  That seems straightforward enough.  The booklet also details the story of the "Collings Medical Rupture Compound, which seems quite a bit more on the quack medicine side.  He tells of being given a recipe by another sailor, and how the ingredients are all "of foreign origin" and hard to get.  He claims that using his trusses and the compound can cure ruptures.  Info for purchasing both from him is included in the booklet.  Captain Collings died in 1886 and the business passed to his apprentice who changed the name of the company.  We think this booklet was published during Collings' lifetime, so prior to 1886 and probably after 1875.  The booklet is paper bound, measures 4-7/8" x 6" and has16 pages.  It has some illustrations of Collings and trusses.  The cover is stained, faded and wrinkled.  The pages are somewhat darkened but not brittle, and some of them have stains around the edges.  Selling it AS IS with no reserve, buyer pays shipping.  Check our seller's list for lots of neat old stuff!
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