A circa 1890 pamphlet for Dr. Greene’s Nerverua patent medicine claimed that over a million men and women had been cured from “Nervous Weakness and Physical Exhaustion”. Sufferers that did not take the medicine, warned Dr. Greene, would end up with “Shattered Nerves, Insanity, Softening of the Brain, Paralysis, Death”.

Years later, when asked what his medicine was good for, Dr. Greene replied, “It’s good for me.”