Ancestors in the Drug Trade: Tracing William Elliot's Pharmaceutical Career

Package to Elliot & Co., 3 Front Street East, Toronto, in the collection of the Kingston Museum of Health Care.

William Elliot (1812-1893), father of Minnie (Elliot) Scott and grandfather of Arthur Scott, was one of several very successful capitalists in the Rutherford line.   He interests me because he was not only a man of many accomplishments (if you read his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography you'll wonder that he ever found time to sleep) but was also very involved in the professionalization of the Canadian Pharmaceutical industry.  His career spanned a time when pharmacy was beginning to base itself more on science (particularly chemistry) than folk remedies, but had not yet developed standards for drug testing for safety or efficacy. 

William Elliot was born in London, England in 1812 and educated at an unknown London boarding school.  His family immigrated to Dundas, Ontario while he was still in school, and he joined them at age 15.  There is no evidence that he did any more schooling in Ontario, and certainly he never attended university.  In Dundas he converted to the local Disciples of Christ church (according to his entry in the Dictionary, his birth family was Anglican), and married Mary Oliphant, the daughter of the Disciple preacher David Oliphant Sr.  Upon reaching adulthood he took up farming in Dundas but, fatefully, decided to join the Dundas drug and stationery firm Lesslie and Sons (owned by the Lesslie family).  Presumably he learned the trade there;  a few years later he bought out the business in conjunction with a Mr. Thornton and renamed it Elliot and Thornton.  In 1853 he sold the business and moved to Toronto,  and in 1855 he had joined in partnership with Benjamin Lyman, a drug wholesaler, creating the wholesale firm Lyman, Elliot & Co.  As wholesalers, they both manufactured their own products and distributed the products of others.  In 1870,  William Elliot and his son Robert Watt Elliot would buy out Lyman and establish the family-owned company Elliot & Co.  Elliot & Co. became one of the leading drug wholesalers in Ontario, and both William and Robert Watt Elliot were greatly respected in the industry of the time.

Announcement of the partnership of William and Robert Elliot, as Elliot & Co. Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, Vol. 3, No. 24, April 1870.

What was it like to be a pharmacist during the early period of William's career?   For one thing, the trade was regulated by an apprenticeship system rather than a professional body.  Many medications were created by the pharmacists themselves, as the quality of "patent" or manufactured remedies varied widely. Standard recipes for drugs were found in the British Pharmacopoeia, first published in 1864, and in various trade journals from Britain, Europe and America.  However, patent medications, however questionable, were quite profitable,  so most pharmacists did carry a selection.  Much like a modern drugstore, the 19th century druggist would usually sell grooming items and some general stock as well as health care remedies.  The typical pharmacist offered "over the counter" or non-prescription medication to those who came in without having seen a doctor first, thus creating some friction between the domains of  physician and apothecary.

Here, from the "Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal", are some ads for products distibuted by Lyman & Elliot which indicates their huge range.  They sell drugs and chemicals, no surprise, but also spices, surgical instruments, and even furniture.  Also note the addresses--King Street East, Front Street--I can't bear to think of what these properties would be worth now.   The third ad, for patent medications distributed by the company, is incredibly politically incorrect--Chicopee Indian Worm Tea?  (Do Chicopee Indians even exist?) .  Oriental Hair Gloss and Egyptian Salve illustrate the fashion for exotica.   Butter powder seems to be some kind of food additive--notice the free advertising the company is offering its retail customers. And finally, perfumes, pomades, tooth powders, everything for the elegant lady or  gentleman who wants to smell like spring flowers or new mown hay. These ads are all to the trade, and likely not as hyperbolic as ads to the public would have been.

Ad for Lyman, Elliot & Co., 1868

Notice this ad features Elliot's Dentifrice, "a popular and salable toilet article".

Various patent medicines distributed by Lyman, Elliot & Co. 1868.

Butter Powder works miracles.  1868.

Perfume and grooming products.  1868.

Elliot & Co. wins prizes for Perfumery Extracts, Oil Cake, Linseed Oil, White Lead in Oil at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition, Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, Vol. 15, 1881-82.

Title page of an early issue of  the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, 1868

In the 1860s, a movement to establish pharmacy as a profession began to appeal to Ontario pharmacists, partly because of pressure from the medical establishment, who wanted pharmacists to pass examinations delivered by a medical board.  In an effort to retain their independence and establish their own professional standards, in 1867 a group of pharmacists established the Toronto Chemists and Druggists Association, which would change its name after four months to The Canadian Pharmaceutical Society.  Both William and Robert Watt Elliot were involved from the very beginning.  William became the president of the organization, and Robert Watt was on the publication committee of the Society's professional journal.

Both William and Robert Watt Elliot were early joiners, attending the second meeting of the Society in July 1867.

Wm. Elliot, Esq., President of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society, 1868

According to Jennifer Beales and Zubin Austin, authors of the paper "The Pursuit of Legitimacy and Professionalism:  The Evolution of Pharmacy in Ontario" (Pharmaceutical Historian 2006 (June); 36 (2):  22-27) the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society "had the aim to advance the profession through the advancement of science, to define the precise position of an apothecary and establish his relations towards physicians and the public, to establish a board of examiners, and to restrict as much as possible the dispensing of medicines by any except those qualified by such Board."  William Elliot's most pressing challenge was to draft and encourage the passage of legislation which would define the profession of pharmacy in Canada.  The Society first attempted to draft legislation for passage at the federal level, but this legislation repeatedly failed to pass.  Not daunted, they secured the passage of Bill No. 20, the Pharmacy Act of Ontario, at the provincial level in February 1871.  At this point the Canadian Pharmaceutical Society changed its name to the Ontario College of Pharmacy, with William Elliot still in his position as President.

A discussion of the Pharmacy Bill, 1868

1870--the Pharmacy Bill has still not passed.

Volume 3, number 27, July 1871.  The Canadian Pharmaceutical Society changes its name to the Ontario College of Pharmacy.  William Elliot still President.

William Elliot unanimously elected President of the new Ontario College of Pharmacy.  Vol. 5, No. 1, August 1871.

Despite the new emphasis on science and scientific education, pharmacy had yet to establish standards for testing the effectiveness of medications.  These short opinion pieces in the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal illustrate what we would consider bogus medicine presented in an uncritical manner. 

Using Sarsaparilla to cure syphilis.   Volume 3, No. 29, Sept. 1870.

Is opium good for children?  This doctor thinks so...

One interesting part of both William and Robert Watt's careers is their  frequent travel to Europe.  Although their company did not to my knowledge export to Europe, the Elliot men appeared to go with regularity to see what the newest developments in the profession were, and to educate themselves about European medicinal ingredients.  Robert Watt Elliot wrote several lengthy articles in the Journal about European plants, their identification and their medicinal qualities.  The Canadian Pharmaceutical Society also apparently had its own library and museum, to which  R.W. donated books and artifacts gathered on his voyages.  On the question of whether to follow the British or the American standards of pharmacy, the Elliots and the Society were firmly on the side of Britian.   It's interesting that, in Britain, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum opened in 1842, and was well established by the time the Canadian Society was formed.  I'm sure William and his son must have visited it.

Britain or America?  The Ontario College of Pharmacy is Pro-Britain.  Volume 3, No. 31, Nov. 1870.

Although the domain of the Ontario College of Pharmacy was medicinal, in business Elliot & Co. continued to make and distribute non-medicinal items.  This brochure from the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (the precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition) shows off their animal care and feeding supplies.  And, as the name of their manufacturing company, the Canada Oil, Paint and Drug Mills, suggests, paint was also a prominent part of their inventory.

Drawing of Canada Oil and Paint Mills, Elliot and Co.'s Manufacturing Plant.  1879.

This description of Elliot & Co. was written in 1886, when the prime years of the firm.

Entry for Elliot & Co., from Industries of Canada:  Historical and Commercial Sketches of Toronto and Environs.  1886.  

Unfortunately for William, disaster marked the end of his years in pharmacy.  In October of 1886, when William was in Europe, his warehouse caught fire and burned to the ground.  Here is the story as reported in the Toronto Globe, October 21, 1886:

GREAT FIRE ON FRONT STREET / ELLIOT & COMPANY'S DRUG ESTABLISHMENT BURNED / FIREMEN INJURED BY AN EXPLOSION OF ETHER--THE LOSS HEAVY

Policeman Bogart sounded an alarm at three o'clock yesterday morning for a fire that had just started in Elliot & Company's wholesale drug establishment, at 3 Front-street East. A dense mist resting upon this city rendered the operations of the firemen difficult at first.  After fifteen minutes fruitless work the firemen discovered the exact source of the flames, and directed their full strength to that quarter.  The flood of water, however, seemed to have no effect whatever on the fire, which blazed up more fiercely every minute.  A general alarm was sounded and the whole brigade turned out, but even then the fire continued to rage and destroy the immense stock of inflammables in the building, composed largely of oils which made good fuel to keep up the terrible conflagration.  The firemen had placed half-a-dozen ladders against the front of the building so that they could get at the second storey, when A LOUD EXPLOSION occured.  The whole building was shattered and fell in--in a chaotic mass.  Firemen Poynton and Fallon, of the Court-street Hall, who were upon the ladders, were knocked off and fell to the ground.  Fireman James Creighton, of Yonge-street, who held a branch just inside of the front door, had his arm badly injured by some of the debris striking him.  Firemen Spence, Reddick, Smedley and Sweatman of Bay-street, who were at the back of the building, were also injured, but not to such an extent as to incapacitate them from continuing their struggle with the flames.  The ether used in the establishment had generally been kept in the mill at one corner of the building by itself, but yesterday a case was taken into the cellar, opened, and left there, where the fire found it.  It was this case of ether that exploded with such destructive force.  The flames were not subdued until everything in the place, with the exception of the books in the safe, was destroyed.  The Canadian Rubber Company's warehouse adjoins Elliot's on the west, and the stock there was damaged to a considerable extent.  Davidson & Hay's temporary premises are next door to Elliot's on the east, but there was no serious damage done here.  THE LOSS on the stock, which was insured for $67,000, is placed at from $100,000 to $110,000...On the building and fixtures, owned by Mr. James Watson [Wm. Elliot's son-in-law] there is an insurance of $12,000...this will probably cover the loss.  Mr. Elliot is now on the Atlantic on his way home from Europe.   

The fire must have been a tremendous shock to the entire family.  Afterwards, William sold his share in the business to his son and partner Robert Watt, and retired from the drug trade.  He would have been seventy-four years old.  William lived for another seven years, dying in 1893 at the age of eighty-one. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says that "His final days were clouded most by the tragic death of his grandson, Howard, of peritonitis at the age of 25. Howard had been an outstanding student in pharmacy and seemed destined to lead the Elliot firm to greater success."   William is buried in the Necropolis cemetery, in a grave which I hope to one day find.