REGENCY RELOADED

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STUFF THAT MAKES THE
REGENCY ERA SO GREAT

THE CORDIAL BALM OF GILEAD, PART TWO

In my last Regency Reloaded post, The Cordial Balm of Gilead, I wrote about Dr. Samuel Solomon, a very famous and infamous quack physician of the Regency era. Dr. Solomon claimed that his medicinal cordial, the Balm of Gilead, could cure just about any disease that afflicted the human body. And, according to the good doctor, it was particularly helpful for women. In an advertisement in The Cumberland Pacquet in 1812, he wrote:

“This Balsamic Cordial is peculiarly adapted to weak female constitutions...it acts powerfully as a nervine, not only to the weak stomach, but to the whole nervous system; corrects a vitiated appetite and digestion in the first passages, and assists wonderfully in recovering the tone of the urinary and genital organs: hence its efficacy in the most obstinate seminal complaints in men, and corresponding weaknesses in women.”

But there was one particular woman the Balm of Gilead failed to help—Solomon’s own daughter. Sophia Solomon, the eldest daughter of the quack doctor, was married to Samuel Isaac Tobias of London. Sophia died on June 21, 1813, at the age of 21. A memorial poem to Sophia was found in a scrapbook kept by Eliza Marriott, whose father-in-law was a chaplain to King George II. The memorial was obviously clipped from a newspaper, as you can see in the accompanying photo.

The memorial was written by a poet who called himself Erinus of Macclesfield. I’m fairly confident that’s a pseudonym! The poem contains a heartfelt lamentation that Dr. Solomon’s cordial failed to help the unfortunate Sophia:

LINES ON SOPHIA

Late Daughter of Dr. SOLOMON, and wife of S.I. TOBIAS, esq. who died the 21st of June, 1813, aged 21.

Could wealth or beauty stay the fleeting breath,
Or med’cine’s charm arrest the hand of death,
The young, the virtuous SOPHIA had not died,
Nor fond TOBIAS for his consort sigh’d.
Wealth, beauty, youth, and virtue’s charms proved vain
The struggling spirit longer to detain;
And med’cine could not trim the lamp of life,
Nor save from death the Daughter and the Wife.
Clay-cold upon the couch—Behold her lie
Embalm’d with tears from Friendship’s streaming eye!
Mute is the voice which caroll’d song divine,
And dim those eyes that late were wont to shine;
Clos’d are those lips that never utter’d guile,
And when they open’d—open’d with a smile!
The ling’ring Graces wept a last adieu
To the pale cheek that glow’d with crimson hue;
The loves, the graces, and the smiles are fled,
Life’s pulse stands still—and sweet SOPHIA’S dead!
Not ev’n thy ‘Balm of Gilead’ could prolong,
O Solomon! the subject of my song!
Thy ‘Balm of Gilead,’ which was wont to heal
In ev’ry clime—and seldom known to fail!
The healing virtues in sad hour are fled!
Life’s pulse stands still—and thy SOPHIA’S dead!
No med’cine can the vital spark restore,
And she who liv’d to please, shall please no more!
So when the rose, upon its fragrant bed,
Nipt by untimely frosts, droops down its head,
The shades grow faint, in which it was array’d,
And all its short-liv’d, varied beauties fade;
No Florist’s art back to its fold can bring
The blushing tints—nor cause a second spring.

--Erinus

One can only imagine Solomon’s guilt and sorrow that neither his famous cordial nor his dubious medical skills were enough to save his child’s life.

Sources:
With thanks to Stephen Richards

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