Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills

Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills was one of the most successful and enduring products to be manufactured and marketed in North America as part of the lucrative patent medicine industry, which thrived during most of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Comstock patent medicine business was involved in the sale of a number of successful drugs, including Carlton's Pile Liniment, Oldridge's Balm of Columbia, Kline's Tooth Ache Drops and Judson's Worm Tea.

Rights to the pills were then transferred through a number of different business partnerships under the control of Moore involving: These reorganizations all occurred amid numerous disputes and lawsuits.

Ownership of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills finally stabilized in 1867 when it settled solely in the hands of William Henry Comstock, and thereafter business was carried out under the name W.H.

Packaging and directions are now modern, the pills being described as "The Overnight Laxative with the Tonic Action", but a reproduction of the old label and the facsimile signature of William Henry Comstock, Sr. were still portrayed.

William H. Comstock, circa 1905
Advertisement for Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills in East Maitland, New South Wales , Australia
The front of a 19th or early 20th Century facsimile of a $20 Confederate note used for marketing Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills.
The reverse of the fake note where the marketing took place, naming W. H. Comstock as the "Sole Proprietor" at the time.