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Dr. Pemberton's Pick-Me-Up
by Paul Aurandt (Paul Harvey)
In the first place, Dr. Pemberton wasn't even a doctor. But who'd trust a product called "Mr. Pemberton's Triplex Liver Pills"? No One. Therefore he called it "Dr. Pemberton's Globe of Flower Cough Syrup" and "Dr. Pemberton's Extract of Styllinger Blood Medicine." But if Dr. Pemberton wasn't a doctor, he also wasn't a quack. He merely lived in an era, right after the Civil War, when the corner druggist knew as much about medicines as the national drug manufacturers. And that's just what John Pemberton was. A corner druggist. It was sometime after moving his business from Columbus to Atlanta--some while after "Dr. Pemberton's Indian Queen Hair Dye"--that this obscure Georgia pharmacist started fiddling with a basement brew you'll want to know about. Most patent medicines in those days contained alcohol. None of that in John Pemberton's new concoction. In fact, according to some, he was trying to effect a headache cure...or perhaps a hangover cure for the other patent medicines. John experimented with the extracts of fruits and nuts and leaves, but that was for taste. If he was going to cure a headache he'd need, perhaps, a stimulant? Yes. Caffeine. And an analgesic. Some say... cocaine. Not it was all over but the selling. But John, who had spent most of his time developing this new pick-me-up, would need financial help. So, during the summer of 1886, Dr. Pemberton took a jug of the reddish-brown syrup to Jacobs Pharmacy, one of the most reputable in Atlanta. What was it that the manager wanted to know? Dr. Pemberton explained that it was a secret but the manager should try some. Just mix with water and drink. Well, Jacobs bought Pemberton's potion... advertised it, too.... but sales were slow. Apparently Georgians were quite free of aches and pains that summer. That's when fate stumbled in. The story goes that a customer came into the pharmacy one morning with a hangover. The clerck remembered Dr. Pemberton's syrup and went to mix some. He was new on the job, not yet acquainted with the procedure... and used carbonated water by mistake. His mistake is still in the recipe today. Any cocaine in the original creation has long since been eliminated, so it may or may not cure your headache. The other ingredients remain basically the same. Dr. Pemberton, the master of cures, could not cure himself. His health failed soon after that last discovery. The little business he built around it could have been bought for less than two thousand dollars when he died. So the druggist never shared the pot of gold at the end of what is now a rainbow of lights as wide as the world--spelling out... Coca-Cola!
Punkinchrist@hotmail.com
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