Dr Cassell’s Flesh Forming & Strengthening Tablets.
After a recent event at the Woodland Discovery Centre an extraordinary tablet bottle from 1900 came to light. Found on the edge of Ran Wood in Ecclesall woods it must have washed out in the recent heavy rain from the Victorian midden or rubbish dump nearby.
The amber coloured bottle in the photograph is specifically marketed as the cure required for ‘Flesh Forming and Strengthening.’ It dates from approximately 1900.
Dr Cassell’s products seem to have been widely available from the 1890s into the 20th Century with a focus on Nerve and Kidney Tablets. The products are now perceived as an example of Quack medicine. The manufacture of Dr Cassell products was at King Street in Manchester with various product examples appearing from the late 1890s onwards. This advert was in the Derby Daily Telegraph in 1906.
You would be amazed what you can find in Ecclesall woods!