Thomas Tomlinson Cussons | |
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| Born | 24 November 1838 Hull, England |
| Died | 18 March 1927 (aged 88) Matlock, Derbyshire, England |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Ashton (m. 1867;died 1905) |
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| Parents |
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Thomas Tomlinson Cussons (24 November 1838 – 18 March 1927) was the head of the British soap manufacturing business Cussons & Son. He established the 'Cussons' brand which has become one of the largest personal care brands in Britain.
Thomas Cussons was born in Kingston upon Hull, England to George Cussons (1804–1858) and his wife Jane Cussons (née Moss 1804–1882).
Cussons qualified as a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1869. [1] After qualifying Cussons opened a chemist in Holbeck, Leeds. In 1879 he sold the Holbeck branch and acquired an existing chemist in Louth. [2] In the early 1880s Cussons opened a chemist in the town of Ossett, where he also operated as a wine merchant. [3] He enjoyed an exclusive right to distribute W & A Gilbey Wines in Ossett. [4] In 1891 he opened a further chemist in Swinton, Salford. [5]
Initially the Cussons brand was attached principally to medicine. In 1893 the Cussons range included the following: [6]
In 1897 Cussons acquired a glass blowing factory in Harpurhey, which marked the beginning of a great increase in business. Cussons' commercial activities laid the foundations for his son Alexander Tom Cussons, who would make Cussons into a multinational brand and manufacture the famous Cussons Imperial Leather soap. [7]
In 1892 Cussons published extracts from letters of people recommending the Cussons brand. [8]
Below is an extract from a clergyman to Mr. Cussons dated 28 March 1888:
Below is an extract from a Mr S. Smith dated 19 March 1888:
Below is an extract from a woman in service, dated 17 March 1888:
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight. Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy in alcohol (ethanol).
Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as tinctura opii camphorata, is a traditional patent medicine known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties.
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term quack is a clipped form of the archaic term quacksalver, from Dutch: kwakzalver a "hawker of salve". In the Middle Ages the term quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares at markets by shouting to gain attention.
A patent medicine is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders and symptoms, as opposed to an ethical drug that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctor's prescription, and whose composition was openly disclosed. Many over-the-counter medicines were once ethical drugs obtainable only by prescription, and thus are not patent medicines.
Herbal medicine is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from Artemisia annua, a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of many plants used in 21st century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage. The scope of herbal medicine sometimes include fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.
Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic preparation marketed to relieve flu-like symptoms, although it does not provide any benefit beyond that of a placebo.
William Salmon (1644–1713) was an English empiric doctor and a writer of medical texts. He advertised himself as a "Professor of Physick". Salmon held an equivocal place in the medical community. He led apothecaries in opposing attempts by physicians to control the dispensing of medicines, and was derided by physicians as "the King of the Quacks". He has been described as "a brilliant publicist, but not much of a philosopher".
Blue mass was the name of a mercury-based medicine common from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The oldest formula is ascribed to one Barbarossa, in a letter to Francis I of France.
Imperial Leather is a brand of soaps, toiletries and healthcare products manufactured by PZ Cussons. The brand originates in Britain and is now available in a number of other countries including Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Kenya, Malawi, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia. The brand is not widely available in the United States but can be obtained via online sales and in some speciality shops.
Alexander Tom Cussons. Born in Holbeck, Leeds, England to Thomas Tomlinson Cussons (1838–1927) and his wife Elizabeth Cussons. Alexander was the Chairman of Cussons Sons & Co, the largest independent soap manufacturer in Britain and maker of the brand Cussons Imperial Leather and other personal care products.
Aspirin is a novel organic compound that does not occur in nature, and was first successfully synthesised in 1899. In 1897, scientists at the drug and dye firm Bayer began investigating acetylated organic compounds as possible new medicines, following the success of acetanilide ten years earlier. By 1899, Bayer created acetylsalicylic acid and named the drug 'Aspirin', going on to sell it around the world. The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name, rather than the generic name of the drug; however, Bayer's rights to the trademark were lost or sold in many countries. Aspirin's popularity grew over the first half of the twentieth century, leading to fierce competition with the proliferation of aspirin brands and products.
Warburg's tincture was a pharmaceutical drug, now obsolete. It was invented in 1834 by Dr. Carl Warburg.
Emile Doo's Chemist Shop is an exhibition at the Black Country Living Museum in England. It was originally situated at 358 Halesowen Road, Netherton, before being rebuilt on the museum site.
Bile Beans was a laxative and tonic first marketed in the 1890s. The product supposedly contained substances extracted from a hitherto unknown vegetable source by a fictitious chemist known as Charles Forde. In the early years Bile Beans were marketed as "Charles Forde's Bile Beans for Biliousness", and sales relied heavily on newspaper advertisements. Among other cure-all claims, Bile Beans promised to "disperse unwanted fat" and "purify and enrich the blood".
R v Lee is the leading case in England and Wales concerning erroneous professional dispensing of a controlled medicine. The case was considered by foremost judges with a conviction in the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in front of its President, the Recorder of London, and its partly successful appeal in the binding precedent-level Court of Appeal. The case confirmed that a serious error in giving a vulnerable customer a potent drug that does not match in any way the prescription, where such action is not the primary causation of any death or suffering, can result in a prosecution of the responsible pharmacist, with up to 2 years imprisonment, depending on the circumstances.
Michel-Philippe Bouvart was a French medical doctor.
Elsie Higgon was the first Joint Secretary of the (National) Association of Women Pharmacists; researcher for King's College, the British Medical Journal and the British Pharmaceutical Codex; Lecturer in Chemistry at Portsmouth Municipal College; proprietor pharmacist of two businesses in Hampstead, proprietor of the Gordon Hall School of Pharmacy for Women in Gordon Square, and a supporter of the suffrage movement.
Covid-Organics (CVO) is an Artemisia-based drink that Andry Rajoelina, president of Madagascar, claims can prevent and cure Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The drink is produced from a species under the Artemisia genus from which artemisinin is extracted for malaria treatment. No publicly available clinical trial data supports the safety or efficacy of this drink.