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Museum talk reveals Holloway's poo pills
POTIONS and pills were being handed out at the Chertsey Museum last week.
At the Friends of Chertsey Museum annual AGM on Wednesday History of Medicine Lecturer Emm Barnes from Royal Holloway gave a lecture on the quack practices of Thomas Holloway founder of the university in Egham.
She said: "Thomas Holloway sold pills that he made in his kitchen, most of them were just strong laxatives.
"He made one pill that was supposed to cure anything from cancer to colds.
"Most of them were just designed to make you go to the toilet, they were very similar to Holland and Barrett's colon cleanse.
"What he sold was no different to what other apothecaries were selling at the time, but what made him so successful was the scale of advertising he did.
"He advertised in Europe and America in newspapers and on billboards, he made a small fortune, which he then used to build a mental hospital by Egham station and later the college."
Dr Barnes recreated some of Holloway's remedies in her kitchen and handed them out at the meeting, she said: "The hardest part was finding the ingredients, like pure ginger and pure soap, which I got from eBay in the end."
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