Harper's Cuforhedake Brain Food (Cuforhedake Bran-Fude)
name: label: maker
content: Robt. N. Harper Company
notes: label: Description
content: Harper's Cuforhedake Brain Food was the subject of the first court trial under the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. Robert N. Harper began making his headache remedy while a student at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in the late 1880s. His formula included acetanilid, antipyrine, caffeine, sodium and potassium bromide, and alcohol. In 1906 he changed the name of his product from Cephalgine to Cuforhedake BrainFude. He also changed the label to include the proportion of alcohol (30%) and acetanilid (16 grains per ounce), to conform to the requirements of the new Pure Food and Drugs Act. Harper was charged with false and misleading statements regarding his product as he claimed: it was "a most wonderful, certain and harm less relief," and that it contained "no . . . poisonous ingredients of any kind." Analysis of the product by government chemists also revealed that it had 24% (not 30%) alcohol. Prosecution also objected to the use of the term "cure." Despite launching a vigorous defense, the jury convicted Harper and he was fined $700.
label: Description
content: Sources:
label: Description
content: United States Department of Agriculture. Notice of Judgement No. 25, Food and Drugs Act. Misbranding of a Drug. (Harper's Cuforhedake Brane Fude or Cuforhedake Brain Food.) Issued November 26, 1908.
label: Description
content: Young, James Harvey. The Medical Messiahs: A Social History of Health Quackery in Twentieth-Century America. Chapter 1: Brane-Fude. Princeton University Press. 1966.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Balm of America
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Richard W. Pollay
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2008.3006.126
label: nonaccession number
content: 2008.3006
label: catalog number
content: 2008.3006.126
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bottle
label: Object Name
content: otc preparation
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: processed material (unspecified) (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 1 3/4 in x 1 in; 12.7 cm x 4.445 cm x 2.54 cm