A nostrum developed in the 1880s to exploit the newly posited germ theory. The Microbe Killer was concocted by William Radam, a gardener from Texas. He argued that although some doctors believed that some diseases were caused by germs, he had discovered that all diseases were so caused, and he offered his compound (later shown to contain 90 percent water and minuscule amounts of red wine, hydrochloric acid, and sulfuric acid) as a cure-all. He suggested that killing germs was similar to killing garden bugs. The product reportedly had a variety of uses: It supposedly could be poured into drinking water as a general preventative, and, taken internally, it was said to release vapors that attacked worms and cured a variety of diseases from tuberculosis to leprosy. The product gained popularity and was successfully marketed long after Radam’s death.
A significant attack on the Microbe Killer began in 1889 when pharmacist and physician R. G. Eccles published his analysis of the contents of the product. Eccles also noted that the manufacturer made a 6,000 percent profit for a product that was largely water. Writing in a professional journal, the Druggists’ Circular, he argued that any universal microbe killer would necessarily kill almost all living things. His critique largely fell on deaf ears because his fellow druggists were making money from the popular medicine, which had no documented harmful effects.