1914 booklet for the touting of Glover's Imperial Mange Medicine

This handsome 16-page booklet was published in 1914 by H. Clay Glover Company of New York City. It measures 4⅛ inches by 5⅜ inches. The booklet is titled A Treatise on the Scalp and Hair, with the subtitle "Describing the Nature of Both and Advising How to Prevent Dandruff and Baldness."

But it's truly just a thinly disguised advertisement for Glover's Imperial Mange Medicine, which is shown on the back cover.

This booklet was distributed at Aker's Market Square Pharmacy in Albany, New York, as you can see from the handy spot on the cover for specific-store branding. While the inside pages do present a generic overview of the human scalp, hair and unfortunate conditions such as alopecia and dandruff, they're really just a platform for 50 ebullient testimonials about the wonders of Glover's Imperial Mange Medicine. Here's a selection:

• Joe Dahmen of Hattiesburg, Mississippi: "I feel it my duty to inform you that your mange medicine cured me after about eight applications of an awful case of skin trouble which had caused me awful suffering for two years."
• Mrs. W. Ely of Camden, New Jersey: "Every remedy of yours has been successful, even to your Mange Medicine on my own hair. My hair was falling out and I saw how quickly it made it grow on the dog, so I tried it myself, and my hair is improving wonderfully."
• Percy W. Keltie of Collingwood, Ontario: "We have just learned of your medicines through a Brooklyn lady who met my mother in Muskoka. She had grown a splendid head of hair with your Mange Medicine after everything else failed, and has dispensed with a large 'rat,' the hair being so thick."
• W.P. Cloyd of Dallas, Texas: "I have been using your Imperial Mange Medicine for loss of hair from the human head, and find it a very effective medicine, only objection being the odor, which is very confusing to me as I am employed in an office where several other people work."
• John S. Williams of Newark, New Jersey: "Two months ago my hair began falling out. I tried many medicines, but everything failed. I was told to use your Mange Medicine; I got a bottle and my hair stopped falling out, I continued to use it and now my hair is fine and soft. Druggists claim it is only for dogs; I know better, it has done me so much good."
• Miss L.M. Holley of Keokuk, Iowa: "When I first began using it, my hair was coming out, my scalp full of dandruff, and itched terribly. But now the dandruff has gone and hair has grown two inches in length. Enclosed please find 35 cents in silver, for which price send me one cake of your Imperial Kennel and Stable Soap."
• Henry G. Dial of Cleveland, Ohio: "I wish to tell you how successfully I have used your medicine in my barber shop for shampooing and dandruff medicine. But the only objection is the odor after the shampoo, which so many seem to object to, and would be very thankful to you if you could suggest anything that could be used after the shampoo, or put right in the medicine without hurting the ingredients."

The price of Glover's Imperial Mange Medicine was 65 cents per bottle in 1914. That would be about $16.15 today!

In 1924, H. Clay Glover Co. paid a $25 fine with regard to its Mange Medicine being a "misbranded insecticide." Here's the summary of the case:

Fun addendum

H. Clay Glover went on, decades later, to publish (in conjunction with Chesler Publications, I believe) a handful of mid-1940s comic books titled Major Victory Comics. According to Public Domain Super Heroes: "This nameless American soldier was a night sentry at eastern Army post Camp Courage. Noticing a light on in the armory, he went to investigate only to have a saboteur throw a lantern in his face, setting him on fire and blinding him. Searching blindly for the bomb, he was able to find it but not defuse it before it exploded, killing him. Spirits take his remains to Father Patriot, who restores his body and brings him back to life with the ringing of the Liberty Bell. He continues to fight for America as Major Victory." Major Victory has no actual superhero powers, but Father Patriot gives him a mountain hideout, a powerful radio receiver and an airplane. Not bad!