RS145P3 Dr. D. Jayne & Son Medicine Stamp, Plate proof

David Jayne was born in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 1799 and graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1818. In 1822 he settled in Salem, New Jersey, where he developed Dr. Jayne’s Family Medi­cines. His first product was Jayne’s American Hair Dye and Jayne’s Hair Tonic. But the most successful products of all were Jayne’s Alterative introduced in 1851 and Jayne’s Expectorant introduced in 1858. Jayne’s Alterative contained tartar emetic, spirits of camphor, ipecac, opium, lobelia, tolu, digitalis and squill, while Jayne’s Expectorant contained almost the identical ingredients – only in different proportions. In order to accommodate his rapidly increasing business, Jayne moved to Philadelphia where he erected in 1850 a new building which at the time was the tallest office building in America. He also began publication of his medical almanac and guide to health which was still being pub­lished in 1907, being printed in many different languages and distributed to all parts of the world. Other popular proprietaries of D. Jayne &
Son included Jayne’s Tonic Vermifuge, Jayne’s Sanative Pills and Jayne’s Carminative Balsam.

(Holcombe, Henry W., American Philatelist, 52: 775-781, June, 1939; see also Druggist’s Circular, 51: 60, January, 1907)