From the Archives: Beware of ‘Dr. Isaac Saalfeldt’s Purgative Pills’

Until the advent of the Pure Food and Drug law of 1906, the 19th century was the heyday of patent medicines. Hundreds of entrepreneurs appended the title of "Doctor" to their name, whether earned or not, and peddled their concoctions in newspapers, claiming miraculous results. Ypsilanti had its own wonder-drug purveyor, Isaac Saalfeldt.