Note: this post discusses sexual activity in general and erectile dysfunction in particular, though mostly with nineteenth-century language. It also contains an image of a female nude as printed on the packaging and advertising for a late-nineteenth-century aphrodisiac pill.

Two weeks back Christopher had a socks-rocking post (with great comments) on the alleged pharmacoactive properties and Mormon uses of ?Mormon Tea.? At the moment I don?t have anything to add to the discussion of Mormon Tea, but I think there are some related, interesting things to say about damiana (see image at right), which also grows in the American Southwest, also affects human physiology, and was also allegedly part of the Mormon materia medica.

The name ?damiana? can refer to Turnera diffusa or Turnera diffusa aphrodisiaca (aka T. diffusa Willd.), though there seems to be some confusion about how to distinguish the varieties and whether the medicinal effects are the same. Damiana has been known for centuries—early Spanish colonizers reported its use in Mexico—but it seems to not have broken into Euro-American markets until the 1870s. There were various formulations; I draw your attention to two. First, Pemberton?s ?French Wine Coca,? the precursor to Coca-Cola, had three main ingredients (besides alcohol): coca, kola nut, and damiana.

Second, one Franklin Bosworth Crouch began marketing ?Mormon Elders? Damiana Wafers? in the 1880s. Lester Bush addressed ?Mormon Elders? Wafers? in a 1976 Dialogue piece. [1] In the intervening decades, Google Books has made a few more images available, which I have included herein (See one image at left; [2] note that Crouch was inconsistent on the punctuation, alternating between Elders? and Elder?s).

A pharmacological text book (1887) suggested the Mormon connection: ?[damiana] forms the basis of a ?Mormon elder?s cordial,? from which name the peculiar properties claimed for it, as well as the propriety of its use, may be inferred.? [3] Another text (1892) identified damiana as ?a drug which has acquired considerable reputation as an aphrodisiac? but asserted that ?it is of doubtful efficacy, although it forms the basis of a ?Mormon Elder?s tonic.?? [4]

(Image reference: [5]) One Francis Evans elaborated (1884):

The Mormon preachers, who certainly use their reproductive organs more than any other class, find in damiana a panacea for their wasted energies. Indeed, it is considered so valuable as a builder up of sexual powers, that those Mormon roosterly elders take a little with their morning ?nip,? and go on their way rejoicing. [6]

One WB Parkinson, a non-Mormon physician in Utah, responded to Evans that he had never encountered ?one single case of impotence? among the Mormons but that he could also ?testify that the Mormon elders do not use the drug as our worthy brother gives them credit for doing.? [7]

Damiana was oft derided by more sober medical practitioners. For example, JL Gilbert (1899):

Damiana is a much vaunted remedy. It is most nauseating to the taste, and few will take it long, even though the goal be restored, sexual competence. The celebrated ?mormon elder tablets,? I believe, were in part of damiana. The happy conception to which they owed their name, perhaps, added more to their ready sale and commercial value than the presence of actual merit. [8]

One of FB Crouch?s advertisements (see image below) asserted (1886) that Damiana Wafers

Are a safe, certain, and speedy cure for nearly all varieties of seminal and physical debility of the generative organs of both sexes, endorsed by the medical faculty, and relied upon by the heads of the Mormon Church as a remedy for Nervous Debility, and all Weaknesses which would disqualify them as members of their faith. [9]

In the coming weeks I hope to address, briefly, the international distribution of Damiana Wafers, marketing techniques, their (small) role in the formation of the FDA, and the function of orientalization and otherization in their marketing. In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, check out Benjamin Breen’s post on the “Deep History of Illicit Drugs,” which prompted Christopher’s post on Mormon Tea, and Ardis’s Keepapitchinin post from last year on Mormon Bishop Pills (“Vim Vigor Vitality, Oh, My!“).