Testimonials are in the form of letters and ad copy featured very commonly in the advertising of patent medicines in the 19th and 20th centuries. The pages of almanacs and other promotional literature filled up with multiple testimonials,some with accompanying photographs, that tell of the healing powers of the products in question. Dr. R. V. Pierce, marketer of Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery, published The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in 1875; its publication continued for forty years. In addition to a fair explanation of medical knowledge at the time it appeared, this book contained literally hundreds of testimonials extolling Pierce’s nostrums, or talking up the virtues of Pierce’s Buffalo, New York clinic. Stern photographs of women who owe the cure of their “female weakness” to Pierce’s medicines accompany many of the letters. A Denver, Colorado man’s testimonial affirms that they put an end to his self-abuse: