Advertisement for 'Dr Joshua Webster's Cerevisia Anglicana'

Joshua Webster MD (c1709-1801), formulated his patent remedy 'Dr. Webster's diet drink', or 'Cerevisia Anglicana' in 1742. The secret recipe was inherited by a Southwark wine merchant called Samuel Slee whose descendants traded as Edward Slee and Co., based at successive locations in the London area - Kennington, Lee, Harlington and Hounslow.
The drink was marketed as a non-specific remedy of vegetable composition. In reality the active ingredients included quicksilver and sublimate of mercury. The medicine was sold directly from the warehouse and through retail chemists, for one of whom this advertisement was presumably designed. The liquid came in either green or red bottles, both manufactured in a curious octagonal shape, thus adding to the mystery of the recipe. The proprietors, Edward Slee and Co., seem to have ceased trading shortly after the turn of the 19th century.