Thomas Corbett

Thomas Corbett (1780–1857) was a Shaker brother of the Canterbury community in the state of New Hampshire (United States) who was well known nationally for his botanical medicines and innovative cures as a medical doctor and pharmacist.

Hernia Rocking Trusses

Corbett was born in 1780 at Hopkinton, New Hampshire. He was living in the Shaker Village of Enfield, New Hampshire, in 1790 with his family. The Corbett family moved to the Canterbury Shaker Community in 1794. He was described at this time by Shaker historian Henry Blinn as medium in height, light hair, hazel eyes, and having an inquisitive mind. He was considered an honest person with deep religious feelings.

Corbett designed Canterbury's first fire engine of a 24-man crew when he was in his early adulthood. He also built some tall clocks around this time. Sometime around 1808 Corbett became interested in medicine. One of his medical innovations was hernia-relieving devices called "Rocking Trusses" that became quite popular and were sold to people outside the Canterbury Shaker community. The back cover of certain Shaker catalogs listed the "Reimproved Rocking Trusses," "Single, Double, and Umbilical – adapted to all ages and sexes, for the relief and permanent cure of Hernia or Rupture." They were made by Corbett at the Canterbury Shaker community, and all orders were to be addressed to him.

Medicinal Plants

Corbett was apprenticed to a physician outside the Shaker community around 1811. At this time he also studied with a variety of herbalists. In addition to these studies he attended classes at a couple of medical colleges. He qualified as Canterbury's first trained physician in 1813 at the age of 33. It turned out that even though he never received a formal college degree in medicine he was always called a doctor at Canterbury and was well respected by other doctors outside of the community.

Corbett designed a physic garden for the benefit of the Shakers of Canterbury 1816-1820. He made these gardens much larger in the 1830s that included herbs and other plants. These medicinal plants at first were used as "simples" that were dried and packaged. Later they became processed "compounds" of complex formulations of extracts.

Corbett's dried and packaged herbs were sold by the Canterbury Shakers. He passed the overseeing of the herb business to brother James S. Kaime in 1850. The illustration catalogue of "Medicinal Plants" shows the 1854 catalogue with Kaime's name on the cover instead of Corbett's as he had turned over the business to Kaime by then.

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Sometimes Corbett was referred to as a pharmacist.

Corbell's Shakers Compound
Wild Cherry Pectoral Syrup, 1840 label

Corbett in his later mature life was well known for developing medicinal concoctions of herbs, plants, roots and salts for cure-alls or in medical terms a panacea. The main attribute for these preparations was usually that it was helpful to clean up the body to get rid of the contaminates that made people sick. The most well known of these was Corbett's Syrup of Sarsaparilla. Others were Corbett's Dyspepsia Cure (a laxative), Wild Cherry Pectoral Syrup (for coughs), and Vegetable Family Pills. Corbett's Shaker Wild Cherry Pectoral Syrup was given approval and highly recommended by several well-known doctors. Corbett's Shaker Vegetable Family Pills were endorsed by Dr. Dixi Crosby, a physician and professor at Dartmouth College, and which medicine was said to go slowly through the intestinal canal without irritation.

Sarsaparilla syrup

Corbett in the 1840s modified a formula of a compound originally made by a New Lebanon doctor. He received assistance from Crosby on the new formula. This preparation was developed into a syrup from mainly ten herbs and sarsaparilla root. It also consisted of Epsom salts, sugar, and alcohol. These ingredients were all put into an aqueous solution. This Syrup of Sarsaparilla was put into a concentrated form and sold under the brand name of "Corbett's Shakers' Compound Concentrated Syrup of Sarsaparilla" for some sixty years. The bottles the syrup were sold in were aqua-colored and had writing on the sides that said "No.1 Shaker Syrup" and "Canterbury, NH, USA". The syrup received a U.S. patent in 1886. Even though the ending date of production is many times given as 1895, the bottle labeling as shown in the illustration "Sarsaparilla syrup" shows the date 1906, which indicates that sales continued to at least this date to acknowledge the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Sales for Corbett's Syrup of Sarsaparilla were accounted for up to 1895. In 1861 the sales for the syrup show that some five thousand bottles and twenty one-gallon jugs of the syrup were sold. The syrup was made in lozenge form, and a trademark for such was registered in 1886. Even though the lozenges were sold into the 1890s there were no accounts what they were.

Testimonials for Corbett's Syrup of Sarsaparilla were given in Mary Whitcher's Shaker House-Keeper, the first Shaker cookbook published. The first edition was in 1882 from Boston and gave examples of "The Most Economical Medicine", for "Mothers When Worn Out", and was helpful to restore "Good Appetite and Rich Blood". The advertising went on to say that the syrup was endorsed by doctors, druggists, and chemists. It also said that Mary Whitcher did more to promote Corbett's Sarsaparilla than any other person.

Corbett experimented with static electricity in the early 1800s. He developed an electrostatic medical device in 1810 that was supposed to be a "cure" for rheumatism.

Corbett is buried in Section 1 plot 203 of the Canterbury Cemetery. There is no headstone for him or any other members of Section 1. The Brothers and Sisters are not separated left and right at this cemetery as was the custom otherwise.