# Dr. Benjamin Brandreth — The Humbugs of the World character guide

> Dr. Benjamin Brandreth in The Humbugs of the World by P. T. Barnum.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Brandreth, Dr. Brandreth

**First appearance:** 0036-xxviii

## Snapshot

The English-born pill vendor whose vegetable compound, advertised with relentless newspaper copy, became one of America's most profitable patent medicines.

## Who they are

Brandreth built a fortune on the universal faith that a pill could cure whatever ailed you, blanketing the press with testimonials and warnings against counterfeits. His success rested less on pharmacy than on publicity — the same machinery Barnum himself mastered. In Barnum's gallery of humbugs, Brandreth represents the respectable quack: a businessman whose product may have been harmless, whose claims were not.

## Relationships

### [Doctor Roback](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters/doctor_roback)

_rivalry_

Doctor Roback and Dr. Benjamin Brandreth are competitors in the medical or patent medicine field, each promoting their own cures.

### [Doctor Roback](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters/doctor_roback)

_rivalry_

Doctor Roback and Dr. Benjamin Brandreth are competitors in the medical or patent medicine field, each promoting their own cures.

## In the story

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/chapters/viii)

The inventor and promoter of Brandreth's Pills, whose aggressive advertising made him wealthy and famous.

### [Part III: Trade and Business Impositions](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/chapters/part-iii-trade-and-business-impositions)

Mentioned in the context of advertising success for Brandreth's Pills.

### [Part V: Medicine and Quacks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/chapters/part-v-medicine-and-quacks)

Referenced as a prominent figure in the advertising and sale of patent medicines, exemplifying the blend of medicine and quackery.

### [Apollonius of Tyana](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/chapters/l)

Referenced in a comparison between the temple of Aesculapius and the Brandreth House on Broadway, noting that Aesculapius did not bestow universal pills.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters/dr_benjamin_brandreth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_humbugs_of_the_world_se/characters