[Advertisements in newspapers and magazines about patent medicines in the Meji era (The first dissertation) (Part 1)].

In February 1869, the government first permitted newspapers to be published. The Yokohama-mainichi, the Tokyo-nichi-nichi, the Nisshin-shinjishi and so on were published. The traders of medicine quickly turned their attention to the newspapers. Jihei Morita put an advertisement about "Houtan" in the newspaper issued in July in the 4th year of the Meiji era (1871) and Ginko Kishida put an advertisement about "Seikisui" in the Mainichi in Yokohama dated August 18th in the 4th year of the Meiji era. After that, the traders of medicine advertised in newspapers one after another, and the contents of advertisements were expressly the efficacy of medicine. As Yukichi Fukuzawa doubted if the trend was really desirable, he carried his comment against the trend in the Katei Sodan published by Keio-Gijuku, but the contents of advertisements were not changed. Advertisements emphasising the efficacy of medicine were prominent.