These concoctions were the ancestors of the several nostrums. The marketing of nostrums under implausible claims has a long history. Touting these nostrums was one of the first major projects of the advertising industry. Nostrums were openly sold that claimed to cure or prevent venereal diseases, tuberculosis, and cancer. The safety of many nostrums was suspect and the efficacy of others non-existent. Brown made quite a show of his unwillingness to follow fashionable literary and cultural nostrums. Nostrums would have made permanent changes to the character and cannot be removed once used.