In 1898, Clinton Pharmaceutical’s (Bristol-Myers) first nationally recognized product, termed a poor man’s spa by chief chemist J. Leroy Webber, was a laxative mineral salt that, when dissolved in water, reproduced the taste and effects of the natural mineral waters of Bohemia.

Christened Sal Hepatica, the new product sold modestly at first. By 1903, Sal Hepatica was a best seller.