In the 1860s, Corsican chemist Angelo Mariani formulated Vin Tonique Mariani, a wine containing a little special ingredient that was said to give it medicinal properties. Mariani claimed it would “restore health, strength, energy and vitality” to those that drank it – and to be fair, it did receive glowing endorsements from many notables of the time, including Thomas Edison, Ulysses Grant, and even Popes Leo XIII and Pius X (Pope Leo actually awarded Mariani a Vatican gold medal for inventing it.)
Naturally, this being the late 19th century, Mariani’s recipe was swiftly duplicated and recreated by others to sell copycat products – including enterprising American pharmacist X, who added yet another special something to the formula. He named the resulting concoction after himself and marketed it as a panacea, accompanied with fantastic claims of it being “a most wonderful invigorator of the sexual organs”, among other things.
Late 19th-century prohibition laws forced X to come up with a non-alcoholic version of the drink, though, and eventually Mariani’s special addition was also removed, resulting in an early version of something that is still popular today.
Who is X, and what did he invent?