WHEN Beecham's boasted that their pills were "worth a guinea a box" (Letter, August 17), they were referring to a coin which could buy rather more than our modern £1.05 pence. It is quite difficult to represent historic values in modern money, not least because, as my father impressed on me at a tender age, "wealth is measured not by possessions, but by requirements".

However, I notice the admirable Mrs Beeton suggested that for the equivalent of 35p one could buy enough sirloin to satisfy eight or nine hearty Victorian appetites. This means that for a guinea you could feed two dozen trenchermen on BSE-free beef, and still have enough left over to fill a couple of capacious doggy-bags. Or you could buy a box of Beecham's Pills, and hand them round. Another way of looking at it is to consider that although Beecham's claimed that their pills were worth 20 times the price, the cost of the active ingredients was 100 times less than that.

Whether the pills cured "maladies of indiscretion", as claimed, I know not, but as far as "lowness of spirits" was concerned, they did the Beecham family a power of good.

William Dixon Smith,

Welland Rise, Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:16 Wednesday, September 05, 2001