But somehow the new firm of Comstock & Brother triumphed over Comstock &
Co., for in the summer of 1853 Lucius found it necessary to make an
assignment of all of his assets to his creditors. Thereafter he removed
his business from John Street to 45 Vesey Street, in the rear of St.
Paul's Churchyard, but although he put out impressive new handbills
describing his firm as "Wholesale Chemists, Druggists and Perfumers," he
apparently no longer prospered in the drug trade, for old New York City
directories show that he shortly turned his main energies to the
practice of law. Versatile as he was, Lucius entered the Union Army as a
surgeon during the Civil War, and upon his return he resumed his legal
career, continuing to his death in 1876. Aside from his role in the
Comstock medicine business, Lucius also rates a footnote in United
States political history as the foreman of the grand jury that indicted
Boss Tweed in 1872.


*A New Partnership Formed*

The two proprietors of Comstock & Brother at 9 John Street were the
brothers George Wells and J. Carlton Comstock. At the time of the events
just related, their nephew, William Henry Comstock, was an employee, but
not a partner, of the firm (he was the "clerk" who had removed the
controversial letters from the post office). This partnership was
terminated by the death on September 17, 1853, of J. Carlton Comstock,
the inventor of the veterinary medicines.

To continue the business, a new partnership, also under the name of
Comstock & Brother, comprising George Wells Comstock, William Henry
Comstock, and Baldwin L. Judson, was formed on October 1, 1853. Judson