More Secret Remedies

Chapter I.--Remedies for Rheumatism, Gout and Neuralgia 1

„ II.--Preparations for Eczema and other Skin Affections 30

„ III.--Nerve Tonics and “Elixirs of Life” 44

„ IV.--Medicines for Coughs, Consumption, Catarrh etc. 71

„ V.--Medicines for Indigestion, Constipation, etc. 87

„ VI.--Kidney Medicines 102

„ VII.--Obesity Cures, and a “Flesh Producer” 112

„ VIII.--Medicines for Alcoholism and for the Tobacco Habit 128

„ IX.--Soothing Syrups for Infants 147

„ X.--Medicines for Epilepsy 152

„ XI.--The “Tremol Treatment” for Bad Legs 167

„ XII.--The “Crimson Cross Remedies” 178

„ XIII.--Medicines for Amenorrhœa, etc. 184

„ XIV.--Wallace’s Specific Remedies--“An Absolute System of Medicine” 210

„ XV.--Preparations for the Hair 222

„ XVI.--Some Miscellaneous Medicines 231

„ XVII.--Unqualified Practice through the Post 241

„ XVIII.--The Advertising of Proprietary Medicines 252

„ XIX.--The “Expert” behind the Proprietary Medicine 256

„ XX.--Some Echoes of Volume I. 259

INDEX 265

PREFACE.

The publication by the British Medical Association--under the title “Secret Remedies: What they Cost and What they Contain”--of the results of a series of analyses of some of the most advertised of the many proprietary medicines put forward for the cure of disease, has perhaps done more than anything else to open the eyes of the public, the authorities, and the Legislature to the true facts in regard to the nature of such articles and of the enormous traffic that goes on in them. At the time of the publication of this second volume, a public inquiry into the matter by a Parliamentary Committee has just been opened, with a view to deciding on what alterations of the law are necessary or desirable. The present state of the law in regard to the matter, and of its administration, undoubtedly leave room for much amendment. But the surest enemy of quackery in this department is increased publicity in regard to the facts, and the recognition by the public of the great disparity that exists in many cases between the actual composition of many nostrums on the one hand, and the extravagant claims that are made for their curative powers on the other. As a further contribution to a general enlightenment on the subject, the British Medical Association publishes in the present volume the results of a further series of analyses of proprietary medicines which have been carried out for the purpose, together with extracts from the statements of the proprietors of the medicines. The number of those at present existing is so vast that it is only possible to deal with comparatively a few, and these have been selected, as a rule, as being some of the most widely advertised or the most largely sold.

It will be recognised at once that there is a very wide variation in the degree of exaggeration in the claims put forward. In a few cases--a small minority--the advertisements appear to consist of very little but an indication of the disorders for which the medicine is recommended. At the other end of the scale there are nostrums put forward with the greatest assurance for even the most serious disorders, including consumption, smallpox, cancer, etc., etc., and in many cases one and the same article is asserted to be a cure for almost every disease to which the human body is liable. As a rule, the more extravagant the claims made, the more surely does the composition of the article, as revealed by analysis, show it to be of little or no value, if not even harmful, for the diseases named. Between these extremes, of the modest proprietary medicine--more or less of the nature of a harmless domestic medicine--on the one hand, and the most fraudulent quackery on the other, are to be found all gradations. The medicines described in this book have not been chosen as inclining more in one direction than the other, but include the various grades. From the facts stated the reader will be able to draw his own conclusions; it has not been necessary, as a rule, to express opinions on the articles described, a juxtaposition of the claims made and the facts shown by analysis being sufficient.

The analyses here published have been made with the greatest care during the last few years. Since it is open to the maker of a proprietary medicine to alter its composition at any time without warning (and very great alterations have been proved in some cases), it is, of course, possible that some of those described may have been altered since the analyses were made, though there is no reason to suppose that such has been the case. It is desirable to repeat here the caution that was expressed in the first volume: most of the active substances employed in medicine can be detected with certainty, even in complex mixtures, by sufficiently painstaking work on the part of the analyst; but this is not the case with preparations of some organic drugs, usually of vegetable origin, that have never been fully investigated, and especially with mixtures of the extracts of several vegetable drugs; in such cases analysis can only give approximate results, and constituents having no well-defined characters may escape detection. Since the maker of a secret medicine is in no wise limited to the Pharmacopœia or to drugs in ordinary use, but may employ, for example, a mixture of extracts of a dozen plants, none of which possesses any medicinal virtue or is recognised as a drug, it is no matter for surprise if all the constituents of a nostrum cannot be named as the result of analysis. But if it is remembered that the active ingredients of most substances having medicinal properties possess well-defined characters by means of which they can be identified, it will be seen that the limitations of the powers of analysis here referred to are of comparatively little importance in regard to exposing the essential nature of a given medicine, or substance put forward as such.

The figures given in this book as the “estimated cost of ingredients” of the various articles refer only to the ingredients, the cost prices being taken from a wholesale druggist’s list; nothing is allowed for the cost of making up the ingredients into the form in which they are sold, or for bottles, boxes, packages, etc. Where the results of analysis are not sufficiently definite for the cost of ingredients to be estimated with reasonable fairness, the figure is omitted.

Dr. F. Zernik, of Berlin, has continued the publication in the Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift of the results of his analyses of various nostrums sold in Germany, and some of his results are here included.

MORE

SECRET REMEDIES.

WHAT THEY COST AND WHAT THEY CONTAIN.

CHAPTER I.. Remedies for Gout, Rheumatism, and Neuralgia.

REMEDIES FOR GOUT, RHEUMATISM, AND NEURALGIA.

The medicines described in this chapter include some of those most widely advertised for the treatment of these complaints. They show a great variety in the methods of treating them, including as they do powders, pills, tablets, drops, and mixtures to be taken; liniments to be applied externally (one of these being also taken internally), paint, ointment, and plasters to be stuck on to the soles of the feet. The medicaments employed also vary much, but for the most part consist of articles in common use. The advertisements are in several respects instructive; for example, there is undoubtedly a prejudice among the more ignorant section of the public in favour of drugs coming from other and less civilised countries where they have been discovered by “natives,” or introduced in some other way than through careful experimenting, and some of the statements made are clearly intended to turn such prejudices to account. Thus in one case it is stated that the discoverer “went back to the heart of Nature in an endeavour to wrest from it the secret of an ideal liniment. In the course of his searches he was favourably impressed with the healing properties of many herbs used by native tribes,” etc.; in another, “this wonderful preparation is the discovery of a Hindu doctor in the Himalayan Mountains.” In their varied forms of appeals to “Nature” some of the advertisers do not hesitate to ascribe high intelligence to the medicines or to parts of the body other than the brain. Thus one states that “No one can reasonably deny an instinctive knowledge and a physical power exerted in the stomach by a conscious principle which selects and rejects, and which in its natural purity may be ranked as a nerve of sense”; another that “Immediately the liniment has been applied it sets out upon its message of discovery and healing, travelling with lightning rapidity to the seat of the trouble”; yet another calls his preparation “A subtle extract from the vegetable kingdom, the hidden fire or life of plants and flowers, the ‘Quintessence of Life.’”

Among these articles, as in most other groups of nostrums, the claims made by rival proprietors are mutually exclusive; those dealt with in this chapter include the following: “Greatest and latest discovery in medicine ... there is nothing known in medicine which will compare with it”; “the only efficient remedy ever discovered for these disorders”; “the finest cure for these complaints,” curing “when all other remedies fail”; “we guarantee magic foot drafts to cure any case of rheumatism”; “it is the one remedy that achieves a complete and permanent cure”; “the most effective scientific remedy.” Obviously, such claims cannot all be true.

Continue reading More Secret Remedies free in the Wunder reader →