The old claim is repeated that nothing enters into the production of Liquozone but gases, water and a little harmless coloring matter, and that the process
requires
large apparatus and from eight to fourteen days' time.
Adams-Great-American-Fraud
Liquozone is too important a product for quackery.
"
The head and center of this non-patent medicine cure-all is Douglas Smith.
? 24:
Mr. Smith is by profession a promoter. He is credited with a keen vision for profits. Several years ago he ran on a worthy ex-piano dealer, a Cana- dian by the name of Powley (we shall meet him again, trailing clouds of glory in a splendid metamorphosis), who was selling with some success a mixture known as Powley's Liquefied Ozone. This was guaranteed to kill any disease germ known to science. Mr. Smith examined into the possi- bilities of the product, bought out Powley, moved the business to Chicago, and organized it as the Liquid Ozone Company. Liquid air was then much in the public prints. Mr. Smith, with the intuition of genius, and some- thing more than genius' contempt for limitations, proceeded to catch the public eye wnth this frank assertion: "Liquozone is liquid oxygen--that is all. "
It is enough. That is, it would be enough if it were but true. Liquid oxygen doesn't exist above a temperature of 229 degrees below zero. One spoonful would freeze a man's tongue, teeth and throat to equal solidity before he ever had time to swallow. If he could, by any miracle, manage to get it down, the undertaker would have to put him on the stove to thaw him out sufficiently for a respectable burial. Unquestionably Liquo- zone, if it were liquid oxygen, would kill germs, but that wouldn't do the owner of the germs much good, because he'd be dead before they had time to realize that the temperature was falling. That it would cost a good many dollars an ounce to make is, perhaps, beside the question. The object of the company was not to make money, but to succor the sick and suffering. They say so themselves in their advertising. For some reason, however, the business did not prosper as its new owner had expected. A wider appeal to the sick and suffering was needed. Claude C. Hopkiiis, formerly advertising manager for Dr. Shoop's Restorative (also a cure-all) and perhaps the ablest exponent of his specialty in the country, was brought intotheconcernandarecord-breakingcampaignwasplanned. Thiscostno littlemoney,buttheeventproveditagoodinvestment. PresidentSmith's next move showed him to be the master of a silver tongue, for he persuaded the members of a very prominent law firm who were acting as the com- pany's attorneys to take stock in the concern, and two of them to become directors. These gentlemen represent, in Chicago, something more than tha high professional standing of their firm; they are prominent socially and forward in civic activities; in short, just the sort of people needed by President Smith to bulwark his dubious enterprise with assured respect- ability.
The Men Who Back the Fake.
In the Equitable scandal there has been plenty of evidence to show that directors often lend their names to enterprises of which they know prac- tically nothing. This seems to have been the case with the lawyers. One point they brought up: was Liquozone harmful? Positively not, Douglas Smith assured them. On the contrary, it was the greatest boon to the sick in the world's history, and he produced an impressive bulk of testi- monials. This apparently satisfied them; they did not investigate the testimonials,butacceptedthemattheirfacevalue. Theydidnotlookinto the advertising methods of the company; as nearly as I can find out, they never saw an advertisement of Liquozone in the papers until long after- ward. They just became stockholders and directors, that is all. They did as hundreds of other upright and well-meaning men had done in lending themselves to a business of which they knew practically nothing.
While the lawyers continued to practice law, Messrs. Smith and Hopkins were running the Liquozone Company. An enormous advertising campaign was begun. Pamphlets were issued containing testimonials and claiming
? 25
the soundest professional backing. Indeed, this matter of expert testi- mony, chemical, medical, and bacteriologic, is a specialty of Liquozone. To- day, despite its reforms, it is supported by an ingenious system of pseudo- scientific charlatanry. In justice to Mr. Hopkins it is but fair to say that he is not responsible for the basic fraud: that the general scheme was devised and most of the bogus or distorted medical letters arranged before hisadvent. ButwhenIcametoinvestigatetheproductafewmonthsago I found that the principal defense against attacks consisted of scientific statements that would not bear analysis and medical letters not worth the paper they were written on. In the first place the Liquozone people have letters from chemists asseverating that the compound is chemically
scientific.
Faked and Garbled Indorsements.
Messrs. Dickman, Mackenzie & Potter, of Chicago, furnish a statement to the eflfect that the product is '"'made up on scientific principles, contains no substance deleterious to health and is an antiseptic and germicide of the highestorder. " AschemiststheDickmanfirmstandshigh,butifsulphuric
ANALYSIS OF LIQUOZONE.
SULPHURIC ACID - SULPHUROUS ACID - WATER
-
About nine-tenths of one per cent. About three-tenths of one per cent. Nearly ninety-nine per cent.
Sulphuric acid is oil of vitriol. Sulphurous acid is also a corrosive poison. Liquozone is the comljina-
tion of these tico heavily diluted.
and sulphurous acids are not deleterious to their health there must be some- thingpeculiaraboutthemashumanbeings. Mr. DeavittofChicagomakes affidavit that the preparation is not made by compounding drugs. A St. Louis bacteriologist testifies that it will kill germs (in culture tubes), and that it has apparently brought favorable results in diarrhea, rheu- matism, and a finger which a guinea-pig had gnawed. These and other technical indorsements are set forth with great pomp and circumstance, but when analyzed they fail to bear out the claims of Liquozone as a medicine. Any past investigation into the nature of Liquozone has brought a flood of "indorsements"downontheinvestigator,manyofthemmedical. Myinqui- ries have been largely along medical lines, because the makers of the drug claim the private support of many physicians and medical institutions, and such testimony is the most convincing. "Liquozone has the indorsement of' an overwhelming number of medical authorities," says one of the pam- phlets.
One of the inclosures sent to me was a letter from a young physician on the stafl: of the Michael Eeese Hospital, Chicago, who was paid $25 to make bacteriologic tests in pure cultures. He reported: "This is to certify that the fluid Liquozone handed to me for bacteriologic examination has shown bacteriologic and germicidal properties. " At the same time he in-
26
formed the Liquozone agent that the mixture would be worthless medicinally. He writes me as follows: "I have never used or indorsed Liquozone; fur- thermore, its action would be harmful when taken internally. Can report a case of gastric ulcer due probably to its use. "
Later in my investigations I came on this certificate again. It was quoted, in a report on Liquozone, made by the head of a prominent Chicago laboratory for a medical journal, and it was designated, "Report made by the Michael Reese Hospital," without comment or investigation. This surprising garbling of the facts may have been due to carelessness, or it may have some connection with the fact that the laboratory investiga- tor was about that time employed to do work for Mr. Douglas Smith, Liquozone's president.
Another document is an enthusiastic "puff" of Liquozone, quoted as being contributed by Dr. W. H. Myers in The 'New York Journal of Health. There is not nor ever has been any such magazine as The Weiv York Jour- nal of Health. Dr. W. H. Myers, or some person masquerading under that name, got out a bogus '"dummy" (for publication only, and not as guaran- teeofgoodfaith, atasmallchargetotheLiquozonepeople.
)
For convenience, I list several letters quoted or sent to me, with the
result of investigations.
The Suffolk Hospital and Dispensary of Boston, through its president,
Albert C. Smith, writes: "Our test shows it (Liquozone) to possess great remedial value. " The letter I have found to be genuine. But the hospital medical authorities say they know nothing of Liquozone and never prescribe it. If President Smith is prescribing it he is liable to arrest, as he is not an M,. D.
A favoring letter from "Dr. " Fred W. Porter of Tampa, Fla. , is quoted. The Liquozone recipients of the letter forgot to mention that "Dr. " Porter is not an M. D. , but a veterinary surgeon, as is shown by his letter head.
Dr. George E: Bliss of Maple Rapids, Mich. , has used Liquozone for cancer patients. Dr. Bliss writes me, under the flaming headline of his "cancer cure," that his letter is genuine, and "not solicittated. "
Dr. A. A. Bell of Madison, Ga. , is quoted as saying: "I found Liquozone to invigorate digestion. " He is not quoted (although he Avrote it) as say- ing that his own personal experience with it had shown it to be ineffective. I have seen the original letter, and the unfavorable part of it was blue- penciled.
For a local indorsement of any medicine, perhaps as strong a name as could be secured in Chicago is that of Dr. Frank Billings. In- the offices of Collier's and elsewhere Dr. Billings has been cited by the Liquozone peojile as one of those medical men who were prevented only by ethical consid- erations from publicly indorsing their nostrum, but who nevertheless, pri- vately avowed confidence in it. Here is what Dr. Billings has to say of this
Chicago^ III. , July 31, 1905.
To the Editor of Collier's Weekly:
Dear Sir:--I have never recommended Liquozone in any way to any one, nor
have I expressed to any representative of the Liquozone Company, or to any Other person, an opinion favorable to Liquozone. (Signed).
Frank Billings^ M. D.
Under the heading, "Some Chicago Institutions which Constantly Employ Liquozone," are cited Hull House, the Chicago Orphan Asylum, the Home for Incurables, the Evanston Hospital, and the Old People's Home.
Letters to the institutions elicited the information that Hull House bad
:
? :
? 27
never used the nostrum, and had protested against the statement; that the Orphan Asylum had experimented with it only for external applica- tions, and with such dubious results that it was soon dropped; that it had been shut out of the Home for Incurables ; that a few private patients in the Old People's Home had purchased it, but on no recommendation from the physicians; and that the Evanston Hospital knew nothing of Liquozone and had never used it.
Having a professional interest in the "overwhelming number of med- ical indorsements" claimed by Liquozone, a Chicago physician, Dr. W. H. Felton, went to the company's offices and asked to see the medical evidence. Xone was forthcoming; the lists, he was informed, were in the pre? ;s and could not be shown. He then asked for the official book for phy-icians ad- vertised by the firm, containing "a great deal of evidence from authorities whom all physicians respect. " This also, they said, was ''in the press. " As a matter of fact, it has never come out of the press and never will; the special book project has been dropped.
One more claim and I am done with the "'scientific evidence. " In a pamphlet issued by the company and since withdrawn, occurs this sprightly sketch
''Liquozone is the discovery of Professor Pauli, the great German chemist, who worked for twenty years to learn how to liquefy oxygen. When Pauli first mentioned his purpose men laughed at him. The idea of liquefying gas--of circulating a liquid oxygen in the blood--seemed impossible. But Pauli was one of those men who set their w^hole hearts on a problem and follow it out either to success or to the grave. So Pauli followed out this problem though it took twenty years. He clung to it through discouragements which w^ould have led any lesser man to abandon it. He worked on it despite poverty and ridicule," etc.
Liquozone Kills a Great German Scientist.
Alas for romance! The scathing blight of the legal mind descended on this touching story. The lawyer-directors w^ould have none - of "Professor Pauli, the great German chemist," and Liquozone destroyed him, as it had created him. Not totally destroyed, however, for from those rainbow wrappings, now dissipated, emerges the humble but genuine figure of our' old acquaintance, Mr. Powley, the ex-piano man of Toronto. He is the prototype of the Teutonic savant. So much the Liquozone people now admit, with the defence that the change of Powley to Pauli was, at most, a harmless flight of fancy, "so long as we were not attempting to use a name famous in medicine or bacteriology in order to add prestige to the product. " A plea which commends itself by its ingeniousness at 4east.
Gone is "Professor Pauli/" and with him much of his kingdom lies. In fact, I believe there is no single definite intentional misstatement in the new Liquozone propaganda. For some months there has been a cessation of all advertising, and an overhauling of materials under the censorship of the lawyer-directors, who were suddenly aroused to the real situation by a storm of protest and criticism, and, rather late in the day, began to '"situpandtakenotice. " Thecompanyhasrecentlysentmeacopyofthe new booklet on which all their future advertising is to be based. The most important of their fundamental misstatements to go by the board is "Liquozone is liquid oxygen. " "Liquozone contains no free oxygen," declares the revision frankly. No testimonials are to be printed. The faked and garbled letters are to be dropped from the files. There is no claim of "overwhelming medical indorsement. " Nor is the statement anywhere
? 28
made that Liqiiozone will cure any of the diseases in Avhich it is recom- mended. Yet such is the ingenuity with which the advertising manager has presented his case that the new newspaper exploitation appeals to th(> same hopes and fears, with the same implied promises, as the old. "I'm well because of Liquozone," in liuge type, is followed by the list of diseases 'Svhereitapplies. " AndthencAvlistismorecomprehensivethantheold.
All Ills Look Alike to Liquozone.
Just as to Peruna all ills are catarrh, so to Liquozone every disease is a germ disease. Every statement the ue\\- prospectus of cure '"has
Hydrozone
Yellow Fever
A si-iriHihc. absolutely harmless gCTniic'dc. U! iiver<aHy indorsed and ciJCcc->. fuHy used by 'the best physi- cians Vr>ii cd. n absolutely safeguard y6yr5elf ;? i|ra5ns;t the fever by taking a fenfpoonfni of Hydrozonc' in each tumblerofwateryoudrink. Soldby best dfitggists. None genuine with* out my signature.
'dJUMAid^
63E Prince StretUN. Y, fU^e~-$tnd for" How to prevent an'd c-ur? <3iS? a$<< / a>>'1 special instructions how lo avoid
and cure YELLOW FFvrrp_
A RIVAL TO LIQUOZONE.
Advertisements of a 'Temedy" which has been fighting Liquozone as an "imitator," and which here maizes a claim as extreme as any ever put forth by the Chicago sulphuric-acid mixture.
been submitted to competent authorities, and is exactly true and correct," declares the recently issued pamphlet, "Liquozone and Tonic Germicide;" and the pamphlet goes on to ascribe, among other ills, asthma, gout, neural- gia, dyspepsia, goiter, and "most forms of kidney, liver and heart troubles" togerms. Idon'tknowjustwhichoftheeminentauthoritieswhohavebeen Avorking for the Liquozone Company fathers this remarkable and epoch- making discovery. It might be Professor Pauli, or perhaps the sulphuric-
_#
Urn
Positive Preventive ot
29
acid-proof firm of Dickman & Mackenzie. Whoever it is ought to make the definite facts public, in the interests of humanity as well as their own. Monuments of discarded pill- boxes will celebrate the Liquozone savant who has determined that dyspepsia is a germ trouble. The discov- ery that gout is caused by the bite of a bacillus and not by uric acid is almost as important an addition to the sum of human knowledge as the de- termination of a definite organism that produces the twinges of neuralgia, while the germ of heart disease will be acclaimed with whoops of welcome from the entire medical profession.
Unfortunately, the writer of the Liquozone pamphlet, and the experts Avho edited it, got a litle mixed on their germs in the matter of malaria. '"Liquozone is deadly to vegetable matter, but helpful to animals," declares the pamphlet. . . . "Germs are vegetables"--and that is the reason that Liquozone kills them. But malaria, which Liquozone is supposed to cure, is positively known to be due to animal organisms in the blood, not vegetable. Therefore, if the claims are genuine, Liquozone, being "helpful to animals," will aid and abet the malaria organism in his nefarious work, and the Liquozone Company, as well-intentioned men, working in the in- terests of health, ought to warn all sufi'erers of this class from use of their animal-stimulator.
The old claim is repeated that nothing enters into the production of Liquozone but gases, water and a little harmless coloring matter, and that the process requires large apparatus and from eight to fourteen days' time. I have seen the apparatus, consisting of huge wooden vats, and can testify to their impressive size. And I have the assurance of several gen- tlemen whose word (except in "print) I am willing to take, that fourteen days' time is employed in impregnating every output of liquid with ga>. The result, so far as can be determined chemically or medicinally, is pre- cisely the same as could be achieved in fourteen seconds by mixing tbp acids with the water. The product is still sulphurous and sulphuric acid heavily diluted, that is all.
Will the compound destroy germs in the body? This is, after all, the one overwhelmingly important point for determination; for if it will, all the petty fakers and forgery, the liquid oxygen and Professor Pauli and the mythical medical journalism may be forgiven. For more than four months now Collier's has been patiently awaiting some proof of the inter- nal germicidal qualities of Liquozone. iSTone has been forthcoming except specious generalities from scientific employes of the company--and testi- monials. The value of testimonials as evidence is coiisidered in a later article. Liquozone's are not more convincing than others. Of the chemists and bacteriologists employed by the Liquozone Company there is not one who will risk his professional reputation on the simple and essential state- mentthatLiquozonetakeninternallykillsgermsinthehumansystem. One experiment has been made by Mr, Schcen of Chicago, which I am asked to regard as indicating in some degree a deterrent action of Liquozone on the
disease of the anthrax. . Of two guinea-pigs inoculated with anthrax, one which was dosed with Liquozone survived the other, not thus treated, by severalhours. Bacteriolcgistsemployedbyustomakeasimilartestfailed, because of the surprising fact that "the dose as prescribed by Mr. Schoeii promptly killed the first guinea-pig to which it was administered. 'A series of guinea-pig tests was then arranged (the guinea-pig is the animal which responds to germ infection most nearly as the human organism responds
)
at which Dr. Gradwohl, representing the Liquozone Company, was present, and in. which he took part. The report follows:
,
? ? 30
'
LEDERLE LABORATORIES.
Sa7viiary, Chemical and Bacteriologic Investigations.
518 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK CITY,
October Zl, 1905. Anthrax Test. Twenty-four guinea-pigs were inoculated with anttirax bacilli, under the same conditions, the same amount being given to each. The representa- tive of the Liquozone people selected the twelve pigs for treatment. These animals were given Liquozone in 5 c. c. doses for three hours. In twenty-four
hours all pigs were dead--the treated and the untreated ones.
Second Anthraw Test. Bight guinea-pigs were inoculated under the same conditions with a culture of anthrax sent by the Liquozone people. Four of these animals were treated for three hours with Liquozone as in the last experiments. These died also in from thirty-six to forty-eight hours, as did the
remaining four.
Diphtheria Test. Six guinea-pigs were inoculated with diphtheria bacilli and
treated with Liquozone. They all died in from forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Two out of three controls (i. e. , untreated guinea-pigs) remained alive after receiving the same amount of culture.
Tuherculosis Test. Eight guinea-pigs were inoculated with tubercle bacilli. Four of these animals were treated for eight hours with 5 c. c. of a 20 per cent, solution of Liquozone. Four received no Liquozone. At the end of twenty- four days all the animals were killed.
Fairly developed tuberculosis was present in all.
To summarize, we would say that the Liquozone had absolutely no curative effect, but did. when given in pure form, lower the resistance of the animals, so that they died a little earlier than those not treated.
Lederle Laboratories. By Ernst J. LederJe.
Dr. Gradwohl, representing the Liquozone Company, stated that he was satisfied of the fairness of the tests. He further declared that in his cpin- ion the tests had proved satisfactorily the total ineffectiveness of Liquozone as an internal germicide.
But these experiments show more than that. They show that in so far as Liquozone has any effect, it tends to lower the resistance of the body to an invading disease. That is, in the very germ diseases for which it is advocated, Liquozone may decrease the chances of the patient's recovery tC'ith every dose that is swalloiced, hut certainly loould not increase them.
In its own field Liquozone is sui generis. On the ethical side, however, there are a few "internal germicides," and one of these comes in for men- tion here, not that it is the least like Liquozone in its composition, but because by its monstrous claims it challenges comparison.
Since the announcement of this article, and before, Collier's has been in receipt of much virtuous indignation from a manufacturer of remedies which, he claims, Liquozone copies, Charles Marchp,nd has been the most active enemy of the oJouglas Smith product. He has attacked the makers in print, organized a society, and established a publication mainly de- voted to their destruction, and circulated far and wide injurious literature
(most of it true) about their product. Of the relative merits of Hydro- zone, Glycozone (Marchand's products), and Liquozone, I know nothing; but I know that the Liquozone Company has never in its history put forth so shameful an advertisement as the one produced on page 28, signed by Marchand, and printed in the New Orleans States when the yellow- fever scare was at its height.
? 31
And Hydrozone is an "ethical" remedy; its advertisements are to be found in reputable medical journals.
The Same Old Fake.
Partly by reason of Marchand's energy, no nostrum in the country has
been so widely attacked as the Chicago product. Occasional deaths, at- tributed (in some cases unjustly) to its use, have been made the most of, and scores of analyses have been printed, so that in all parts of the country the true nature of the nostrum is beginning to be understood. The promi- nence of its advertising and the reckless breadth of its claims have made it a shining mark. ^North Dakota has forbidden its sale. San Francisco has decreed against it; so has Lexington, Ky. , and there are signs that it will have a fight for its life soon in other cities. It is this looming danger that impelled Liquozone to an attempted reform last summer. Yet, in spite of the censorship of its legal lignts, in spite of the revision of its literature by its scientific experts, in soite of its ingenious avoidance of specifically false claims in the advertising -svhich is being seattereu broad- cast to-day, Liquozone is now what it was beiore its rehabilitation, a fraud which owes its continued existence to tne laxity of our public health meth-
ods and the cynical tolerance of the national conscience.
? Reprinted from Collier's Weekly, Dec? 2, 1905.
IV. --THE SUBTLE POISONS.
Ignorance and credulous hope make the market for most proprietary remedies. Intelligent people are not given largely to the use of the glar- ingly advertised cure-alls such as Liquozone and Peruna. Nostrums there are, however, which reach the thinking classes as well as the readily gulled. Depending, as they do, for their success on the lure of some subtle drug concealed under a trademark name, or some opiate not readily obtainable under its own label, these are the most dangerous of all quack medicines, not only in their immediate effect, but because they create enslaving appe- tites, sometimes obscure and difficult of treatment, most often tragically obvious. Of these concealed drugs the headache powders are the most widely used, and of the headache powders Orangeine is the most con- spicuous.
Orangeine prints its formula. It is, therefore, its proprietors claim, not a secret remedy. But to all intents and purposes, it is secret, because to the uninformed public the vitally important, word "acetanilid" in the formula means little or nothing. Worse than its secrecy is its policy of careful and dangerous deception. Orangeine, like practically all the headache powders, is simply a mixture of acetanilid with less potent drugs. Of course, there is no orange in it, except the orange hue of the boxes and wrappers which is its advertising symbol. But this is an unimportant deception. The wickedness of the fraud lies in this : that whereas the nostrum, by virtue of its acetanilid content, thins the blood, depresses the heart, and finally under- mines the whole system^ it claims to strengthen the heart and to produce hetter Hood. Thus far in the patent medicine field I- have not encountered so direj3t and specific an inversion of the true facts.
Recent years have added to the mortality records of our cities a surpris- ingandalarmingnumberofsuddendeathsfromheartfailure. Intheyear 1902 New York City alone reported a death rate from this cause of 1. 34 per thousand of population; that is about six times as great as the typhoid feverdeathrecord. Itwasaboutthattimethattheheadachepowderswere being widely advertised, and there is every reason to believe that the in- creased mortality, which is still in evidence, is due largely to the secret weakening of the body by acetanilid. Occasionally a death occurs so definitely traceable to this poison that there is no room for doubt, as in the following report by Dr. J. L. Miller, of Chicago, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, on the death of Mrs. Frances' Robson:
"I was first called to see the patient, a young lady, physically sound, who had been taking Orangeine powders for a number of weeks for in- somnia. The rest of the family noticed that she was very blue, and for this reason I was called. When I saw the patient she complained of a sense of faintness and inability to keep warm. At this time she had taken aboxofsixOrangeinepowderswithinabouteighthours. Shewaswarned of the danger of continuing the indiscriminate use of the remedy, but in- sisted that many of her friends had used it, and claimed that it was harm- less. The family promised to see that she did not obtain any more of the remedy. Three days later, however, I was called to the house and found the patientdead. Thefamilysaidthatshehadgonetoherroomtheeveningbe- foreinherusualhealth. Thenextmorning,thepatientnotappearing,they investigatedandfoundherdead. Thecasewasreportedtothecoroner,and the coroner's verdict was: 'Death was from the effect of an overdose of
"
:!
? 33
Orangeine powders administered by her own hand, whether acidentallv or
"'
otherwise, unknown to the jury/
Last July an 18-year-old Philadelphia girl got a box of Orangeine pow-
ders at a drug store, having been told that they would cure headache. There was nothing on the label or in the printed matter inclosed with the preparation warning her of the dangerous character of the nostrum. Fol- lowing the printed advice, she took two powders. In three hours she was dead. CoronerDugan'sverdictfollows:
"Mary A. Bispels came to her death from kidney and heart disease, aggravated by poisoning by acetanilid taken in Orangeine headache pow- ders. "
Prescribing Without Authority.
Yet this poison is being recommended every day by people who know nothing of it and nothing of the susceptibility of the friends to whom they advocate it. For example, here is a testimonial from the Orangeine booklet
"Miss A. A. Phillips, 66 Powers street, Brooklyn, writes: 'I always keep Orangeine in my desk at school, and through its frequent applications to the sick I am called both "doctor and magician. " '
If the school herein referred to is a public school, the matter is one for the Board of Education; if a private school, for the Health Department or the county medical society. That a school teacher should be allowed to continue giving, however well meaning her foolhardiness may be, a harmful and possibly fatal dose to the children intrusted to her care seems rather a significant commentary on the quality of watchfulness in certain insti- tions.
Obscurity as to the real nature of the drug, fostered by careful deception, isthesafeguardoftheacetanilidvender. Wereitsperilousqualityknown, the headache powder would hardly be so widely used. And were the even more important fact that the use of these powders becomes a habit, akin to the opium or cocain habits, understood by the public, the repeated sales which are the basis of Orangeine's prosperity would undoubtedly be greatly cut down. Orangeine fulfills the prime requisite of a patent medicine in being a good "repeater. " Did it not foster its own demand in the form of a persistent craving, it would hardly be profitable. Its advertising invites to the formation of an addiction to the drug. "Get the habit," it might logically advertise, in imitation of a certain prominent exploitation along legitimate lines. Not only is its value as a cure for nervousness and head-, aches insisted on, but its prospective dupes are advised to take this power- ful drug as a hracer.
"When, as often, you reach home tired in body and mind . . . take an Orangeine powder, lie down for thirty minutes' nap--if possible--any- way, relax, then take another. "
"To induce sleep, take an Orangeine powder immediately before retiring. When wakeful, an Orangeine powder will have a normalizing, quieting elTect. "
It is also recommended as a good thing to begin the day's work on in the morning--that is, take Orangeine, night, morning and between meals
These powders pretend to cure asthma, biliousness, headaches, colds, catarrh and grip (dose: powder every four hours during the day for a week! --a pretty fair start on the Orangeine habit), diarrhea, hay fever, insomnia, influenza, neuralgia, seasickness and sciatica.
Of course, they do not cure any of these ; they do practically nothing but give temporary relief by depressing the heart. With the return to normal conditions of blood circulation comes a recurrence of the nervousness,
? 34
headache, or what not, and the incentive to more of the drug, until it becomesanecessity. Inmyownacquaintance,Iknowhalfadozenpersons who have come to depend on one or another of these headache preparations to keep them going. One young woman whom I have in mind told me quite innocently that she had been taking five or six Orangeine powders a day
AN ACETANILID DEATH RECORD.
This list of fatalities is made up from statements published in the neiospapers. In every case the person who died, had taken to relieve a headache or as a bracer a patent medicine containing acetanilid, imthout a doctor's prescription. This list does not include the case of a dog in Altoona, Pa. , tchich died immediately on eating some sample headache powders. The dog did not know any better.
Mrs. Minnie Bishop, Louisville, Ky. ; Oct. i6, 1903.
Mrs. Mary Cusick and Mrs. Julia Ward, of 172 Perry Street,
New York City; Nov. 27, 1903.
Fred. P. Stock, Scranton, Pa. ; Dec. 7, 1903.
C. Frank Henderson, Toledo, 0. ; Dec. 13, 1903.
Jacob E. Staley, St. Paul, Mich. ; Feb. 18, 1904.
Charles M. Scott, New Albany, Ind. ; March 15, 1904. Oscar McKinley, Pittsburg, Pa. ; April 13, 1904.
Otis Staines, student at Wabash College, April 13, 1904. Mrs. Florence Rumsey, Clinton, la. ; April 23, 1904.
Jenny McGee, Philadelphia, Pa. ; May 26, 1904.
Mrs. ? William Mabee, Leoni, Mich. ; Sept. 9, 1904.
Mrs. Jacob Friedman, of South Bend, Ind. ; Oct-. 19, 1904. Miss Libbie North, Rockdale, N. Y. ; Oct. 26, 1904.
The head and center of this non-patent medicine cure-all is Douglas Smith.
? 24:
Mr. Smith is by profession a promoter. He is credited with a keen vision for profits. Several years ago he ran on a worthy ex-piano dealer, a Cana- dian by the name of Powley (we shall meet him again, trailing clouds of glory in a splendid metamorphosis), who was selling with some success a mixture known as Powley's Liquefied Ozone. This was guaranteed to kill any disease germ known to science. Mr. Smith examined into the possi- bilities of the product, bought out Powley, moved the business to Chicago, and organized it as the Liquid Ozone Company. Liquid air was then much in the public prints. Mr. Smith, with the intuition of genius, and some- thing more than genius' contempt for limitations, proceeded to catch the public eye wnth this frank assertion: "Liquozone is liquid oxygen--that is all. "
It is enough. That is, it would be enough if it were but true. Liquid oxygen doesn't exist above a temperature of 229 degrees below zero. One spoonful would freeze a man's tongue, teeth and throat to equal solidity before he ever had time to swallow. If he could, by any miracle, manage to get it down, the undertaker would have to put him on the stove to thaw him out sufficiently for a respectable burial. Unquestionably Liquo- zone, if it were liquid oxygen, would kill germs, but that wouldn't do the owner of the germs much good, because he'd be dead before they had time to realize that the temperature was falling. That it would cost a good many dollars an ounce to make is, perhaps, beside the question. The object of the company was not to make money, but to succor the sick and suffering. They say so themselves in their advertising. For some reason, however, the business did not prosper as its new owner had expected. A wider appeal to the sick and suffering was needed. Claude C. Hopkiiis, formerly advertising manager for Dr. Shoop's Restorative (also a cure-all) and perhaps the ablest exponent of his specialty in the country, was brought intotheconcernandarecord-breakingcampaignwasplanned. Thiscostno littlemoney,buttheeventproveditagoodinvestment. PresidentSmith's next move showed him to be the master of a silver tongue, for he persuaded the members of a very prominent law firm who were acting as the com- pany's attorneys to take stock in the concern, and two of them to become directors. These gentlemen represent, in Chicago, something more than tha high professional standing of their firm; they are prominent socially and forward in civic activities; in short, just the sort of people needed by President Smith to bulwark his dubious enterprise with assured respect- ability.
The Men Who Back the Fake.
In the Equitable scandal there has been plenty of evidence to show that directors often lend their names to enterprises of which they know prac- tically nothing. This seems to have been the case with the lawyers. One point they brought up: was Liquozone harmful? Positively not, Douglas Smith assured them. On the contrary, it was the greatest boon to the sick in the world's history, and he produced an impressive bulk of testi- monials. This apparently satisfied them; they did not investigate the testimonials,butacceptedthemattheirfacevalue. Theydidnotlookinto the advertising methods of the company; as nearly as I can find out, they never saw an advertisement of Liquozone in the papers until long after- ward. They just became stockholders and directors, that is all. They did as hundreds of other upright and well-meaning men had done in lending themselves to a business of which they knew practically nothing.
While the lawyers continued to practice law, Messrs. Smith and Hopkins were running the Liquozone Company. An enormous advertising campaign was begun. Pamphlets were issued containing testimonials and claiming
? 25
the soundest professional backing. Indeed, this matter of expert testi- mony, chemical, medical, and bacteriologic, is a specialty of Liquozone. To- day, despite its reforms, it is supported by an ingenious system of pseudo- scientific charlatanry. In justice to Mr. Hopkins it is but fair to say that he is not responsible for the basic fraud: that the general scheme was devised and most of the bogus or distorted medical letters arranged before hisadvent. ButwhenIcametoinvestigatetheproductafewmonthsago I found that the principal defense against attacks consisted of scientific statements that would not bear analysis and medical letters not worth the paper they were written on. In the first place the Liquozone people have letters from chemists asseverating that the compound is chemically
scientific.
Faked and Garbled Indorsements.
Messrs. Dickman, Mackenzie & Potter, of Chicago, furnish a statement to the eflfect that the product is '"'made up on scientific principles, contains no substance deleterious to health and is an antiseptic and germicide of the highestorder. " AschemiststheDickmanfirmstandshigh,butifsulphuric
ANALYSIS OF LIQUOZONE.
SULPHURIC ACID - SULPHUROUS ACID - WATER
-
About nine-tenths of one per cent. About three-tenths of one per cent. Nearly ninety-nine per cent.
Sulphuric acid is oil of vitriol. Sulphurous acid is also a corrosive poison. Liquozone is the comljina-
tion of these tico heavily diluted.
and sulphurous acids are not deleterious to their health there must be some- thingpeculiaraboutthemashumanbeings. Mr. DeavittofChicagomakes affidavit that the preparation is not made by compounding drugs. A St. Louis bacteriologist testifies that it will kill germs (in culture tubes), and that it has apparently brought favorable results in diarrhea, rheu- matism, and a finger which a guinea-pig had gnawed. These and other technical indorsements are set forth with great pomp and circumstance, but when analyzed they fail to bear out the claims of Liquozone as a medicine. Any past investigation into the nature of Liquozone has brought a flood of "indorsements"downontheinvestigator,manyofthemmedical. Myinqui- ries have been largely along medical lines, because the makers of the drug claim the private support of many physicians and medical institutions, and such testimony is the most convincing. "Liquozone has the indorsement of' an overwhelming number of medical authorities," says one of the pam- phlets.
One of the inclosures sent to me was a letter from a young physician on the stafl: of the Michael Eeese Hospital, Chicago, who was paid $25 to make bacteriologic tests in pure cultures. He reported: "This is to certify that the fluid Liquozone handed to me for bacteriologic examination has shown bacteriologic and germicidal properties. " At the same time he in-
26
formed the Liquozone agent that the mixture would be worthless medicinally. He writes me as follows: "I have never used or indorsed Liquozone; fur- thermore, its action would be harmful when taken internally. Can report a case of gastric ulcer due probably to its use. "
Later in my investigations I came on this certificate again. It was quoted, in a report on Liquozone, made by the head of a prominent Chicago laboratory for a medical journal, and it was designated, "Report made by the Michael Reese Hospital," without comment or investigation. This surprising garbling of the facts may have been due to carelessness, or it may have some connection with the fact that the laboratory investiga- tor was about that time employed to do work for Mr. Douglas Smith, Liquozone's president.
Another document is an enthusiastic "puff" of Liquozone, quoted as being contributed by Dr. W. H. Myers in The 'New York Journal of Health. There is not nor ever has been any such magazine as The Weiv York Jour- nal of Health. Dr. W. H. Myers, or some person masquerading under that name, got out a bogus '"dummy" (for publication only, and not as guaran- teeofgoodfaith, atasmallchargetotheLiquozonepeople.
)
For convenience, I list several letters quoted or sent to me, with the
result of investigations.
The Suffolk Hospital and Dispensary of Boston, through its president,
Albert C. Smith, writes: "Our test shows it (Liquozone) to possess great remedial value. " The letter I have found to be genuine. But the hospital medical authorities say they know nothing of Liquozone and never prescribe it. If President Smith is prescribing it he is liable to arrest, as he is not an M,. D.
A favoring letter from "Dr. " Fred W. Porter of Tampa, Fla. , is quoted. The Liquozone recipients of the letter forgot to mention that "Dr. " Porter is not an M. D. , but a veterinary surgeon, as is shown by his letter head.
Dr. George E: Bliss of Maple Rapids, Mich. , has used Liquozone for cancer patients. Dr. Bliss writes me, under the flaming headline of his "cancer cure," that his letter is genuine, and "not solicittated. "
Dr. A. A. Bell of Madison, Ga. , is quoted as saying: "I found Liquozone to invigorate digestion. " He is not quoted (although he Avrote it) as say- ing that his own personal experience with it had shown it to be ineffective. I have seen the original letter, and the unfavorable part of it was blue- penciled.
For a local indorsement of any medicine, perhaps as strong a name as could be secured in Chicago is that of Dr. Frank Billings. In- the offices of Collier's and elsewhere Dr. Billings has been cited by the Liquozone peojile as one of those medical men who were prevented only by ethical consid- erations from publicly indorsing their nostrum, but who nevertheless, pri- vately avowed confidence in it. Here is what Dr. Billings has to say of this
Chicago^ III. , July 31, 1905.
To the Editor of Collier's Weekly:
Dear Sir:--I have never recommended Liquozone in any way to any one, nor
have I expressed to any representative of the Liquozone Company, or to any Other person, an opinion favorable to Liquozone. (Signed).
Frank Billings^ M. D.
Under the heading, "Some Chicago Institutions which Constantly Employ Liquozone," are cited Hull House, the Chicago Orphan Asylum, the Home for Incurables, the Evanston Hospital, and the Old People's Home.
Letters to the institutions elicited the information that Hull House bad
:
? :
? 27
never used the nostrum, and had protested against the statement; that the Orphan Asylum had experimented with it only for external applica- tions, and with such dubious results that it was soon dropped; that it had been shut out of the Home for Incurables ; that a few private patients in the Old People's Home had purchased it, but on no recommendation from the physicians; and that the Evanston Hospital knew nothing of Liquozone and had never used it.
Having a professional interest in the "overwhelming number of med- ical indorsements" claimed by Liquozone, a Chicago physician, Dr. W. H. Felton, went to the company's offices and asked to see the medical evidence. Xone was forthcoming; the lists, he was informed, were in the pre? ;s and could not be shown. He then asked for the official book for phy-icians ad- vertised by the firm, containing "a great deal of evidence from authorities whom all physicians respect. " This also, they said, was ''in the press. " As a matter of fact, it has never come out of the press and never will; the special book project has been dropped.
One more claim and I am done with the "'scientific evidence. " In a pamphlet issued by the company and since withdrawn, occurs this sprightly sketch
''Liquozone is the discovery of Professor Pauli, the great German chemist, who worked for twenty years to learn how to liquefy oxygen. When Pauli first mentioned his purpose men laughed at him. The idea of liquefying gas--of circulating a liquid oxygen in the blood--seemed impossible. But Pauli was one of those men who set their w^hole hearts on a problem and follow it out either to success or to the grave. So Pauli followed out this problem though it took twenty years. He clung to it through discouragements which w^ould have led any lesser man to abandon it. He worked on it despite poverty and ridicule," etc.
Liquozone Kills a Great German Scientist.
Alas for romance! The scathing blight of the legal mind descended on this touching story. The lawyer-directors w^ould have none - of "Professor Pauli, the great German chemist," and Liquozone destroyed him, as it had created him. Not totally destroyed, however, for from those rainbow wrappings, now dissipated, emerges the humble but genuine figure of our' old acquaintance, Mr. Powley, the ex-piano man of Toronto. He is the prototype of the Teutonic savant. So much the Liquozone people now admit, with the defence that the change of Powley to Pauli was, at most, a harmless flight of fancy, "so long as we were not attempting to use a name famous in medicine or bacteriology in order to add prestige to the product. " A plea which commends itself by its ingeniousness at 4east.
Gone is "Professor Pauli/" and with him much of his kingdom lies. In fact, I believe there is no single definite intentional misstatement in the new Liquozone propaganda. For some months there has been a cessation of all advertising, and an overhauling of materials under the censorship of the lawyer-directors, who were suddenly aroused to the real situation by a storm of protest and criticism, and, rather late in the day, began to '"situpandtakenotice. " Thecompanyhasrecentlysentmeacopyofthe new booklet on which all their future advertising is to be based. The most important of their fundamental misstatements to go by the board is "Liquozone is liquid oxygen. " "Liquozone contains no free oxygen," declares the revision frankly. No testimonials are to be printed. The faked and garbled letters are to be dropped from the files. There is no claim of "overwhelming medical indorsement. " Nor is the statement anywhere
? 28
made that Liqiiozone will cure any of the diseases in Avhich it is recom- mended. Yet such is the ingenuity with which the advertising manager has presented his case that the new newspaper exploitation appeals to th(> same hopes and fears, with the same implied promises, as the old. "I'm well because of Liquozone," in liuge type, is followed by the list of diseases 'Svhereitapplies. " AndthencAvlistismorecomprehensivethantheold.
All Ills Look Alike to Liquozone.
Just as to Peruna all ills are catarrh, so to Liquozone every disease is a germ disease. Every statement the ue\\- prospectus of cure '"has
Hydrozone
Yellow Fever
A si-iriHihc. absolutely harmless gCTniic'dc. U! iiver<aHy indorsed and ciJCcc->. fuHy used by 'the best physi- cians Vr>ii cd. n absolutely safeguard y6yr5elf ;? i|ra5ns;t the fever by taking a fenfpoonfni of Hydrozonc' in each tumblerofwateryoudrink. Soldby best dfitggists. None genuine with* out my signature.
'dJUMAid^
63E Prince StretUN. Y, fU^e~-$tnd for" How to prevent an'd c-ur? <3iS? a$<< / a>>'1 special instructions how lo avoid
and cure YELLOW FFvrrp_
A RIVAL TO LIQUOZONE.
Advertisements of a 'Temedy" which has been fighting Liquozone as an "imitator," and which here maizes a claim as extreme as any ever put forth by the Chicago sulphuric-acid mixture.
been submitted to competent authorities, and is exactly true and correct," declares the recently issued pamphlet, "Liquozone and Tonic Germicide;" and the pamphlet goes on to ascribe, among other ills, asthma, gout, neural- gia, dyspepsia, goiter, and "most forms of kidney, liver and heart troubles" togerms. Idon'tknowjustwhichoftheeminentauthoritieswhohavebeen Avorking for the Liquozone Company fathers this remarkable and epoch- making discovery. It might be Professor Pauli, or perhaps the sulphuric-
_#
Urn
Positive Preventive ot
29
acid-proof firm of Dickman & Mackenzie. Whoever it is ought to make the definite facts public, in the interests of humanity as well as their own. Monuments of discarded pill- boxes will celebrate the Liquozone savant who has determined that dyspepsia is a germ trouble. The discov- ery that gout is caused by the bite of a bacillus and not by uric acid is almost as important an addition to the sum of human knowledge as the de- termination of a definite organism that produces the twinges of neuralgia, while the germ of heart disease will be acclaimed with whoops of welcome from the entire medical profession.
Unfortunately, the writer of the Liquozone pamphlet, and the experts Avho edited it, got a litle mixed on their germs in the matter of malaria. '"Liquozone is deadly to vegetable matter, but helpful to animals," declares the pamphlet. . . . "Germs are vegetables"--and that is the reason that Liquozone kills them. But malaria, which Liquozone is supposed to cure, is positively known to be due to animal organisms in the blood, not vegetable. Therefore, if the claims are genuine, Liquozone, being "helpful to animals," will aid and abet the malaria organism in his nefarious work, and the Liquozone Company, as well-intentioned men, working in the in- terests of health, ought to warn all sufi'erers of this class from use of their animal-stimulator.
The old claim is repeated that nothing enters into the production of Liquozone but gases, water and a little harmless coloring matter, and that the process requires large apparatus and from eight to fourteen days' time. I have seen the apparatus, consisting of huge wooden vats, and can testify to their impressive size. And I have the assurance of several gen- tlemen whose word (except in "print) I am willing to take, that fourteen days' time is employed in impregnating every output of liquid with ga>. The result, so far as can be determined chemically or medicinally, is pre- cisely the same as could be achieved in fourteen seconds by mixing tbp acids with the water. The product is still sulphurous and sulphuric acid heavily diluted, that is all.
Will the compound destroy germs in the body? This is, after all, the one overwhelmingly important point for determination; for if it will, all the petty fakers and forgery, the liquid oxygen and Professor Pauli and the mythical medical journalism may be forgiven. For more than four months now Collier's has been patiently awaiting some proof of the inter- nal germicidal qualities of Liquozone. iSTone has been forthcoming except specious generalities from scientific employes of the company--and testi- monials. The value of testimonials as evidence is coiisidered in a later article. Liquozone's are not more convincing than others. Of the chemists and bacteriologists employed by the Liquozone Company there is not one who will risk his professional reputation on the simple and essential state- mentthatLiquozonetakeninternallykillsgermsinthehumansystem. One experiment has been made by Mr, Schcen of Chicago, which I am asked to regard as indicating in some degree a deterrent action of Liquozone on the
disease of the anthrax. . Of two guinea-pigs inoculated with anthrax, one which was dosed with Liquozone survived the other, not thus treated, by severalhours. Bacteriolcgistsemployedbyustomakeasimilartestfailed, because of the surprising fact that "the dose as prescribed by Mr. Schoeii promptly killed the first guinea-pig to which it was administered. 'A series of guinea-pig tests was then arranged (the guinea-pig is the animal which responds to germ infection most nearly as the human organism responds
)
at which Dr. Gradwohl, representing the Liquozone Company, was present, and in. which he took part. The report follows:
,
? ? 30
'
LEDERLE LABORATORIES.
Sa7viiary, Chemical and Bacteriologic Investigations.
518 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK CITY,
October Zl, 1905. Anthrax Test. Twenty-four guinea-pigs were inoculated with anttirax bacilli, under the same conditions, the same amount being given to each. The representa- tive of the Liquozone people selected the twelve pigs for treatment. These animals were given Liquozone in 5 c. c. doses for three hours. In twenty-four
hours all pigs were dead--the treated and the untreated ones.
Second Anthraw Test. Bight guinea-pigs were inoculated under the same conditions with a culture of anthrax sent by the Liquozone people. Four of these animals were treated for three hours with Liquozone as in the last experiments. These died also in from thirty-six to forty-eight hours, as did the
remaining four.
Diphtheria Test. Six guinea-pigs were inoculated with diphtheria bacilli and
treated with Liquozone. They all died in from forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Two out of three controls (i. e. , untreated guinea-pigs) remained alive after receiving the same amount of culture.
Tuherculosis Test. Eight guinea-pigs were inoculated with tubercle bacilli. Four of these animals were treated for eight hours with 5 c. c. of a 20 per cent, solution of Liquozone. Four received no Liquozone. At the end of twenty- four days all the animals were killed.
Fairly developed tuberculosis was present in all.
To summarize, we would say that the Liquozone had absolutely no curative effect, but did. when given in pure form, lower the resistance of the animals, so that they died a little earlier than those not treated.
Lederle Laboratories. By Ernst J. LederJe.
Dr. Gradwohl, representing the Liquozone Company, stated that he was satisfied of the fairness of the tests. He further declared that in his cpin- ion the tests had proved satisfactorily the total ineffectiveness of Liquozone as an internal germicide.
But these experiments show more than that. They show that in so far as Liquozone has any effect, it tends to lower the resistance of the body to an invading disease. That is, in the very germ diseases for which it is advocated, Liquozone may decrease the chances of the patient's recovery tC'ith every dose that is swalloiced, hut certainly loould not increase them.
In its own field Liquozone is sui generis. On the ethical side, however, there are a few "internal germicides," and one of these comes in for men- tion here, not that it is the least like Liquozone in its composition, but because by its monstrous claims it challenges comparison.
Since the announcement of this article, and before, Collier's has been in receipt of much virtuous indignation from a manufacturer of remedies which, he claims, Liquozone copies, Charles Marchp,nd has been the most active enemy of the oJouglas Smith product. He has attacked the makers in print, organized a society, and established a publication mainly de- voted to their destruction, and circulated far and wide injurious literature
(most of it true) about their product. Of the relative merits of Hydro- zone, Glycozone (Marchand's products), and Liquozone, I know nothing; but I know that the Liquozone Company has never in its history put forth so shameful an advertisement as the one produced on page 28, signed by Marchand, and printed in the New Orleans States when the yellow- fever scare was at its height.
? 31
And Hydrozone is an "ethical" remedy; its advertisements are to be found in reputable medical journals.
The Same Old Fake.
Partly by reason of Marchand's energy, no nostrum in the country has
been so widely attacked as the Chicago product. Occasional deaths, at- tributed (in some cases unjustly) to its use, have been made the most of, and scores of analyses have been printed, so that in all parts of the country the true nature of the nostrum is beginning to be understood. The promi- nence of its advertising and the reckless breadth of its claims have made it a shining mark. ^North Dakota has forbidden its sale. San Francisco has decreed against it; so has Lexington, Ky. , and there are signs that it will have a fight for its life soon in other cities. It is this looming danger that impelled Liquozone to an attempted reform last summer. Yet, in spite of the censorship of its legal lignts, in spite of the revision of its literature by its scientific experts, in soite of its ingenious avoidance of specifically false claims in the advertising -svhich is being seattereu broad- cast to-day, Liquozone is now what it was beiore its rehabilitation, a fraud which owes its continued existence to tne laxity of our public health meth-
ods and the cynical tolerance of the national conscience.
? Reprinted from Collier's Weekly, Dec? 2, 1905.
IV. --THE SUBTLE POISONS.
Ignorance and credulous hope make the market for most proprietary remedies. Intelligent people are not given largely to the use of the glar- ingly advertised cure-alls such as Liquozone and Peruna. Nostrums there are, however, which reach the thinking classes as well as the readily gulled. Depending, as they do, for their success on the lure of some subtle drug concealed under a trademark name, or some opiate not readily obtainable under its own label, these are the most dangerous of all quack medicines, not only in their immediate effect, but because they create enslaving appe- tites, sometimes obscure and difficult of treatment, most often tragically obvious. Of these concealed drugs the headache powders are the most widely used, and of the headache powders Orangeine is the most con- spicuous.
Orangeine prints its formula. It is, therefore, its proprietors claim, not a secret remedy. But to all intents and purposes, it is secret, because to the uninformed public the vitally important, word "acetanilid" in the formula means little or nothing. Worse than its secrecy is its policy of careful and dangerous deception. Orangeine, like practically all the headache powders, is simply a mixture of acetanilid with less potent drugs. Of course, there is no orange in it, except the orange hue of the boxes and wrappers which is its advertising symbol. But this is an unimportant deception. The wickedness of the fraud lies in this : that whereas the nostrum, by virtue of its acetanilid content, thins the blood, depresses the heart, and finally under- mines the whole system^ it claims to strengthen the heart and to produce hetter Hood. Thus far in the patent medicine field I- have not encountered so direj3t and specific an inversion of the true facts.
Recent years have added to the mortality records of our cities a surpris- ingandalarmingnumberofsuddendeathsfromheartfailure. Intheyear 1902 New York City alone reported a death rate from this cause of 1. 34 per thousand of population; that is about six times as great as the typhoid feverdeathrecord. Itwasaboutthattimethattheheadachepowderswere being widely advertised, and there is every reason to believe that the in- creased mortality, which is still in evidence, is due largely to the secret weakening of the body by acetanilid. Occasionally a death occurs so definitely traceable to this poison that there is no room for doubt, as in the following report by Dr. J. L. Miller, of Chicago, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, on the death of Mrs. Frances' Robson:
"I was first called to see the patient, a young lady, physically sound, who had been taking Orangeine powders for a number of weeks for in- somnia. The rest of the family noticed that she was very blue, and for this reason I was called. When I saw the patient she complained of a sense of faintness and inability to keep warm. At this time she had taken aboxofsixOrangeinepowderswithinabouteighthours. Shewaswarned of the danger of continuing the indiscriminate use of the remedy, but in- sisted that many of her friends had used it, and claimed that it was harm- less. The family promised to see that she did not obtain any more of the remedy. Three days later, however, I was called to the house and found the patientdead. Thefamilysaidthatshehadgonetoherroomtheeveningbe- foreinherusualhealth. Thenextmorning,thepatientnotappearing,they investigatedandfoundherdead. Thecasewasreportedtothecoroner,and the coroner's verdict was: 'Death was from the effect of an overdose of
"
:!
? 33
Orangeine powders administered by her own hand, whether acidentallv or
"'
otherwise, unknown to the jury/
Last July an 18-year-old Philadelphia girl got a box of Orangeine pow-
ders at a drug store, having been told that they would cure headache. There was nothing on the label or in the printed matter inclosed with the preparation warning her of the dangerous character of the nostrum. Fol- lowing the printed advice, she took two powders. In three hours she was dead. CoronerDugan'sverdictfollows:
"Mary A. Bispels came to her death from kidney and heart disease, aggravated by poisoning by acetanilid taken in Orangeine headache pow- ders. "
Prescribing Without Authority.
Yet this poison is being recommended every day by people who know nothing of it and nothing of the susceptibility of the friends to whom they advocate it. For example, here is a testimonial from the Orangeine booklet
"Miss A. A. Phillips, 66 Powers street, Brooklyn, writes: 'I always keep Orangeine in my desk at school, and through its frequent applications to the sick I am called both "doctor and magician. " '
If the school herein referred to is a public school, the matter is one for the Board of Education; if a private school, for the Health Department or the county medical society. That a school teacher should be allowed to continue giving, however well meaning her foolhardiness may be, a harmful and possibly fatal dose to the children intrusted to her care seems rather a significant commentary on the quality of watchfulness in certain insti- tions.
Obscurity as to the real nature of the drug, fostered by careful deception, isthesafeguardoftheacetanilidvender. Wereitsperilousqualityknown, the headache powder would hardly be so widely used. And were the even more important fact that the use of these powders becomes a habit, akin to the opium or cocain habits, understood by the public, the repeated sales which are the basis of Orangeine's prosperity would undoubtedly be greatly cut down. Orangeine fulfills the prime requisite of a patent medicine in being a good "repeater. " Did it not foster its own demand in the form of a persistent craving, it would hardly be profitable. Its advertising invites to the formation of an addiction to the drug. "Get the habit," it might logically advertise, in imitation of a certain prominent exploitation along legitimate lines. Not only is its value as a cure for nervousness and head-, aches insisted on, but its prospective dupes are advised to take this power- ful drug as a hracer.
"When, as often, you reach home tired in body and mind . . . take an Orangeine powder, lie down for thirty minutes' nap--if possible--any- way, relax, then take another. "
"To induce sleep, take an Orangeine powder immediately before retiring. When wakeful, an Orangeine powder will have a normalizing, quieting elTect. "
It is also recommended as a good thing to begin the day's work on in the morning--that is, take Orangeine, night, morning and between meals
These powders pretend to cure asthma, biliousness, headaches, colds, catarrh and grip (dose: powder every four hours during the day for a week! --a pretty fair start on the Orangeine habit), diarrhea, hay fever, insomnia, influenza, neuralgia, seasickness and sciatica.
Of course, they do not cure any of these ; they do practically nothing but give temporary relief by depressing the heart. With the return to normal conditions of blood circulation comes a recurrence of the nervousness,
? 34
headache, or what not, and the incentive to more of the drug, until it becomesanecessity. Inmyownacquaintance,Iknowhalfadozenpersons who have come to depend on one or another of these headache preparations to keep them going. One young woman whom I have in mind told me quite innocently that she had been taking five or six Orangeine powders a day
AN ACETANILID DEATH RECORD.
This list of fatalities is made up from statements published in the neiospapers. In every case the person who died, had taken to relieve a headache or as a bracer a patent medicine containing acetanilid, imthout a doctor's prescription. This list does not include the case of a dog in Altoona, Pa. , tchich died immediately on eating some sample headache powders. The dog did not know any better.
Mrs. Minnie Bishop, Louisville, Ky. ; Oct. i6, 1903.
Mrs. Mary Cusick and Mrs. Julia Ward, of 172 Perry Street,
New York City; Nov. 27, 1903.
Fred. P. Stock, Scranton, Pa. ; Dec. 7, 1903.
C. Frank Henderson, Toledo, 0. ; Dec. 13, 1903.
Jacob E. Staley, St. Paul, Mich. ; Feb. 18, 1904.
Charles M. Scott, New Albany, Ind. ; March 15, 1904. Oscar McKinley, Pittsburg, Pa. ; April 13, 1904.
Otis Staines, student at Wabash College, April 13, 1904. Mrs. Florence Rumsey, Clinton, la. ; April 23, 1904.
Jenny McGee, Philadelphia, Pa. ; May 26, 1904.
Mrs. ? William Mabee, Leoni, Mich. ; Sept. 9, 1904.
Mrs. Jacob Friedman, of South Bend, Ind. ; Oct-. 19, 1904. Miss Libbie North, Rockdale, N. Y. ; Oct. 26, 1904.
