Armstrong, of this place, and a party of three others started out on a cainping trip to the
Yellowstone
country, taking with them several bottles of whisky and ten bottles of Peruna, which one of the members of the party was taking as a tonic.
Adams-Great-American-Fraud
Tal- bot of Piso's Consumption Cure, turning his guns on the medical profes- sion, delivered this astonishing sentiment:
"No argument favoring the publication of our formulas was ever uttered which does not apply with equal force to your prescriptions. It is pardon- able in you to want to know these formulas, for they are good. But you must not ask us to reveal these valuable secrets, to do what you would notdoyourselves. Thepublicandourlaw-makersdonotwantyoursecrets nor ours, and it would he a damage to them to have them. '"
The physicians seem to have awakened, somewhat tardily, indeed, to counter-attack. The American Medical Association has organized a Coun- cil on Pharmacy and Chemistry to investigate and pass on the "ethical" preparations advertised to phj^sicians, with a view to listing those which are found to be reputable and useful. That this is regarded as a direct assault on the proprietary^ interests is suggested by the protests, eloquent to the verge of frenzy in some cases, emanating from those organs which tlie manufacturers control. Already lIic council has issued some painfully frank reports on products of imposingly scientific nomenclature; and more are to follow.
What One Druggist Is Doing.
Largely for trade reasons a few druggists have been tightiug the nos- trums, but without any considerable eliect. Indeed, it is surprising to see that people are so deeply impressed with the advertising claims put forth daily as to be impervious to warnings even from experts. A cut-rate
? store, the Economical Drug Company of Chicago, started on a campaign and displayed a sign in the Avindow reading:
PLEASE DO NOT ASK US
What IS
ANY OLD PATENT MEDICINE
Worth?
For you embarrass us, as our honest answer must he that
IT IS WORTHLESS
If you mean to ash at what price we sell it, that is an entirely different proposition.
When sick, consult a good physician. It is the only proper
course. Andyouwillfinditcheaperintheendthan eelf-medication tcith worthless "patent" nostrums.
This was followed up by the salesmen informing all applicants for the prominent Rostrums that they were wasting money. * Yet with all this that store was unable to get rid of its patent-medicine trade, and to-day nos- trums comprise one-third of its entire business. They comprise about two- thirds of that of the average small store.
Legislation is the most obvious remedy, pending the enlightenment of the generalpublicortheawakeningofthejournalisticconscience. Butlegisla- tion proceeds slowly and always against opposition, which may be measured in practical terms as $250,000,000 at stake on the other side. I note in the last report of the Proprietary Association's annual meeting the sig- nificant statement that "the heaviest expenses were incurred in legislative work. " Most of the legislation must be done by states, and we have seen in the case of the Hall Catarrh cure contract how readily this may be con- trolled.
Two government agencies, at least, lend themselves to the purposes of the patent-medi'cine makers. The Patent Office issues to them trade-mark registration (generally speaking, the convenient term "patent medicine" is a misnomer, as very few are patented) without inquiry into the nature of the article thus safeguarded against imitation. The Post Office Depart- ment permits them the use of the mails. Except one particular line, the disgraceful "Weak Manhood" remedies, where excellent work has been done in throwing them out of the mails for fraud, the department has done nothing in the matter of patent remedies, and has no present intention of doing anything; yet I believe that such action, powerful as would be
? 10
the opposition developed, would be upheld by the courts on the same grounds tliat sustained the Post Office's position in the recent case of "Kobusto. "
A Post-Office Report.
Tliat the advertising and circular statements circulated through the mails were materially and substantially false, with the result of cheating and defrauding those into whose hands the statements came;
That, while the remedies did possess medicinal properties, these were not such as to carry out the cures promised;
That the advertiser kncAV he w^as deceiving:
That in the sale and distribution of his medicines* the complainant made no inquiry into the specific character of the disease in any individual casp. but supplied the same remedies and prescribed the same mode of treatment to all alike.
Should the department apply these principles to the patent-medicine field generally, a number of conspicuous nostrums would cease to be pat- rons of Uncle Sam's mail service.
Some states have made a good start in the matter of legislation, among them Michigan, which does not, however, enforce its recent strong law. Massachusetts, which has done more, through the admirable work of its State Board of Health, than any ether agency to educate the public on the patent-medicine question, is unable to get a law restricting this trade. In New Hampshire, too, the proprietary interests have proven too strong, and the Mallonee bill was destroyed by the almost united opposition of a "red-clause" press. North Dakota proved more independent. After Jan. 1, 1906, all medicines sold in that state, except on physician's prescriptions, which contain chloral, ergot, morphin, opium, cocain, bromin, iodin or any of their compounds or derivatives, or more than 5 per cent, of alcohol, must so state on the label. When this bill became a law, the Proprietary Association of America proceeded to blight the state by resolving that its members should offer no gcods for sale there.
Boards of health in various parts of the country are doing valuable edu- cational work, the North Dakota board having led in the legislation. The Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina beards have been active. The New York State board has kept its hands off patent medicines, but the Board of Pharmacy has made a cautious but promising beginning by compelling all makers of powders containing ebcain to put a poison label on their goods; and it proposes to extend this ruling gradually to other dangerous compositions.
Health Boards and Analyses.
It is somewhat surprising to find the Health Department of New York City, in many respects the foremost in the country, making no use of care- fully and rather expensively acquired knowledge which would serve to pro- tect the public. More than two years ago analyses were made by the chemists of the department w^hich showed dangerous quantities of cocain in a number of catarrh powders. These analyses have never been printed. Even
*thegeneralnatureoftheinformationhasbeenwithheld. Shouldanycitizen of New York going to the Health Department, have asked: "My wife is taking Birney's Catarrh Powder; is it true that it's a bad thing? " the officials, with the knoAvledge at hand that the drug in question is a maker of cocain fiends, would have blandly emulated the Sphinx, Outside criti- cism of an overworked, undermanned and generally efficient department is liable to error through ignorance of the problems involved in its admin- istration; yet one can not Ijut believe that some form of warning against what is wisely admittedly a public menace would have been a wiser form
? 11
of procedure than that which has heretofore been discovered by the formula, "policy of the department. "
Policies change and broaden under pressure of conditions. The Health Commissioner is now formulating a plan which, with the work of the chem- ists as a basis, shall check the trade in public poisons more or less con- cealed behind proprietary names.
It is impossible, even in a series of articles, to attempt more than an ex- emplary treatment of the patent-medicine fi-auds. The most degraded and degrading, the "lost vitality" and "blood disease" cures, reeking of terroriza- tion and blackmail, can not from their very nature be treated of in a lay journal. Many dangerous and health-destroying compounds v^dll escape through sheer ineonspieuousness. I can touch on only a few of those which may be regarded as typical: the alcohol stimulators, as represented by Peruna, Paine's Celery Compound and Dufly's Pure Malt \Yhiskey (adver- tised as an exclusively medical preparation) ; the catarrh powders, which breed coeain slaves, and the opium-containing soothing syrups, which stunt or kill helpless infants; the consumption cures, perhaps the most devilish of all, in that they destroy hope where hope is struggling against bitter odds for existence; the headache powders, which enslave so insidiously that the victim is ignorant of his own fate; the comparatively harmless fake as typified by that marvelous product of advertising- effrontery, Liquozone; and. finally, the system of exploitation and te-timoninl^ on which the whole vast system of bunco reats^ as on a flimsy but cunning! / constructed foundation.
? Reprinted from Collier^s Weeklt, Oct. 28, 1905.
II. PERUNA AND THE BRACERS.
A distinguished public health official and medical writer once made this jocular suggestion to me:
"Let us buy in large quantities the cheapest Italian vermouth^ poor gin nnd bitters. We will mix them in the proportion of three of vermouth to two of gin, with a dash of bitters, dilute and bottle them by the short quart, label them 'Smitli's Reviver and Blood Purifier; dose, one lo-ineglassful hefore each 7neaV; advertise them to cure erysipelas, bunions, dyspepsia, heat rash, fever and ague, and consumption; and to prevent loss of hair, smallpox, old age, sunstroke and near-sightedness, and make our everlasting fortunes selling them to the temperance trade. "
"That sounds to me very much like a cocktail," said I.
"So it is," he replied. "But it's just as much a medicine as Peruna and not as bad a drink. "
Peruna, or, as its owner. Dr. S. B. Hartman, of Columbus, Ohio (once a physician in good standing), prefers to write it, Pe-ru-na, is at present the most prominent proprietary nostrum in the country. It has taken the place once held by Greene's Nervura and by Paine's Celery Compound, and forthesamereasonwhichmadethempopular. Thenameofthatreasonis alcohol. * Peruna is a stimulant pure and simple, and it is the more dan- gerous in that it sails under the false colors of a benign purpose.
According to an authoritative statement given out in private circulation a few years ago by its proprietors, Peruna is a compound of seven drugs with cologne spirits. The formula, they assure me, has not been materially changed. None of the ^even drugs is of any great potency. Their total is less than one-half of 1 per cent, of the product. Medicinally they are too inconsiderable, in this proportion, to produce any effect. There remains to Peruna only water and cologne spirits, roughly in the proportion of three to one. Cologne spirits is the commercial term of alcohol.
What Peruna Is Made Of.
Any one wishing to make Peruna for home consumption may do so by mixing half a pint of cologne spirits, 190 proof, with a pint and a half of water, adding thereto a little cubebs for flavor and a little burned sugar for cojor. Manufactured in bulk, so a former Peruna agent estimates, its cost, including bottle and wrapper, is between fifteen and eighteen cents a bottle. . Its price is $1. 00. Because of this handsome margin of profit, and by way of making hay in the stolen sunshine of Peruna advertising, many imita- tions have sprung up to harrass the proprietors of the alcohol-and-water product. Pe-ru-vi-na, P-ru-na, Purina, Anurep (an obvious inversion) ; these, bottled and labeled to resemble Peruna, are self-confessed imitations. From what the Peruna people tell me, I gather that they are dangerous and damnable frauds, and that they cure nothing.
What does Peruna cure? Catarrh. That is the modest claim for it; nothing but catarrh. To be sure, a careful study of its literature will sug- gest its value as a tonic and a preventive of lassitude. But its reputation
* Dr. Ashbel P. Grinnell of New York City, who has made a statistical study of patent medicines, asserts as a provable fact that more alcohol is consumed in this country in patent medicines than is dispensed in a legal way by licensed liquor venders, barring the sale of ales and beer.
? 13
rests on catarrh. What is catarrh? Whatever ails joii. Xo matter what you've got, you will be not only enabled, but compelled, after reading- Dr. Hartman's Peruna bcok, 'The Ills of Life/' to diagnose your illness as catarrh and to realize that Peruna alone will save you. Pneumoni' is catarrh of the lungs; so is consumption. Dyspcnsia is catarrh of the stom- ach. Enteritis is catarrh of the intestine^. Appendicitis--surgeons, please note before operating--is catarrh of the appendix. Bright's disease is catarrhofthekidneys. Heartdiseaseiscatarrhoftheheart. Cankerseres are catarrh of the mouth. Measles is, perhaps, catarrh of the skin, since "a teaspoonful of JPeruna thrice daily or oftener is an effectual cure"
("The Ills of Life"). Similarly, malaria, one may guess, is catarrh of the mosquito that bit you. Other diseases not specifically placed in the catarrhal class, but yielding to Peruna. (in the book), are colic, mumps, convulsions, neuralgia, women's complaints and rheumatism. Yet "Peruna is not a cure-all," virtuously disclaims Dr. Hartman, and grasps at a golden opportunity by advertising his nostrum as a preventive against yellow fever! That alcohol and water, with a little coloring matter and one-half of 1 per cent, of mild drugs, will cure all or any of the ills listed above is tooridiculoustoneedrefutation. XordoesDr. Hartmanhimselfpersonally makethatclaimforhisproduct. Hestatedtomespecificallyandrepeat- edly that* no drug or combination of druss, with the possible exception of quinin for malaria, wnll cure disease. His claim is that the belief of the patient in Peruna, fostered as it is by the printed testimony, and aided by the '"gentle stimulation," produces good results. It is well established that incertainclassesofdiseasetheoppositeistrue. Aconsiderableproportion of tuberculosis cases show a history of the Peruna type of medicine taken in the early stages, with the result of diminishing the patient's resistant power, and much of the typhoid in the middle west is complicated by the victim's "keeping up" on this stimulus long after he should have been under a doctor's care. But it is not as a fraud on the sick alone that Peruna is baneful, but as the maker of drunkards also.
"It can be used any length of time without acquiring a drug habit," de- clares the Peruna book, and therein,, I regret to say, lies specifically and directly. The lie is ingeniously backed up by Dr. Hartman's argument that "nobody could get drunk on the prescribed doses of Peruna. "
Perhaps this is true, though I note three wineglassfuls in forty-five min- utes as a prescription, which might temporarily alter a prohibitionists's out- look on life. But what makes Peruna profitable to the maker and a curse to the community at large is the fact that the minimum dose first ceases to satisfy, then the moderate dose, and finally the maximimi dose; and the unsuspecting patron, who began with it as a medicine, goes on to use it as a beverage, and finally to be Qjislaved by it as a habit. A well-known authority on drug addictions writes me:
"A number of physicians have called my attention to the use of Peruna, bothprecedingandfollowingalcoholanddrugaddictions. LydiaPinkham's Compound is another dangerous drug used largely by drinkers; Paine's Celery Compound also. I^ have in the last two years met four cases of persons who drank Peruna in large quantities to intoxication. This was given to them originally as a tonic. They were treated under my care as simple alcoholics. "
The Government Forbids the Sale of Peruna to Indians.
Expert opinion on the non-medical side is represented in the government order to the Indian Department, reproduced on the following page, the kernel of which is this:
"In connection with this investigation, please give particular attention
.
? DEPARTMENT OF THE IXTERIOPw, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
WAj^HINGTOxV, D. C. . . August 10, 190-5.
To Indian Agents and
School Supei'inte')nlenf;< in eharge of Agende-^:
The attention of the OfTitHv has been called to the fact that many licensi'd traders are very ri-/gligent as to the way in which their storeB are kept. Some lack of order might V)e condoned, but it is reported that many stores are dirty even to illthiness. Sneh a condition of aflairs need not l>e toJcratc'd, and improvement in that respect ninst be insisted on.
The Office is not so inexperienced as to sn{:)pose tluat traders open stores among Indians li'om philanthropic motives. Nevertheless a trader has a. great inliuonce among the Indians with whom he has con- stant dealings arid who arf- often dep^-ndent npon him. and there are not a few instances in which the trader has exerted this inilnence for the welikre of Ms ciistora>>-rs as well as for his own profit.
A well-kept store, tidy \n a. ppe;irance, wlnjre th" goods, especially eatal>l(is. nre h;ind! ed in a eleanly wa}', with iliw regard to ordinary hygiene, and wliorc exact business metliods prevail is a civilizing inflii- enee among Indians, vylsilc disonlcr, >lovfnHncss, siipsluid ways, and dirt are demoralizing.
Yon will plciis,' examine into tlie way in which the traders under your snpcrvisioti conduet theii' stores, how tln-ir goods, particidarly edible g(K)ds, are handled, . storeti, and given <<)nt- and sef; to it that in these respects, as wcl! in respect of weights, prices, and account-keep- ing, the husinesH is properly eoiidiicted. If any trader, after due notice. fails to conie np to thetjc recjUTrenients yon will re|)Ort him to thil^ Office.
In connection vziih ihis irivestigation, please give oarticular attention to the proprietary medicines and other coniponnds which the traders keep in stock, with s}>ecial reference to the liability of their misuse by Indians on a(>connt of the alco. hol w-hicii they contain. The sale of Pernna, wldcl) is on the lists of several tiaders, is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a me<iicin<'. something else can be sulxstituted ; as an infoxicant, it has been fiaind too templing a. nd effective. Anything of the sort under another name which is found to lead to intoxication you will please repv)rt to this Office. When a compound of that sort gets a had name it is liabb' ivj be put on the market with, some sliglit change t'f form arid a ? *'-w nanie. Jamaica ginger and Ibivoring extracts of vanilla, lemon, and so forth, should be kept in only small quantities and in small hollies and slnjuid not be sold to Indians, or nt least only sparingly to those who it is known will us*' them only for legitimate purposes. ,
Of C(>urse. you will (Hiiitinue to give attention to the labeling of poison- ous drugs with skull and cross-bones as per Office circular of January
rj, 1905
(. . ^opies of this circular leiter are herewith to be lurnished the traders.
Yours, respectfully.
C. F. LARRABEE, Ading Chmmimoner.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT THINKS OF PERUNA.
Note, in the fifth paragraph, these sentences: "The sale of Peruna, which is on the list of sev- eral traders, ? . ? herehy absolutely prohibited. As a medicine' something else can be substituted : as an mtoxicant it has been found too tempting and effective. "
? ^'5
to the proprietary medicines and other compounds which the traders keep in stock, Avith special reference to the liability of their misuse by Indians onaccountofthealcoholwhichtheycontain. ThesaleofPeruna,whichis on the lists of several traders, is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a medi- cine, something else can be substituted; as an intoxicant, it has been found too tempting and effective. Anything of the sort, under another name, which is found to lead to intoxication, you will please report to this office. "[Signed] F. C. Larrabee, Acting Commissioner. "
Specific evidence of what Peruna can do will be found in the following report, verified by special investigation:
PiNEDALE, Wyo. , Oct. 4. --[Special. ) --"Two men suffering from delirium tremens and one dead is the result of a Peruna intoxication which took place here a few days ago. C. E.
Armstrong, of this place, and a party of three others started out on a cainping trip to the Yellowstone country, taking with them several bottles of whisky and ten bottles of Peruna, which one of the members of the party was taking as a tonic. The trip lastedoveraweek. Thewhiskywasexhaustedandfortwodaystheparty was without liquor. At last some one suggested that they use Peruna, of which nine bottles remained. Before they stopped the whole remaining supply had been consumed and the four men were in a state of intoxication, the like of which they had never known before. Finally, one awoke with terrible cramps in his stomach and found his companions seemingly in an almostlifelesscondition. Sufferingterribleagony,hecrawledonhishands and knees to a ranch over a mile distant, the process taking him half a day. Aid was sent to his three companions. Armstrong was dead when the rescue party arrived. The other two men, still, unconscious, were brought totowninawagonandarestillinaweakandemaciatedcondition. Arm- strong's body was almost tied in a knot and could not be straightened for burial. "
Here is the testimony from a druggist in a "no license" town:
"Peruna is bought by all the druggists in this section by the gross. 1 have seen persons thoroughly intoxicated from taking Peruna. The com- mon remark in this place when a drunken party is particularly obstrep- erous is that he is on a 'Peruna drunk. ' It is a notorious fact that a great many do use Peruna to get the alcoholic effect, and they certainly do get it goodandstrong. Now,thereareotherso-calledremediesusedforthesame purpose, namely, Gensenica, Kidney Specific, Jamaica Ginger, Hostetter's Bitters, etc. "
So well recognized is this use of the nostrum that a number of the Southern newspapers advertise a cure for the "Peruna habit," which is probably worse than the habit, as is usually the case with these "cures. " In southern Ohio and in the mountain districts of West Virginia the "Peruna jag" is a standard form of intoxication.
Two Testimonials.
A testimonial-hunter in the employ of the Peruna company was referred byaMinnesotadruggisttoaprosperousfarmerintheneighborhood. The farmer gave Peruna a most enthusiastic "send-off;" he had been using it for several months and could say, etc. Then he took the agent to his barn and showed liim a heap of empty Peruna bottles. The agent counted them. There were seventy-four. The druggist added his testimonial. "That old boy has a 'still' on all the time since he discovered Peruna," said he. "He's mystarcustomer. " Thedruggist'stestimonialwasnotprinted.
At the time when certain Chicago drug stores were fighting some of the leading patent medicines, and carrying only a small stoclf of them, a boy
? IC
ALCOHOL IN "MEDICINES" AND IN LIQUORS.
These diagi-ams show what would be left in a hottle of patent medicine if everything was poured out except the alcohol ; they also show the quantity of alcohol that would he present if the same bottle had contained whisky, cham- pagne, claret or beer. It is apparent that a bottle of Peruna contains as much alcohol as five bottles of beer, or three bottles of claret or champage--that is, bottles of the sa. me size. It would take nearly nine bottles of beer to put as much alcohol into a thirstj'- man's system as a temperance advocate can get by drinking one bottle of Ilostetter's Stomach Bitters. While the "doses" prescribed by the patent medicine manufactxirers are only one to two teaspoonfuls several times a day, the opportunity to take more exists, and even small doses of alcohol,
taken regularly, cause that craving which is the first step in. the making of a drunkard or drug fiend.
ir
called one evening at one of the downtown shops for thirtj^-nine bottles of Periina. "There's the money," he said. "The old man wants to get his before it's all gone. " Investipation showed that the purchaser was the night engineer of a big downtown building and that the entire working staff had "chipped in" to get a supply of their favorite stimulant,
"But why should any one who wants to get drunk drink Peruna when he can get whisky? " argues the nostrum-maker.
There are two reasons, one of which is that in many places the "medi- cine" can be obtained and the liquor can not, Maine, for instance, being aprohibitionstate,doesabigbusinessinpatentmedicines. SodoesKan- sas. So do most of the no-license coimties in the South, though a few have recently thrown out the disguised "boozes. " Indian Territory and Okla- homa, as we have'seen, liave done so because of Poor Lo's predilection toward curing himself of depression with these remedies, and for a time, at least, Peruna was shipped in in unlabeled boxes.
United States District Attorney Mellette, of the western district of Indian Territory, writes: "Vast quantities of Peruna are shipped into this coun- try, and I have caused a number of persons to be indicted for selling the same, and a few of them have been convicted or have entered pleas of guilty. IcouldgiveyouhundredsofspecificcasesofTerunadrunk'among the Indians, It is a common beverage among them, used for the purposes of intoxication. '^
The other reason why Peruna or some other of its class is often the agency of drunkenness instead of whisky is that the drinker of Peruna doesn't want to get drunk, at least she doesn't know that she wants to get drunk, I use the feminine pronoun advisedly, because the remedies of this class are largely supported by women, Lydia Pinkham's A'ariety of drinkdependsforitspopularitychieflyonitsalcohol, Paine'sCeleryCom- pound relieves depression and lack of vitality on the same principle that a cocktail does, and with the same" necessity for repetition. I know an estimable lady from the middle West who visited her dissipated brother in Kew York^"--dissipated from her point of view, because she was a pillar of the W. C, T. U. , and he frequently took a cocktail before dinner and came back with it on his breath, whereon she would weep over him as one lost toTiope. One day, in a mood of brutal exasperation, when he hadn't had his drink and was able to discern the flavor of her grief, he turned on her:
"I'll tell you what's the matter with you," he said. "You're drunk-- maudlin drunk! "
She promptly and properly went into hysterics. The physician who at- tended diagnosed the case more politely, but to the same effect, and ascer- tained that she had consumed something- like a half a bottle of Kilmer's Swamp-Eoot that afternoon. Xow, Swamp-Eoot is a very creditable "booze," but much weaker in alcohol than most of its class. The brother was greatly amused until he discovered, to his alarm, that his drink- abhorring sister couldn't get along without her patent medicine bottte! She was in a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming a drunkard.
Another example of this "unconscious drunkenness" is recorded by the Journal of the American Medical Association: "A respected clergj-man fell ill and the family physician was called. After examining the patient carefully the doctor asked for a private interview with the patient's adult son.
" "I am sorry to tell you that your father undoubtedly is suffering from chronic alcoholism,' said the physician.
"? 'Chronic alcoholism! Why, that's ridiculous! Father never drank a drop of liquor in his life, and we know all there is to know about his habits. ' " "Well, my boy, it's chronic alcoholism, nevertheless, and at this present
-
? "
? 18
moment your father is drunk. How has his health been recently ? Has he been taking any medicine? '
" 'Why, for some time, six months, I should say, father has often com- plained of feeling unusually tired. A few months ago a friend of his recommended Peruna to him, assuring him that it would build him up. Since then he has taken many bottles of it, and I am quite sure that he has taken nothing else. '
From its very name one would naturally absolve Duffy's INialt Whiskey from fraudulent pretence. But Duffy's Malt Whiskey is a fraud, for ft pretends to be a medicine and to cure all kinds of lung and throat diseases. It is especially favored by temperance folk. "A dessertspoonful four to
A SALOON WINDOW DISPLAY AT AUBURN, N. Y.
This bar-room advertised Duffy's Malt Whiskey, the beverage "indorsed" by the "distinguishecl divines and temperance workers" pictured below, and displays it with other well-known brands of Bourbon and rye--not as a medicine, but purely as a liquor, to be served, like others, in 15-cent drinks across the bar.
six times a day in water and a tablespoonful on going to bed" (personal prescription for consumptive), makes a fair grog allowance for an ab- stainer.
Medicine or Liquor?
"You must not forget," writes the doctor in charge, by way of allaying the supposed scruples of the patient, "that taking Dufi'y's Malt Whiskey in small or medicinal doses is not like taking liquor in large quantities, or as it is usually taken. Taking it a considerable time in medicinal doses,
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THREE '-DISTINGUISHED TEMPERANCE WORKERS" WHO ADVOCATE THE USE OF WHISKEY.
Of these three "distinguished divines and temperance workers," the Rev. Dun- ham runs a Get-Married-Quicli Matrimonial Bureau, while the "Rev. " Houghton derives his income from his salary as Deputy Internal Revenue Collector, his business being to collect Uncle Sam's liquor tax. The printed portrait of Houghton is entirely imaginary ; a genuine photograph of the "temperance worker" and whiskey indorser is shown above. The Rev. McLeod lives in
Greenleaf, Mich. --a township of 893 inhabitants, in Salina County, north of Port Huron, and of the railway line. Mr. McLeod was called to trial by his presbytery for indorsing Duffy's whiskey and was allowed to "resign"' from the fellowship.
? 20
as we direct, leads to health and happiness, while taken the other way it often leads to ruin and decay. If you follow our advice about taking it you will ahvays be in the temperance fold, without qualm of conscience. "
It has testimonials ranging from consumption to malaria, and indorse- mentsoftheclergy. OntheprecedingpagewereproduceaDuffyadvertise- ment showing the "portraits" of three "clergymen" who consider Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey a gift of God, and on page 18 a saloon-window display of tMs product. For the whisky has its recognized place behind the bar, being sold by the manufacturers to the wholesale liquor trade and by them to the saloons, Avhere it may be purchased over the counter for 85 cents a quart. This is cheap, but Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey is not regarded as a high-class article.
REV. W. N. DUNHAM.
Born in Vermont eighty-two years ago, Mr. Dunham was graduated from the Boston Medical College and prac- ticed medicine until about thirty years ago, when he moved west. There he became a preacher. He occupied the pulpit of the South Cheyenne, Wyoming. Congregational Church for ten years. Two years
ago he retired from the pulpit and established a marriage bureau for the accommodation of couples who come over from Colorado to be mar- ried. No money was paid by the Duffy's Malt Whiskey people for Dunham's testimonial ; but he re- ceived about . $10 "to have his pic- ture taken. "
"REV. " M. X. HOUGHTON.
This is the actual likeness of the "distinguished divine" with the side whiskers in the Duffy whiskey ad- vertisement. Mr. Houghton was for a number of years pastor of the Church of Eternal Hope, of Bradford, Pa. He retired six years ago to enter politics, and is now a deputy Internal Revenue collector. Although a mem- ber of the Universalist Church, Mr. Houghton is a spiritualist and deliv- ered orations last summer at the Lily Dale assembly, the spiritualistic "City of Light" located near Dunkirk, N. i. Mr. Houghton owned racehorses and was a patron of the turf.
Its status has been definitely settled in New York State, where Excise Commissioner Cullinane recently obtained a decision in the supreme cOurt declaring it a liquor. The trial was in Rochester, where the nostrum is made. Eleven supposedly reputable physicians, four of them members of the Health Department, swore to their belief that the whisky contained drugs which constituted it a genuine medicine. The state was able to show concln-. iv(ly that if remedial drugs were present they were in such small
? 21
quantities as to be indistinguishable, and, of course, utterly without value; in short, that the product was nothing more or less than sweetened whisky. Yet the United States government has long lent its sanction to the "medi- cine" status by exempting Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey from the federal liquor tax. In fact, the government is primarily responsible for the formal establishment of the product as a medicine, having forced it into the patent medicine ranks at the time when the Spanish war expenses were partly raised by a special tax on nostrums. Up to that time the Duffy product, while asserting its virtues in various ills, made no direct pretence to be anything but a whiskey. Transfer to the patent medicine list cost it, in wartaxes,morethan$40,000. Bywayofgettingaquidproquo,thecom- pany began ingeniously and with some justification to exploit its liquor as "the only whisky recognized by the government as medicine," and con- tinues so to advertise, although the recent decision of the Internal Revenue Department, providing that all patent medicines which have no medicinal properties other than the alcohol in them must pay a rectifier's tax, rele- gates it to its proper place. While this decision is not a severe financial blow to the Duffy and their congeners (it means only a few hundred dol- lars apiece), it is important as officially establishing the "bracer" class on thesamefootingwithwhiskeyandgin,wheretheybelong. Other"drugs" there are which sell largely, perhaps chiefly, over the bar, Hostetter's Bit- ters and Damiana Bitters being prominent in this class.
When this series of articles was first projected Collier's received a warning from "Warner's Safe Cure," advising that a thorough investigation wouldbewisebefore"makinganyattack"onthatpreparation. Ihaveno intention of "attacking" this company or any one else, and they would have escaped notice altogether, because of their present unimportance, but for their letter. The suggested investigation was not so thorough as to go deeply into the nature of the remedy, which is an alcoholic liquid, but it developed this interesting fact: Warner's Safe Cure, together with all the Warner remedies, is leased, managed and controlled by the New York and Kentucky Distilling Company, manufacturers of standard whiskies, which do not pretend to remedy anything but thirst. Duffy's Malt Whiskey is anothersubsidiarycompanyoftheNewYorkandKentuckyconcern. This statement is respectfully submitted to temperance users of the Malt Whis- key and the Warner remedies.
Some Alcohol Percentages.
Hostetter's Bitters contain, according to an official state analysis, 44 per cent of alcohol; Lydia Pinkham appeals to suffering womanhood with 20 per cent, of alcohol; Hood's Sarsaparilla cures "that tired feeling" with 18 per cent. ; Burdock's Blood Bitters, with 25 per cent. ; Ayer's Sarsa- parilla, with 26 per cent. , and Paine's Celery Compound, with 21 per cent. The fact is that any of these remedies could be interchanged with Peruna or with each other, so far as general effect goes, though the iodid of potas- sium in the sarsaparilla class might have some effect (as likely to be harm- fulashelpful) whichwouldbelackinginthesimplermixtures.
If this class of nostrum is so harmful, asks the attentive reader of news- paper advertising columns, how explain the indorsements of so many people of prominence and reputation? "Men of prominence and reputation" in this connection means Peruna, for Peruna has made a specialty of high governmentofficialsandpeopleinthepubliceye. Inaself-gratulatorydis- sertation the Peruna Company observes in substance that, while the leading minds of the nation have hitherto shrunk from the publicity attendant on commending any patent medicine, the transcendent virtues of Peruna have overcome this amiable modesty, and one and all, they stand forth its avowed champions. This is followed by an ingenious document headed.
? 23
"Fifty Members of Congress Send Letters of Indorsement to the Inventor of the Great Catarrh Remedy, Pe-ru-na," and quoting thirty-six of the let- ters. Analysis of these letters brings out the singular circumstance that in twenty-cne of the thirty-six there is no indication that the writer has ever tasted the remedy which he so warmly praises. As a sample, and for the benefit of lovers of ingenious literature, I reprint the following from a
humorous member of Congress:
"My secretary had as bad a case of catarrh as I ever saw, and since he
has taken one bottle of Peruna he seems like a different man.
"Taylorville, N. C. Romulus Z. Linn^ey. " The famous letter of Admiral Schley is a ease in point. He wrote to
the Peruna Company:
"I can cheerfully say that Mrs. Schley has used Peruna, and I believe
with good efi'ect. [Signed] . W. S. Schley. "
This indorsment went the rounds of the country in half-page blazonry, to the consternation of the family's friends. Admiral Schley seems to have appreciated that this use of his name was detrimental to his standing. He wrote to a Columbus religious journal the following letter:
"1826 I Street, Washington, D. C, Nov. 10, 1904. "Editor Catholic Columbian:--The advertisement of the Peruna Com- pany, inclosed, is made without any authority or approval from me. When it was brought to my attention first I wrote the company a letter, stating that the advertisement was ofifensive and must be discontinued. Their representative here called on me and stated he had been directed to assure me no further publication would be allowed, as it was without my sanction. "I would say that the advertisement has been made without my knowledge
or consent and is an infringement of my rights as a citizen.
"If you will kindly inform me what the name and date of the paper
was in which the inclosed advertisement appeared I shall feel obliged. "Very truly yours, W. S. Schley. " Careful study of this document will show that this is no explicit denial
of the testimonial. But who gives careful study to such a letter? On the face of it, it puts the Peruna people in the position of having forged their advertisement. NinetJ^-nine people out of a hundred would get that im- pression. Yet I have seen the testimonial, signed with Admiral Schley's name and interlined in the same handwriting as the signature, and I have seen another letter, similarly signed, stating that Admiral Schley had not understood that the letter was to be used for such advertising as the recipient based on it. If these letters are forgeries the victim has his recourse in the law. They are on file at Columbus, Ohio, and the Peruna Company would doubtless produce them in defense of a suit.
What the Government Can Do.
"No argument favoring the publication of our formulas was ever uttered which does not apply with equal force to your prescriptions. It is pardon- able in you to want to know these formulas, for they are good. But you must not ask us to reveal these valuable secrets, to do what you would notdoyourselves. Thepublicandourlaw-makersdonotwantyoursecrets nor ours, and it would he a damage to them to have them. '"
The physicians seem to have awakened, somewhat tardily, indeed, to counter-attack. The American Medical Association has organized a Coun- cil on Pharmacy and Chemistry to investigate and pass on the "ethical" preparations advertised to phj^sicians, with a view to listing those which are found to be reputable and useful. That this is regarded as a direct assault on the proprietary^ interests is suggested by the protests, eloquent to the verge of frenzy in some cases, emanating from those organs which tlie manufacturers control. Already lIic council has issued some painfully frank reports on products of imposingly scientific nomenclature; and more are to follow.
What One Druggist Is Doing.
Largely for trade reasons a few druggists have been tightiug the nos- trums, but without any considerable eliect. Indeed, it is surprising to see that people are so deeply impressed with the advertising claims put forth daily as to be impervious to warnings even from experts. A cut-rate
? store, the Economical Drug Company of Chicago, started on a campaign and displayed a sign in the Avindow reading:
PLEASE DO NOT ASK US
What IS
ANY OLD PATENT MEDICINE
Worth?
For you embarrass us, as our honest answer must he that
IT IS WORTHLESS
If you mean to ash at what price we sell it, that is an entirely different proposition.
When sick, consult a good physician. It is the only proper
course. Andyouwillfinditcheaperintheendthan eelf-medication tcith worthless "patent" nostrums.
This was followed up by the salesmen informing all applicants for the prominent Rostrums that they were wasting money. * Yet with all this that store was unable to get rid of its patent-medicine trade, and to-day nos- trums comprise one-third of its entire business. They comprise about two- thirds of that of the average small store.
Legislation is the most obvious remedy, pending the enlightenment of the generalpublicortheawakeningofthejournalisticconscience. Butlegisla- tion proceeds slowly and always against opposition, which may be measured in practical terms as $250,000,000 at stake on the other side. I note in the last report of the Proprietary Association's annual meeting the sig- nificant statement that "the heaviest expenses were incurred in legislative work. " Most of the legislation must be done by states, and we have seen in the case of the Hall Catarrh cure contract how readily this may be con- trolled.
Two government agencies, at least, lend themselves to the purposes of the patent-medi'cine makers. The Patent Office issues to them trade-mark registration (generally speaking, the convenient term "patent medicine" is a misnomer, as very few are patented) without inquiry into the nature of the article thus safeguarded against imitation. The Post Office Depart- ment permits them the use of the mails. Except one particular line, the disgraceful "Weak Manhood" remedies, where excellent work has been done in throwing them out of the mails for fraud, the department has done nothing in the matter of patent remedies, and has no present intention of doing anything; yet I believe that such action, powerful as would be
? 10
the opposition developed, would be upheld by the courts on the same grounds tliat sustained the Post Office's position in the recent case of "Kobusto. "
A Post-Office Report.
Tliat the advertising and circular statements circulated through the mails were materially and substantially false, with the result of cheating and defrauding those into whose hands the statements came;
That, while the remedies did possess medicinal properties, these were not such as to carry out the cures promised;
That the advertiser kncAV he w^as deceiving:
That in the sale and distribution of his medicines* the complainant made no inquiry into the specific character of the disease in any individual casp. but supplied the same remedies and prescribed the same mode of treatment to all alike.
Should the department apply these principles to the patent-medicine field generally, a number of conspicuous nostrums would cease to be pat- rons of Uncle Sam's mail service.
Some states have made a good start in the matter of legislation, among them Michigan, which does not, however, enforce its recent strong law. Massachusetts, which has done more, through the admirable work of its State Board of Health, than any ether agency to educate the public on the patent-medicine question, is unable to get a law restricting this trade. In New Hampshire, too, the proprietary interests have proven too strong, and the Mallonee bill was destroyed by the almost united opposition of a "red-clause" press. North Dakota proved more independent. After Jan. 1, 1906, all medicines sold in that state, except on physician's prescriptions, which contain chloral, ergot, morphin, opium, cocain, bromin, iodin or any of their compounds or derivatives, or more than 5 per cent, of alcohol, must so state on the label. When this bill became a law, the Proprietary Association of America proceeded to blight the state by resolving that its members should offer no gcods for sale there.
Boards of health in various parts of the country are doing valuable edu- cational work, the North Dakota board having led in the legislation. The Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina beards have been active. The New York State board has kept its hands off patent medicines, but the Board of Pharmacy has made a cautious but promising beginning by compelling all makers of powders containing ebcain to put a poison label on their goods; and it proposes to extend this ruling gradually to other dangerous compositions.
Health Boards and Analyses.
It is somewhat surprising to find the Health Department of New York City, in many respects the foremost in the country, making no use of care- fully and rather expensively acquired knowledge which would serve to pro- tect the public. More than two years ago analyses were made by the chemists of the department w^hich showed dangerous quantities of cocain in a number of catarrh powders. These analyses have never been printed. Even
*thegeneralnatureoftheinformationhasbeenwithheld. Shouldanycitizen of New York going to the Health Department, have asked: "My wife is taking Birney's Catarrh Powder; is it true that it's a bad thing? " the officials, with the knoAvledge at hand that the drug in question is a maker of cocain fiends, would have blandly emulated the Sphinx, Outside criti- cism of an overworked, undermanned and generally efficient department is liable to error through ignorance of the problems involved in its admin- istration; yet one can not Ijut believe that some form of warning against what is wisely admittedly a public menace would have been a wiser form
? 11
of procedure than that which has heretofore been discovered by the formula, "policy of the department. "
Policies change and broaden under pressure of conditions. The Health Commissioner is now formulating a plan which, with the work of the chem- ists as a basis, shall check the trade in public poisons more or less con- cealed behind proprietary names.
It is impossible, even in a series of articles, to attempt more than an ex- emplary treatment of the patent-medicine fi-auds. The most degraded and degrading, the "lost vitality" and "blood disease" cures, reeking of terroriza- tion and blackmail, can not from their very nature be treated of in a lay journal. Many dangerous and health-destroying compounds v^dll escape through sheer ineonspieuousness. I can touch on only a few of those which may be regarded as typical: the alcohol stimulators, as represented by Peruna, Paine's Celery Compound and Dufly's Pure Malt \Yhiskey (adver- tised as an exclusively medical preparation) ; the catarrh powders, which breed coeain slaves, and the opium-containing soothing syrups, which stunt or kill helpless infants; the consumption cures, perhaps the most devilish of all, in that they destroy hope where hope is struggling against bitter odds for existence; the headache powders, which enslave so insidiously that the victim is ignorant of his own fate; the comparatively harmless fake as typified by that marvelous product of advertising- effrontery, Liquozone; and. finally, the system of exploitation and te-timoninl^ on which the whole vast system of bunco reats^ as on a flimsy but cunning! / constructed foundation.
? Reprinted from Collier^s Weeklt, Oct. 28, 1905.
II. PERUNA AND THE BRACERS.
A distinguished public health official and medical writer once made this jocular suggestion to me:
"Let us buy in large quantities the cheapest Italian vermouth^ poor gin nnd bitters. We will mix them in the proportion of three of vermouth to two of gin, with a dash of bitters, dilute and bottle them by the short quart, label them 'Smitli's Reviver and Blood Purifier; dose, one lo-ineglassful hefore each 7neaV; advertise them to cure erysipelas, bunions, dyspepsia, heat rash, fever and ague, and consumption; and to prevent loss of hair, smallpox, old age, sunstroke and near-sightedness, and make our everlasting fortunes selling them to the temperance trade. "
"That sounds to me very much like a cocktail," said I.
"So it is," he replied. "But it's just as much a medicine as Peruna and not as bad a drink. "
Peruna, or, as its owner. Dr. S. B. Hartman, of Columbus, Ohio (once a physician in good standing), prefers to write it, Pe-ru-na, is at present the most prominent proprietary nostrum in the country. It has taken the place once held by Greene's Nervura and by Paine's Celery Compound, and forthesamereasonwhichmadethempopular. Thenameofthatreasonis alcohol. * Peruna is a stimulant pure and simple, and it is the more dan- gerous in that it sails under the false colors of a benign purpose.
According to an authoritative statement given out in private circulation a few years ago by its proprietors, Peruna is a compound of seven drugs with cologne spirits. The formula, they assure me, has not been materially changed. None of the ^even drugs is of any great potency. Their total is less than one-half of 1 per cent, of the product. Medicinally they are too inconsiderable, in this proportion, to produce any effect. There remains to Peruna only water and cologne spirits, roughly in the proportion of three to one. Cologne spirits is the commercial term of alcohol.
What Peruna Is Made Of.
Any one wishing to make Peruna for home consumption may do so by mixing half a pint of cologne spirits, 190 proof, with a pint and a half of water, adding thereto a little cubebs for flavor and a little burned sugar for cojor. Manufactured in bulk, so a former Peruna agent estimates, its cost, including bottle and wrapper, is between fifteen and eighteen cents a bottle. . Its price is $1. 00. Because of this handsome margin of profit, and by way of making hay in the stolen sunshine of Peruna advertising, many imita- tions have sprung up to harrass the proprietors of the alcohol-and-water product. Pe-ru-vi-na, P-ru-na, Purina, Anurep (an obvious inversion) ; these, bottled and labeled to resemble Peruna, are self-confessed imitations. From what the Peruna people tell me, I gather that they are dangerous and damnable frauds, and that they cure nothing.
What does Peruna cure? Catarrh. That is the modest claim for it; nothing but catarrh. To be sure, a careful study of its literature will sug- gest its value as a tonic and a preventive of lassitude. But its reputation
* Dr. Ashbel P. Grinnell of New York City, who has made a statistical study of patent medicines, asserts as a provable fact that more alcohol is consumed in this country in patent medicines than is dispensed in a legal way by licensed liquor venders, barring the sale of ales and beer.
? 13
rests on catarrh. What is catarrh? Whatever ails joii. Xo matter what you've got, you will be not only enabled, but compelled, after reading- Dr. Hartman's Peruna bcok, 'The Ills of Life/' to diagnose your illness as catarrh and to realize that Peruna alone will save you. Pneumoni' is catarrh of the lungs; so is consumption. Dyspcnsia is catarrh of the stom- ach. Enteritis is catarrh of the intestine^. Appendicitis--surgeons, please note before operating--is catarrh of the appendix. Bright's disease is catarrhofthekidneys. Heartdiseaseiscatarrhoftheheart. Cankerseres are catarrh of the mouth. Measles is, perhaps, catarrh of the skin, since "a teaspoonful of JPeruna thrice daily or oftener is an effectual cure"
("The Ills of Life"). Similarly, malaria, one may guess, is catarrh of the mosquito that bit you. Other diseases not specifically placed in the catarrhal class, but yielding to Peruna. (in the book), are colic, mumps, convulsions, neuralgia, women's complaints and rheumatism. Yet "Peruna is not a cure-all," virtuously disclaims Dr. Hartman, and grasps at a golden opportunity by advertising his nostrum as a preventive against yellow fever! That alcohol and water, with a little coloring matter and one-half of 1 per cent, of mild drugs, will cure all or any of the ills listed above is tooridiculoustoneedrefutation. XordoesDr. Hartmanhimselfpersonally makethatclaimforhisproduct. Hestatedtomespecificallyandrepeat- edly that* no drug or combination of druss, with the possible exception of quinin for malaria, wnll cure disease. His claim is that the belief of the patient in Peruna, fostered as it is by the printed testimony, and aided by the '"gentle stimulation," produces good results. It is well established that incertainclassesofdiseasetheoppositeistrue. Aconsiderableproportion of tuberculosis cases show a history of the Peruna type of medicine taken in the early stages, with the result of diminishing the patient's resistant power, and much of the typhoid in the middle west is complicated by the victim's "keeping up" on this stimulus long after he should have been under a doctor's care. But it is not as a fraud on the sick alone that Peruna is baneful, but as the maker of drunkards also.
"It can be used any length of time without acquiring a drug habit," de- clares the Peruna book, and therein,, I regret to say, lies specifically and directly. The lie is ingeniously backed up by Dr. Hartman's argument that "nobody could get drunk on the prescribed doses of Peruna. "
Perhaps this is true, though I note three wineglassfuls in forty-five min- utes as a prescription, which might temporarily alter a prohibitionists's out- look on life. But what makes Peruna profitable to the maker and a curse to the community at large is the fact that the minimum dose first ceases to satisfy, then the moderate dose, and finally the maximimi dose; and the unsuspecting patron, who began with it as a medicine, goes on to use it as a beverage, and finally to be Qjislaved by it as a habit. A well-known authority on drug addictions writes me:
"A number of physicians have called my attention to the use of Peruna, bothprecedingandfollowingalcoholanddrugaddictions. LydiaPinkham's Compound is another dangerous drug used largely by drinkers; Paine's Celery Compound also. I^ have in the last two years met four cases of persons who drank Peruna in large quantities to intoxication. This was given to them originally as a tonic. They were treated under my care as simple alcoholics. "
The Government Forbids the Sale of Peruna to Indians.
Expert opinion on the non-medical side is represented in the government order to the Indian Department, reproduced on the following page, the kernel of which is this:
"In connection with this investigation, please give particular attention
.
? DEPARTMENT OF THE IXTERIOPw, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
WAj^HINGTOxV, D. C. . . August 10, 190-5.
To Indian Agents and
School Supei'inte')nlenf;< in eharge of Agende-^:
The attention of the OfTitHv has been called to the fact that many licensi'd traders are very ri-/gligent as to the way in which their storeB are kept. Some lack of order might V)e condoned, but it is reported that many stores are dirty even to illthiness. Sneh a condition of aflairs need not l>e toJcratc'd, and improvement in that respect ninst be insisted on.
The Office is not so inexperienced as to sn{:)pose tluat traders open stores among Indians li'om philanthropic motives. Nevertheless a trader has a. great inliuonce among the Indians with whom he has con- stant dealings arid who arf- often dep^-ndent npon him. and there are not a few instances in which the trader has exerted this inilnence for the welikre of Ms ciistora>>-rs as well as for his own profit.
A well-kept store, tidy \n a. ppe;irance, wlnjre th" goods, especially eatal>l(is. nre h;ind! ed in a eleanly wa}', with iliw regard to ordinary hygiene, and wliorc exact business metliods prevail is a civilizing inflii- enee among Indians, vylsilc disonlcr, >lovfnHncss, siipsluid ways, and dirt are demoralizing.
Yon will plciis,' examine into tlie way in which the traders under your snpcrvisioti conduet theii' stores, how tln-ir goods, particidarly edible g(K)ds, are handled, . storeti, and given <<)nt- and sef; to it that in these respects, as wcl! in respect of weights, prices, and account-keep- ing, the husinesH is properly eoiidiicted. If any trader, after due notice. fails to conie np to thetjc recjUTrenients yon will re|)Ort him to thil^ Office.
In connection vziih ihis irivestigation, please give oarticular attention to the proprietary medicines and other coniponnds which the traders keep in stock, with s}>ecial reference to the liability of their misuse by Indians on a(>connt of the alco. hol w-hicii they contain. The sale of Pernna, wldcl) is on the lists of several tiaders, is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a me<iicin<'. something else can be sulxstituted ; as an infoxicant, it has been fiaind too templing a. nd effective. Anything of the sort under another name which is found to lead to intoxication you will please repv)rt to this Office. When a compound of that sort gets a had name it is liabb' ivj be put on the market with, some sliglit change t'f form arid a ? *'-w nanie. Jamaica ginger and Ibivoring extracts of vanilla, lemon, and so forth, should be kept in only small quantities and in small hollies and slnjuid not be sold to Indians, or nt least only sparingly to those who it is known will us*' them only for legitimate purposes. ,
Of C(>urse. you will (Hiiitinue to give attention to the labeling of poison- ous drugs with skull and cross-bones as per Office circular of January
rj, 1905
(. . ^opies of this circular leiter are herewith to be lurnished the traders.
Yours, respectfully.
C. F. LARRABEE, Ading Chmmimoner.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT THINKS OF PERUNA.
Note, in the fifth paragraph, these sentences: "The sale of Peruna, which is on the list of sev- eral traders, ? . ? herehy absolutely prohibited. As a medicine' something else can be substituted : as an mtoxicant it has been found too tempting and effective. "
? ^'5
to the proprietary medicines and other compounds which the traders keep in stock, Avith special reference to the liability of their misuse by Indians onaccountofthealcoholwhichtheycontain. ThesaleofPeruna,whichis on the lists of several traders, is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a medi- cine, something else can be substituted; as an intoxicant, it has been found too tempting and effective. Anything of the sort, under another name, which is found to lead to intoxication, you will please report to this office. "[Signed] F. C. Larrabee, Acting Commissioner. "
Specific evidence of what Peruna can do will be found in the following report, verified by special investigation:
PiNEDALE, Wyo. , Oct. 4. --[Special. ) --"Two men suffering from delirium tremens and one dead is the result of a Peruna intoxication which took place here a few days ago. C. E.
Armstrong, of this place, and a party of three others started out on a cainping trip to the Yellowstone country, taking with them several bottles of whisky and ten bottles of Peruna, which one of the members of the party was taking as a tonic. The trip lastedoveraweek. Thewhiskywasexhaustedandfortwodaystheparty was without liquor. At last some one suggested that they use Peruna, of which nine bottles remained. Before they stopped the whole remaining supply had been consumed and the four men were in a state of intoxication, the like of which they had never known before. Finally, one awoke with terrible cramps in his stomach and found his companions seemingly in an almostlifelesscondition. Sufferingterribleagony,hecrawledonhishands and knees to a ranch over a mile distant, the process taking him half a day. Aid was sent to his three companions. Armstrong was dead when the rescue party arrived. The other two men, still, unconscious, were brought totowninawagonandarestillinaweakandemaciatedcondition. Arm- strong's body was almost tied in a knot and could not be straightened for burial. "
Here is the testimony from a druggist in a "no license" town:
"Peruna is bought by all the druggists in this section by the gross. 1 have seen persons thoroughly intoxicated from taking Peruna. The com- mon remark in this place when a drunken party is particularly obstrep- erous is that he is on a 'Peruna drunk. ' It is a notorious fact that a great many do use Peruna to get the alcoholic effect, and they certainly do get it goodandstrong. Now,thereareotherso-calledremediesusedforthesame purpose, namely, Gensenica, Kidney Specific, Jamaica Ginger, Hostetter's Bitters, etc. "
So well recognized is this use of the nostrum that a number of the Southern newspapers advertise a cure for the "Peruna habit," which is probably worse than the habit, as is usually the case with these "cures. " In southern Ohio and in the mountain districts of West Virginia the "Peruna jag" is a standard form of intoxication.
Two Testimonials.
A testimonial-hunter in the employ of the Peruna company was referred byaMinnesotadruggisttoaprosperousfarmerintheneighborhood. The farmer gave Peruna a most enthusiastic "send-off;" he had been using it for several months and could say, etc. Then he took the agent to his barn and showed liim a heap of empty Peruna bottles. The agent counted them. There were seventy-four. The druggist added his testimonial. "That old boy has a 'still' on all the time since he discovered Peruna," said he. "He's mystarcustomer. " Thedruggist'stestimonialwasnotprinted.
At the time when certain Chicago drug stores were fighting some of the leading patent medicines, and carrying only a small stoclf of them, a boy
? IC
ALCOHOL IN "MEDICINES" AND IN LIQUORS.
These diagi-ams show what would be left in a hottle of patent medicine if everything was poured out except the alcohol ; they also show the quantity of alcohol that would he present if the same bottle had contained whisky, cham- pagne, claret or beer. It is apparent that a bottle of Peruna contains as much alcohol as five bottles of beer, or three bottles of claret or champage--that is, bottles of the sa. me size. It would take nearly nine bottles of beer to put as much alcohol into a thirstj'- man's system as a temperance advocate can get by drinking one bottle of Ilostetter's Stomach Bitters. While the "doses" prescribed by the patent medicine manufactxirers are only one to two teaspoonfuls several times a day, the opportunity to take more exists, and even small doses of alcohol,
taken regularly, cause that craving which is the first step in. the making of a drunkard or drug fiend.
ir
called one evening at one of the downtown shops for thirtj^-nine bottles of Periina. "There's the money," he said. "The old man wants to get his before it's all gone. " Investipation showed that the purchaser was the night engineer of a big downtown building and that the entire working staff had "chipped in" to get a supply of their favorite stimulant,
"But why should any one who wants to get drunk drink Peruna when he can get whisky? " argues the nostrum-maker.
There are two reasons, one of which is that in many places the "medi- cine" can be obtained and the liquor can not, Maine, for instance, being aprohibitionstate,doesabigbusinessinpatentmedicines. SodoesKan- sas. So do most of the no-license coimties in the South, though a few have recently thrown out the disguised "boozes. " Indian Territory and Okla- homa, as we have'seen, liave done so because of Poor Lo's predilection toward curing himself of depression with these remedies, and for a time, at least, Peruna was shipped in in unlabeled boxes.
United States District Attorney Mellette, of the western district of Indian Territory, writes: "Vast quantities of Peruna are shipped into this coun- try, and I have caused a number of persons to be indicted for selling the same, and a few of them have been convicted or have entered pleas of guilty. IcouldgiveyouhundredsofspecificcasesofTerunadrunk'among the Indians, It is a common beverage among them, used for the purposes of intoxication. '^
The other reason why Peruna or some other of its class is often the agency of drunkenness instead of whisky is that the drinker of Peruna doesn't want to get drunk, at least she doesn't know that she wants to get drunk, I use the feminine pronoun advisedly, because the remedies of this class are largely supported by women, Lydia Pinkham's A'ariety of drinkdependsforitspopularitychieflyonitsalcohol, Paine'sCeleryCom- pound relieves depression and lack of vitality on the same principle that a cocktail does, and with the same" necessity for repetition. I know an estimable lady from the middle West who visited her dissipated brother in Kew York^"--dissipated from her point of view, because she was a pillar of the W. C, T. U. , and he frequently took a cocktail before dinner and came back with it on his breath, whereon she would weep over him as one lost toTiope. One day, in a mood of brutal exasperation, when he hadn't had his drink and was able to discern the flavor of her grief, he turned on her:
"I'll tell you what's the matter with you," he said. "You're drunk-- maudlin drunk! "
She promptly and properly went into hysterics. The physician who at- tended diagnosed the case more politely, but to the same effect, and ascer- tained that she had consumed something- like a half a bottle of Kilmer's Swamp-Eoot that afternoon. Xow, Swamp-Eoot is a very creditable "booze," but much weaker in alcohol than most of its class. The brother was greatly amused until he discovered, to his alarm, that his drink- abhorring sister couldn't get along without her patent medicine bottte! She was in a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming a drunkard.
Another example of this "unconscious drunkenness" is recorded by the Journal of the American Medical Association: "A respected clergj-man fell ill and the family physician was called. After examining the patient carefully the doctor asked for a private interview with the patient's adult son.
" "I am sorry to tell you that your father undoubtedly is suffering from chronic alcoholism,' said the physician.
"? 'Chronic alcoholism! Why, that's ridiculous! Father never drank a drop of liquor in his life, and we know all there is to know about his habits. ' " "Well, my boy, it's chronic alcoholism, nevertheless, and at this present
-
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moment your father is drunk. How has his health been recently ? Has he been taking any medicine? '
" 'Why, for some time, six months, I should say, father has often com- plained of feeling unusually tired. A few months ago a friend of his recommended Peruna to him, assuring him that it would build him up. Since then he has taken many bottles of it, and I am quite sure that he has taken nothing else. '
From its very name one would naturally absolve Duffy's INialt Whiskey from fraudulent pretence. But Duffy's Malt Whiskey is a fraud, for ft pretends to be a medicine and to cure all kinds of lung and throat diseases. It is especially favored by temperance folk. "A dessertspoonful four to
A SALOON WINDOW DISPLAY AT AUBURN, N. Y.
This bar-room advertised Duffy's Malt Whiskey, the beverage "indorsed" by the "distinguishecl divines and temperance workers" pictured below, and displays it with other well-known brands of Bourbon and rye--not as a medicine, but purely as a liquor, to be served, like others, in 15-cent drinks across the bar.
six times a day in water and a tablespoonful on going to bed" (personal prescription for consumptive), makes a fair grog allowance for an ab- stainer.
Medicine or Liquor?
"You must not forget," writes the doctor in charge, by way of allaying the supposed scruples of the patient, "that taking Dufi'y's Malt Whiskey in small or medicinal doses is not like taking liquor in large quantities, or as it is usually taken. Taking it a considerable time in medicinal doses,
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THREE '-DISTINGUISHED TEMPERANCE WORKERS" WHO ADVOCATE THE USE OF WHISKEY.
Of these three "distinguished divines and temperance workers," the Rev. Dun- ham runs a Get-Married-Quicli Matrimonial Bureau, while the "Rev. " Houghton derives his income from his salary as Deputy Internal Revenue Collector, his business being to collect Uncle Sam's liquor tax. The printed portrait of Houghton is entirely imaginary ; a genuine photograph of the "temperance worker" and whiskey indorser is shown above. The Rev. McLeod lives in
Greenleaf, Mich. --a township of 893 inhabitants, in Salina County, north of Port Huron, and of the railway line. Mr. McLeod was called to trial by his presbytery for indorsing Duffy's whiskey and was allowed to "resign"' from the fellowship.
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as we direct, leads to health and happiness, while taken the other way it often leads to ruin and decay. If you follow our advice about taking it you will ahvays be in the temperance fold, without qualm of conscience. "
It has testimonials ranging from consumption to malaria, and indorse- mentsoftheclergy. OntheprecedingpagewereproduceaDuffyadvertise- ment showing the "portraits" of three "clergymen" who consider Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey a gift of God, and on page 18 a saloon-window display of tMs product. For the whisky has its recognized place behind the bar, being sold by the manufacturers to the wholesale liquor trade and by them to the saloons, Avhere it may be purchased over the counter for 85 cents a quart. This is cheap, but Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey is not regarded as a high-class article.
REV. W. N. DUNHAM.
Born in Vermont eighty-two years ago, Mr. Dunham was graduated from the Boston Medical College and prac- ticed medicine until about thirty years ago, when he moved west. There he became a preacher. He occupied the pulpit of the South Cheyenne, Wyoming. Congregational Church for ten years. Two years
ago he retired from the pulpit and established a marriage bureau for the accommodation of couples who come over from Colorado to be mar- ried. No money was paid by the Duffy's Malt Whiskey people for Dunham's testimonial ; but he re- ceived about . $10 "to have his pic- ture taken. "
"REV. " M. X. HOUGHTON.
This is the actual likeness of the "distinguished divine" with the side whiskers in the Duffy whiskey ad- vertisement. Mr. Houghton was for a number of years pastor of the Church of Eternal Hope, of Bradford, Pa. He retired six years ago to enter politics, and is now a deputy Internal Revenue collector. Although a mem- ber of the Universalist Church, Mr. Houghton is a spiritualist and deliv- ered orations last summer at the Lily Dale assembly, the spiritualistic "City of Light" located near Dunkirk, N. i. Mr. Houghton owned racehorses and was a patron of the turf.
Its status has been definitely settled in New York State, where Excise Commissioner Cullinane recently obtained a decision in the supreme cOurt declaring it a liquor. The trial was in Rochester, where the nostrum is made. Eleven supposedly reputable physicians, four of them members of the Health Department, swore to their belief that the whisky contained drugs which constituted it a genuine medicine. The state was able to show concln-. iv(ly that if remedial drugs were present they were in such small
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quantities as to be indistinguishable, and, of course, utterly without value; in short, that the product was nothing more or less than sweetened whisky. Yet the United States government has long lent its sanction to the "medi- cine" status by exempting Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey from the federal liquor tax. In fact, the government is primarily responsible for the formal establishment of the product as a medicine, having forced it into the patent medicine ranks at the time when the Spanish war expenses were partly raised by a special tax on nostrums. Up to that time the Duffy product, while asserting its virtues in various ills, made no direct pretence to be anything but a whiskey. Transfer to the patent medicine list cost it, in wartaxes,morethan$40,000. Bywayofgettingaquidproquo,thecom- pany began ingeniously and with some justification to exploit its liquor as "the only whisky recognized by the government as medicine," and con- tinues so to advertise, although the recent decision of the Internal Revenue Department, providing that all patent medicines which have no medicinal properties other than the alcohol in them must pay a rectifier's tax, rele- gates it to its proper place. While this decision is not a severe financial blow to the Duffy and their congeners (it means only a few hundred dol- lars apiece), it is important as officially establishing the "bracer" class on thesamefootingwithwhiskeyandgin,wheretheybelong. Other"drugs" there are which sell largely, perhaps chiefly, over the bar, Hostetter's Bit- ters and Damiana Bitters being prominent in this class.
When this series of articles was first projected Collier's received a warning from "Warner's Safe Cure," advising that a thorough investigation wouldbewisebefore"makinganyattack"onthatpreparation. Ihaveno intention of "attacking" this company or any one else, and they would have escaped notice altogether, because of their present unimportance, but for their letter. The suggested investigation was not so thorough as to go deeply into the nature of the remedy, which is an alcoholic liquid, but it developed this interesting fact: Warner's Safe Cure, together with all the Warner remedies, is leased, managed and controlled by the New York and Kentucky Distilling Company, manufacturers of standard whiskies, which do not pretend to remedy anything but thirst. Duffy's Malt Whiskey is anothersubsidiarycompanyoftheNewYorkandKentuckyconcern. This statement is respectfully submitted to temperance users of the Malt Whis- key and the Warner remedies.
Some Alcohol Percentages.
Hostetter's Bitters contain, according to an official state analysis, 44 per cent of alcohol; Lydia Pinkham appeals to suffering womanhood with 20 per cent, of alcohol; Hood's Sarsaparilla cures "that tired feeling" with 18 per cent. ; Burdock's Blood Bitters, with 25 per cent. ; Ayer's Sarsa- parilla, with 26 per cent. , and Paine's Celery Compound, with 21 per cent. The fact is that any of these remedies could be interchanged with Peruna or with each other, so far as general effect goes, though the iodid of potas- sium in the sarsaparilla class might have some effect (as likely to be harm- fulashelpful) whichwouldbelackinginthesimplermixtures.
If this class of nostrum is so harmful, asks the attentive reader of news- paper advertising columns, how explain the indorsements of so many people of prominence and reputation? "Men of prominence and reputation" in this connection means Peruna, for Peruna has made a specialty of high governmentofficialsandpeopleinthepubliceye. Inaself-gratulatorydis- sertation the Peruna Company observes in substance that, while the leading minds of the nation have hitherto shrunk from the publicity attendant on commending any patent medicine, the transcendent virtues of Peruna have overcome this amiable modesty, and one and all, they stand forth its avowed champions. This is followed by an ingenious document headed.
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"Fifty Members of Congress Send Letters of Indorsement to the Inventor of the Great Catarrh Remedy, Pe-ru-na," and quoting thirty-six of the let- ters. Analysis of these letters brings out the singular circumstance that in twenty-cne of the thirty-six there is no indication that the writer has ever tasted the remedy which he so warmly praises. As a sample, and for the benefit of lovers of ingenious literature, I reprint the following from a
humorous member of Congress:
"My secretary had as bad a case of catarrh as I ever saw, and since he
has taken one bottle of Peruna he seems like a different man.
"Taylorville, N. C. Romulus Z. Linn^ey. " The famous letter of Admiral Schley is a ease in point. He wrote to
the Peruna Company:
"I can cheerfully say that Mrs. Schley has used Peruna, and I believe
with good efi'ect. [Signed] . W. S. Schley. "
This indorsment went the rounds of the country in half-page blazonry, to the consternation of the family's friends. Admiral Schley seems to have appreciated that this use of his name was detrimental to his standing. He wrote to a Columbus religious journal the following letter:
"1826 I Street, Washington, D. C, Nov. 10, 1904. "Editor Catholic Columbian:--The advertisement of the Peruna Com- pany, inclosed, is made without any authority or approval from me. When it was brought to my attention first I wrote the company a letter, stating that the advertisement was ofifensive and must be discontinued. Their representative here called on me and stated he had been directed to assure me no further publication would be allowed, as it was without my sanction. "I would say that the advertisement has been made without my knowledge
or consent and is an infringement of my rights as a citizen.
"If you will kindly inform me what the name and date of the paper
was in which the inclosed advertisement appeared I shall feel obliged. "Very truly yours, W. S. Schley. " Careful study of this document will show that this is no explicit denial
of the testimonial. But who gives careful study to such a letter? On the face of it, it puts the Peruna people in the position of having forged their advertisement. NinetJ^-nine people out of a hundred would get that im- pression. Yet I have seen the testimonial, signed with Admiral Schley's name and interlined in the same handwriting as the signature, and I have seen another letter, similarly signed, stating that Admiral Schley had not understood that the letter was to be used for such advertising as the recipient based on it. If these letters are forgeries the victim has his recourse in the law. They are on file at Columbus, Ohio, and the Peruna Company would doubtless produce them in defense of a suit.
What the Government Can Do.
