Hehad run his father $300 in debt, so heavy were his
purchases
of the poison.
Adams-Great-American-Fraud
There is no word of warning on the label.
In many places samples of headache powders are distributedonthedoorsteps.
TheSt.
LouisChroniclerecordsaresult:
"Huntington, W. Va. , Aug. 15, 1905. --While Mrs. Thomas Patterson was preparing supper last evening she was stricken with a violent head- ache and took a headache powder that had been thrown in at her door the day before. Immediately she was seized with spasms and in an hour she Avas dead. "
That even the lower order of animals is not safe is shown by a canine tragedy in Altoona, Pa. , where a prize collie dog incautiously devoured three sample tablets and died in an hour. Yet the distributing agents of these mixtures do not hesitate to lie about them. Rochester, N. Y. , has an excel- lent ordinance forbidding the distribution of sample medicines, except by permission of the health officer. An agent for Miniature Headache Powders called on Dr. Goler with a request for leave to distribute 25,000 samples.
"What's your formula? " asked the official.
"Salicylate of soda and sugar of milk," replied the traveling man.
"And you pretend to cure headaches with that? " said the doctor. "ITl
look into it. "
Analysis showed that the powders were an acetanilid mixture. The sample
man didn't wait for the result. He hasn't been back to Rochester since, although Dr. Goler is hopefully awaiting him.
Bromo-Seltzer is commonly sold in drug stores, both by the bottle and at sodafoui^tains. Thefulldoseis"aheapingteaspoonful. " Aheapingtea- spoonful of Bromo-Seltzer means about ten grains of acetanilid. The United States Pharmacopeia dose is four grains; five grains have been known to produce fatal results. The prescribed dose of Bromo-Seltzer is dangerous and has been known to produce sudden collapse.
Megrimine is ai warranted headache cure that is advertised in several of the magazines. A newly arrived guest at a Long Island house party brought along several lots and distributed them as a remedy for headache and that tired feeling. It was perfectly harmless, she declared; didn't the advertisement say "leaves no unpleasant effects? " As a late dance the night before had left its impress on the feminine members of the house party,therewasageneralacceptanceofthe"bracer. " Thatnightthelocal physician visited the house party (on special "rush" invitation), and was well satisfied to pull all his patients through. He had never Isefore seen acetanilidpoisoningbywholesale. AChicagodruggistwritesmethatthe wife of a prominent physician buys Megrimine of him by the half-dozen lots secretly. She has the habit.
On October 9, W. H. Hawkins, superintendent of the American Detective Association, a man of powerful physique and apparently in good health, went to a drug store in Anderson, Ind. , ajid took a dose of Dr. Davis' Headache Powders. He then boarded a car for Marion, and shortly after fell to the fioor, dead. The coroner's verdict is reproduced on page 35.
Whether these powders are made by a Dr. W. C. Davis, of Indianapolis, who makes Anti-Headache, I am unable to state. Anti-Headache describes itself as "a compound of mild ingredients and positively contains no dangerous drugs. " It is almost pure acetanilid.
In the "ethical" field the harm done by this class of proprietaries is per-
? 38
haps as great as in the open field, for many of those whicli are supposed to be sold only in prescriptions are as freely distributed to tlie laity as Pei'iina. And their advertising is hardly different.
Dangers of Antikamnia.
Antikamnia, claiming to be an "ethical" remedy, and advertising through
the medical press by methods that would, with little alteration, fit any patent painkiller on the market, is no less dangerous or fraudulent than the Orangeine class which it almost exactly parallels in composition. It was at first exploited as a "new synthetical coal-tar derivative," which it isn't and never was. It is simply half or more acetanilid (some analyses show as high as 68 per cent. ) with other vmimportant ingredients in vary- ing proportions. In a booklet entitled "i^ight on Pain," and distributed on
BEWARE OF ACETANILID
The folloicing loell-knoicn "remedies,^' hoth "ethical" and "patent," depend for their results upon the heart-de- pressing action of Acetanilid:
Orangeine Megrimirie Bromo-Seltzer Anti-Headache Royal Pain Powders Dr. Davis' Headache Miniature Headache Powders
Powders Antikamnia
Ammonol Salacetin Cephalgin Phenalgin
and practically all of the drug-store-vended "headache cures'' and "anti-pain"" remedies.
Take no nostrum of this class ivithout a doctor's pre- scription, unless you are sure it contains no acetanilid. Makethedruggisttellyou. Heisresponsible. Asuit for damages has recently been icon against a New York drug store for illness consequent upon the sale of a "guaranteed harmless" headache tablet containing three
grains of acetanilid.
doorsteps, I find under an alphabetical list of diseases this invitation to form the Antikamnia habit:
"Xervousness (overwork and excess)--Dose: One Antikamnia tablet every two or three h mrs.
"Shoppers' or Sightseers' Headache--Dose: Two Antikamnia tablets every three hours.
"Worry (nervousness, 'the blues') --Dose: One or two Antikamnia and Codein tablets every three hours. "
Codein is obtained from opium. The codein habit is well known to all institutions which treat drusr addictions, and is recognized as being no less difiicult to cure than the morphin habit.
A typical instance of what Antikamnia will do for its users is that of a Pennsylvania merchant, 50 years old, wlio had declined, without apparent
:
? 39
caii. se, from 140 to IIG pounds, and was finally brought to Philadelphia in astateofstupor. Hispulsewasbarelyperceptible,hisskinduskyandhis blcod of a deep chocolate color. On reviving he was questioned as to whether he had been taking headache powders. He had, for several years. What kind? Antikamnia; sometimes in the plain tablets, at other times Antikamnia with codein. How^ many? About twelve a day. He was greatly surprised to learn that this habit was responsible for his condition.
"My doctor gave it to me for insomnia," he said, and it appeared that the patient had never even been warned of the dansferous character cf the drug. Were it obtainable, I would print here the full name and address of that attending physician, as one unfit, either through ignorance or carelessness, to practice his profession. And there w^ould be other physicians all over the country who Avould, under that description, suffer the same indictment within their own minds for starting innocent patients on a destructive and sometimes fatal course. For it is the careless or conscienceless physician who gets the customer for the "ethical" headache remedies, and the cus- tomer,oncesecured,paysaprofit,veryliterally,withhisownblood. Once having taken Antikamnia, the layman, unless informed as to its true nature, will often return to the drug store and purchase it with the impression that it is a specific drug, like quinin or potassium chlorate, instead of a dis- guised poison, exploited and sold under patent rights by a private concern. The United States Postoffice, in its broad tolerance, permits the Antikamnia company to send through the mails little sample boxes containing tablets enough to kill an ordinary man, and these sample boxes are sent not only to physicians, as is the rule with ethical remedies, but to law^^ers, business men, "brain workers," and other prospective purchasing classes. The box
bears the lying statement : "Xo drug habit--no heart efi'eet. "
Just as this is going to press the following significant case comes in from
low^a
"rARMi]N'GTON, loAVA- Oct. 6. --{Special to the Constitution-Democrat. )--
Mrs. Hattie Kick, one of the best and most prominent ladies of Farmington, died rather suddenly Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock from an overdose of Antikamnia, which she took for a severe headache from which she was suf- fering. Mrs. Kickwassubjecttosevereheadachesandwasafrequentuser of Antikamnia, her favorite remedy for this ailment. "
There is but one safeguard in the use of these remedies; to regard them as one would regard opium, and to employ them only with the consent of a physician who understands their true nature. Acetanilid has its uses, but not as a generic painkiller. Pain is a symptom; you can drug it away temporarily, but it will return, clamoring for more payment, until the final price is hopeless enslavement. Were the skull and bones on every box of this cla^s of poison the danger would be greatly minimized.
With opium and cocain the case is different. The very words are danger signals. Legalrestrictionssafeguardthepublic,toagreaterorlessdegree, fromtheirindiscriminateuse. Normalpeopledonotknowinglytakeopium or its derivatives except with the sanction of a physician, and there is even spreading abroad a belief (surely an expression of the primal law of self- preservation) that the licensed practitioner leans too readily toward the convenient narcotics.
But this perilous stuf? is the ideal basis for a patent medicine because its results are immediate (though never permanent), and it is its own best advertisement in that one dose imperatively calls for another. Therefore it behooves the manufacturer of opiates to disguise the use of the drug. Tliis he does in varying forms, and he has found his greatest success in the "cough and consumption cuj-es" and the soothing syrup class. The former of these mil be (C)onsidered in another article. As to the "soothing syrups,"
::
? *
40
designed for the drugging of helpless infants, even the trade does not know howmanyhaverisen,madetheirbaseprofit,andsubsided. Afewsurvive, probably less harmful than the abandoned ones, on the average, so that by taking the conspicuous survivors as a tyjDe I am at least doing no injustice to the class.
Some years ago I heard a prominent New York lawyer, asked by his office scrub woman to buy a ticket for some "association" ball, say to her: "How can you go to these affairs, Nora, when you have two young children at home? "
"Sure, they're all right," she returned blithely: "just wan teaspoonful of Winslow's an' they lay like the dead till mornin'. "
What eventually became of the scrub woman's children I don't know. The typical result of this practice is described by a Detroit physician who has been making a special study of Michigan's high mortality rate
"]M,rs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup is extensively used among the poorer classes as a means of pacifying their babies. These children eventually come into the hands cf physicians with a greater or less addiction to the opiumhabit. Thesightofaparentdruggingahelplessinfantintoasemi- comatose condition is not an elevating one for this civilized age, and it is a very common practice. I can give you one illustration from my own
A DANGEROUS SAMPLE BOX WHICH GOES THROUGH THE MAILS. Enougli tablets were contained in this package, marked "No Heart Effect," to stop the heart entirely if taken all at once. The chief
ingredient of antikamnia is acetanilid.
hospital experience, which was told me by the father of the girl. A middle- aged railroad man of Kansas City had a small daughter with summer diar- rhea. For this she was given a patent diarrhea medicine. It controlled the trouble, but as soon as the remedy Avas withdrawn the diarrhea re- turned. At every withdrawal the trouble began anew, and the final result was that they never succeeded in curing the daughter of the opium habit which had taken its hold on her. It was some years afterward that the parents became aware that she had contracted the habit, when the physician took away the patent medicine and gave the girl morphin, with exactly the same result which she had experienced with the patent remedy. At the time the father told me this story his daughter was 19 years of age. an only child of wealthy parents, and one who could have had every advantage in life, but who was a complete wreck in every way as a result of the opium habit. The father told me, Avith tears in his eyes, that he would rather she had died with the original illness than to have lived to become the
creature which she then Avas. "
The proprietor of a drug store in San Jose, CaL, Avrites to Collier's as
folloAVS
"I hav^e a good customer, a married Avoman Avith five children, all under
10 years of age. When her last baby Avas born, about a year ago, the first thing she did Avas to order a bottle of WinsloAv's Soothing- Syrup, and every
? 41
TO CATCH THE COCAIN-FIEND TRADE.
Were this drugstore display in Illinois instead of New York City, the druggist would be arrested and his stock confiscated. This is one of the favorite cocain powders used by victims of the cocain habit. The law now requires that it be labeled "Poison. " .
? 42
week anotliei- bottle ^vas bought at firbt, until now a bottle is bought every third dav. Whv ? Because the baby has become habituated to the drug. I am not well enough acquainted with the family to be able to say that the weaned children show any present abnormality of health due to the opmm contained in the drug, but the after-effects of opium have been thus de- scribed. . . . Anotherinstance,quiteasstartling,wasthatofamother Avho gave large quantities of soothing syrup to two of her children in in- fancy*^; then, becoming convinced of its danger, abandoned its use. These children in middle life became neurotics, spirit and drug-takers. Three children born later and not given any drugs in early life grew up strong and lioalthy.
"I fear the children of the woman in question will all suffer for their mother's ianorance, or worse, in later life, and have tried to do my duty by sending word to the mother of the harmful nature of the stuff, but without effect.
'? p^ S. --PIo^v many neurotics, fiends and criminals may not 'Mrs Wins- low' be sponsor for? "
This query is respectfully referred to the Anglo-American Drug Com- pany, of Xew York, which makes its handsome profit from this slave trade. . Eecent legislation on the part of the New^ York State Board of Pharmacy will tend to decrease the profit, as it requires that a poison label be put on each bottle of the product, as has long been the law in England.
An Omaha physician reports a case of poisoning from a compound bear- ing the touching- name of "Kopp's Baby Friend," which has a considerable saTe in the middle west and in central Kew York. It is made of sweetened water and morphin, about one-third grain of morphin to the ounce.
"The child (after taking four drops) went into a stupor at once, the pupils were pin-pointed, skin cool and clammy, heart and respiration slow. I treated the case as one of opium poisoning, but it took twelve hours before my little patient Avas out of danger. "
As if to put a point of satirical grimness on the matter, the responsible proprietor of this particular business of drugging helpless babies is a woman. ]Mrs. J. A. Kopp, of York, Pa.
Making cocain fiends is another profitable enterprise. Catarrh powders are the medium. A decent druggist will not sell cocain as such, steadily, to any customer, except on prescription, but most druggists find salve for their consciences in the fact that the subtle and terrible drug is in the form of somebody's sure cure. There is need to say nothing of the effects of cocain other than that it is destructive to mind and body alike, and appalling in its breaking down of all moral restraint. Yet in Xew York City it is distributed in "samples" at ferries and railway stations. You may see the empty boxes and the instructive labels littering the gutters of Broadway any Saturday night, when the drug trade is briskest.
Birney's Catarrhal Powder, Dr. Cole's Catarrh Cure, Dr. Gray's Catarrh Powder, and Crown Catarrh Powder are the ones most in demand. All of them are cocain; the other ingredients are unimportant--perhaps even superfluous.
Whether or not the bottles are labeled with the amount of cocain makes little difference. The habitues know. In one respect, however, the labels help them by giving information as to which nostrum is the most heavily drugged.
"People come in here," a New York City druggist tells me, "ask what catarrh powders we've got, read the labels, "and pick out the one that's got the most cocain. When I see a customer comparing labels I know she's a fiend. "
? li bn. 1 and iftti
? 43
Naturally tliese owners and exploiters of these mixtures claiui that the <<mall amount of cccain contained is harmless. For instance, the "Crown Cure," admitting 2I/2 per cent. , says:
"Of course, this is a very small and harmless amount. Cocain is now consideredtobe'themostvaluableadditiontomodernmedicine . . . it is the most perfect relief known. "
Birney's Catarrh Cure runs as high as 4 per cent, and can produce testi- monials vouching for its harmlessness. Here is a Birney '"testimonial" to the opposite effect, obtained "without solicitation or payment" (I have ventured to put it in the approA'ed form), which no sufferer from catarrh can afford to miss:
READ WHAT William Thompson, of Chicago, says of
BIRNEY'S CATARRH CURE.
"Three years ago Thompson "was a strong man. Kow he is without money, health, home, or friends. "
(Chicago Tribune. )
"I began taking Birney's Catarrh Cure (says Thompson) three years ago, and the longing for the drug has grown so potent that I suffer without it.
"I followed the directions at first, then I increased the quan- tity until I bought the stuff by the dozen bottles. "
A famous drink and drug cure in Illinois had, as a patient, not long ago, a14-year-oldboy,wiiowasaslavetotheBirneybrandofcocain.
Hehad run his father $300 in debt, so heavy were his purchases of the poison.
Chicago long ago settled this cocain matter in the only logical way. The proprietor of a large downtown drug store noticed several years ago that at noon numbers of the shop girls from a great department store purchased certaincatarrhpow^dersoverhiscounter. Hehadhisclerkwarnthemthat the powders contained deleterious drugs. The girls continued to purchase in increasing numbers and quantity. He sent word to the superintendent of the store. "That accounts for the number of our girls that have gone wrong of late," was the superintendent's comment. The druggist, Mr. McConnell, had an analysis made by the Board of Health, w^hich showed that the powder most called for was nearly 4 per cent, cocain, whereon he threw it and similar powders out of stock. The girls went elsewiiere. Mr. McConnell traced them and started a general movement against this class of remedies, which resulted in an ordinance forbidding their sale. Birney's Catarrhal Powders, as I am informed, to meet the new conditions, brought out a powder without cocain, which had the briefest kind of a sale. For weeks thereafter the downtown stores were haunted by haggard yonng men and women, who begged for "the old powders; these new ones don't do any good. " As high as $1. 00 premium was paid for the 4 per cent, cocain species. To-daytheIllinoisdruggistwhosellscocaininthisformisliable toarrest. YetinNewYork,atthecornerofForty-secondstreetandBroad- way, I saw recently a show-window display of the Birney cure, and similar displays are not uncommon in other cities.
Regarding other forms of drugs there may be honest differences of opinion as to the limits of legitimacy in the trade. If mendacious advertis- ing were stopped^ and the actual ingredients of eyevy nostrum plainly pub-
? 44
lished and frankly explained, the patent medicine trade might reasonably claim to be a legitimate enterprise in many of its phases. But no label of opium or cocain,. though the warning skull and cross-bones cover the bottle, will excuse the sale of products that are never safeh" used except by expert advice. I believe that the Chicago method of dealing with the catarrh powders is the right method in cocain- and opium-bearing nostrums. Re- strict the drug by the same safeguards when sold under a lying pretence as when it flies its true colors. Then, and then only, will our laws prevent the shameful trade that stupefies helpless babies and makes criminals of our
young men and harlots of our young women.
? v. --PREYING ON THE INCURABLES.
Incurable disease is one of the strongholds of the patent medicine busi- ness. The ideal patron, viewed in the light of profitable business, is the victim of some slow and wasting ailmen in which recurrent hope inspires to repeated experiments with any '*cure'" that offers. In the columns of almost every newspaper you may find promises to cure tonsiiinption. Consumption is a disease absolutelj- incurable by any medicine, altliough an increasing
iCi. .
percentage of consumptives are saved by open air, diet and . methodical living. This is thoroughly and defi- nitely understood by all medical and scientific men, Xevertheless there are in the patent medicine world a set of harpies who, for their own business interests, deliberately foster in the mind of the unfortunate sufferer from tuberculosis the belief that he can be saved by the use of some absolutely fraudulent nos- trum. Many of these consumption cures contain drugs which hasten the progress of the disease, such as chloroform, opium, alcohol and hasheesli. Others are comparatively harmless in themselves, but by their fervent promises of rescue they delude the sufl'erer into misplacing his reliance, and forfeiting his only chance by neglecting those rigidly careful habits of life Avhich alone can conquer the ''white plague. " One and all, the men who advertise medi- cines to cure consumption deliberately traffic in human life.
Certain members of the Proprietary Association of America (the patent medicine '? combine'") with whom I have talked have urged on me the claim that there are firms in the nostrum business that are above criticism, and have mentioned H. E. Bucklen & Co. , of Chicago, who manufacture a certain salve. The Bucklen salve did not particularly interest me. But when I came to taKe up the subject of consumption cures I ran unexpectedly on an interesting trail. In the country and small city newspapers there is now being advertised lavishly "Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption. " It is proclaimed to be the "only sure cure for consumption. " Further announcement ismadethat"itstrikesterrortothedoctors. " Asit is a morphin and chloroform mixture, "Dr. King's
\^ ^
^:^^^^^---- - - -^ -
An example of legitimate adver- tising in the con- sumption field.
. ^
New Discovery for Consumption" is well calculated to strike terror to the doctors or to any other class or profession, except, perhaps, the undertakers. It is a pretty diabolical concoction to give to anyone, and particularly to a consumptive. The chloroform temporarily allays the cough, thereby check- ing Nature's effort to throw off the dead matter from the lungs. The opium drugs the patient into a deceived cheerfulness. The combination is admirably designed to shorten the life of any consumptive who takes it steadilv. Of course, there is nothing on the label of the bottle to warn the
\
46
FREE of COSTl
The Tme Bemedy at last Biseovered! IT STRIKES TERROR TO THE DOCTORS.
' 1,, ---
? -- GREATESTDISC0YERY519gCECTURY.
--
'
Discovery for Consomptioni
The Only Sure Oure for Consumption in the World.
<<'>>--
gjijEKnE}------------'-
'
*
(^ A-tLma, Bronthiii^ lucipitnt Ci Hiniojrhag-c '>( tbf Ltii [,? , D<\ Sht rtri! ^of Bfe. a! i,i'ha->>. -;i,t. ;.
ia} by
And a'i UStea^es of *b<- Thro a,
'
OB. KINC'S ISJEW
Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption.
D IjY not >> moine that ttfi inudioiu \ipi.
pt-Mer1-5prf) i i 1
POSITIVE GUARANTEE. ! ! nbt-mfiiiletft-tt! -II t <%rx mi! )^ J t u<<-HiJ>c>tfiiecontenis^ftfei<< bott'e f<< ', >> f %>u jiOT n-turn rf ti t, ' ^ti. t,-- iv-o Uiuds of t iciruihuac ha%mg fttut-ia>>> ) 1^t>I f. u t ithe<J'eII rii fur iicu i ir>ctm ' 1 ' -yrn 1. r ' , <<i11ri>> iJd\( i iU^e)nJ^t,<<*rl(. a
ST^,f {n'. fuJiiri 1 rtj11 1 -> a! tnoirc) ^OD '. ^(t)clns c\er i^t U ! S itu oin^. d 1 > "e Ar
^ryw oiu, 'iatoitij. ' taiij'k if th^v i. a< uot ^jt t it j
lor n >rtir U Do nt I unticr *j y c rcuti<<? ii]cei Ut tJ
WortM'- prep i<<ition<< cliumm^ to be as j. ord, as its equul d t tj ? n t. Atk fof <<<<1>R Kj^o'bNewDi'5covtJ>>yFoaCo}>siMmov,"andfj>enoother.
JmioTiiiTii^^
SEWARS OF COUNTEftretTS AND if>>IITATiO^$. B6sur<<<<h>> >^ame "OH. Kt<<G S S? EW PiSCQVERY" fa on evety batt! >>.
SOLD ALL OVER THE WOULD!
H, E. BUOKLEN k CO. , Props. mimn, el, mn mm$m mmk
A TYPICAL FRAUD.
The claims are baseless, the guarantee ridiculous and the remedy harmful.
>. , }
,-wii Voice,
--
Cottt
r -eini ii vjiae
? VERDiCT
/ ''' ? 8a Inquest 'Mo.
3civ ^/ru .
I^<<Ui^a<<COfijeiT**% p. aicut,^"-1-4. 1 4 r Bros-rUtjiry r<<>>c'. . . ^^ '
''. J AX^
>> t tta1
>- ^ dri^s fee
47
purchaser. That M'oiild decrease the profits. The makers of this beneficent preparation are H. E. Biicklen & Co. , of Chicago.
Chloroform and Prussic Acid.
Another "cure" whicli, for excellent reasons of its own, does not print its formula, is "Shiloh's Consumption Cure," made at Leroy, X. Y. , by S. C. Wells & Co. Were it to publish abroad the fact that it contains, among other ingredients, chloroform and prussic acid, the public would probably
VERDICT OF DEATH FROM BULL'S COUGH SYRUP One logical result of unlabeled poisons.
exhibit some caution in taking it. Under our present lax system there is no AA'arning on the bottle that the liquid contains one of the most deadly of poisons. The makers write me: "After you have taken the medicine for awhile, if you are not firmly convinced that you are very much better we want you to go to your druggist and get back all the money that you have paid for Shiloh. " But if I were a consumptive, after I had taken "Shiloh" for awhile I should be less interested in recovering niv moiiov than in get-
:
? 48
ting back my wasted cliance of life. Would S. C. Wells & Co. guarantee that?
Morphin is the important ingredient of Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup. Never- theless, the United States Postoffice Department obligingly transmits me a dose of this poison through the mails, from A. C. Meyer & Co. , of Baltimore, the makers. The firm writes me, in response to m}^ letter of inquiry:
"We do not claim that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup will cure an established case of oonsvunption. If you have gotten this impression you most likely have misunderstood what we claim. . . . We can, however, sa^^ that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup has cured cases said to have been consumption in its earliest stages. "
Quite conservative, this. But A. C. Meyer & Co. evidently don't follow their own advertising very closely, for around my sample bottle (by cour- tesy of the Postoffice Department) is a booklet, and from that booklet I quote
"There is no case of hoarseness, cough, asthma, bronchitis . . . or consumption that can not he cured siwedily by the proper use of Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup. "
If this is not a claim that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup "will cure an estab- lished case of consumption," what is it? Tbe inference from Meyer & Co. 's cautious letter is that they realize their responsibility for a cruel and dangerous fraud and are beginning to feel an uneasiness about it, wbich may be shame or may be only fear. One logical effect of permitting medi- cines containing a dangerous quantity of poison to be sold without the poison label is shown in the coroner's verdict reproduced on pa'ge 47. In the account of the Keck baby's death from the Dr. Bull opium mixture, which the Cincinnati papers published, there was no mention of the name of the cough syrup. Asked about this, the newspapers gave various explanations. Two of them disclosed that they had no information on the point. This is contrary to the statement of the physician in the case, and implies a reportorial laxity which is difficult to credit. One ascribed the omission to a settled policy and one to the fear of libel. When the coroner's verdict was given out, how^ever, the name of the nostrum got into plain print. On the whole, the Cincinnati papers showed themselves gratifyingly inde- pendent.
Another case of poisoning from this same remedy occurred in Morocco, Ind. , the victim being a 2-year-old child. . The doctor reports:
"In an hour, when first seen, symptoms of opium poisoning were present. In about twelve hours the child had several convulsions, and spasms fol- lowed for another twelve hours at intervals. It then sank into a coma and died in the seventy-two hours with'cardiac failure. The case? was clearly one of death from overdose of the remedy. "
The baby had SAvallowed a large amount of the "medicine" from a bottle left within its reach. Had the bottle been properly labeled with skull and cross-bones the mother would probably not have let it lie about.
Caution seems to have become a suddenly acquired policy of this class of medicines, in so far as their correspondence goes. Unfortunately, it does notextendtotheiradvertising. Theresultisaratherpainfuldiscrepancy. G. G. Green runs hotels in California and manufactures quack medicines in Woodbury, N. J. , one of these being "Boschee's German Syrup," a "con- sumptioncure. " Mr. Greenwritesme(perrubberstamp):
"Consumption can sometimes be cured, but not always. Some cases are beyond cure. However, Ave suggest that you secure a trial bottle of German Syrup for 25 cents," etc.
On the bottle I read: "Certain cure for all diseases of the throat and lungs. " Consumption is a disease of the lungs; sometimes of the throat.
49
If it "can sometimes be cured, but not always," then the German Syrup is not a "certain cure for all diseases of the throat and lungs," and somebody, as the ill-fated Reingelder put it, "haf lied in brint" on Mr.
"Huntington, W. Va. , Aug. 15, 1905. --While Mrs. Thomas Patterson was preparing supper last evening she was stricken with a violent head- ache and took a headache powder that had been thrown in at her door the day before. Immediately she was seized with spasms and in an hour she Avas dead. "
That even the lower order of animals is not safe is shown by a canine tragedy in Altoona, Pa. , where a prize collie dog incautiously devoured three sample tablets and died in an hour. Yet the distributing agents of these mixtures do not hesitate to lie about them. Rochester, N. Y. , has an excel- lent ordinance forbidding the distribution of sample medicines, except by permission of the health officer. An agent for Miniature Headache Powders called on Dr. Goler with a request for leave to distribute 25,000 samples.
"What's your formula? " asked the official.
"Salicylate of soda and sugar of milk," replied the traveling man.
"And you pretend to cure headaches with that? " said the doctor. "ITl
look into it. "
Analysis showed that the powders were an acetanilid mixture. The sample
man didn't wait for the result. He hasn't been back to Rochester since, although Dr. Goler is hopefully awaiting him.
Bromo-Seltzer is commonly sold in drug stores, both by the bottle and at sodafoui^tains. Thefulldoseis"aheapingteaspoonful. " Aheapingtea- spoonful of Bromo-Seltzer means about ten grains of acetanilid. The United States Pharmacopeia dose is four grains; five grains have been known to produce fatal results. The prescribed dose of Bromo-Seltzer is dangerous and has been known to produce sudden collapse.
Megrimine is ai warranted headache cure that is advertised in several of the magazines. A newly arrived guest at a Long Island house party brought along several lots and distributed them as a remedy for headache and that tired feeling. It was perfectly harmless, she declared; didn't the advertisement say "leaves no unpleasant effects? " As a late dance the night before had left its impress on the feminine members of the house party,therewasageneralacceptanceofthe"bracer. " Thatnightthelocal physician visited the house party (on special "rush" invitation), and was well satisfied to pull all his patients through. He had never Isefore seen acetanilidpoisoningbywholesale. AChicagodruggistwritesmethatthe wife of a prominent physician buys Megrimine of him by the half-dozen lots secretly. She has the habit.
On October 9, W. H. Hawkins, superintendent of the American Detective Association, a man of powerful physique and apparently in good health, went to a drug store in Anderson, Ind. , ajid took a dose of Dr. Davis' Headache Powders. He then boarded a car for Marion, and shortly after fell to the fioor, dead. The coroner's verdict is reproduced on page 35.
Whether these powders are made by a Dr. W. C. Davis, of Indianapolis, who makes Anti-Headache, I am unable to state. Anti-Headache describes itself as "a compound of mild ingredients and positively contains no dangerous drugs. " It is almost pure acetanilid.
In the "ethical" field the harm done by this class of proprietaries is per-
? 38
haps as great as in the open field, for many of those whicli are supposed to be sold only in prescriptions are as freely distributed to tlie laity as Pei'iina. And their advertising is hardly different.
Dangers of Antikamnia.
Antikamnia, claiming to be an "ethical" remedy, and advertising through
the medical press by methods that would, with little alteration, fit any patent painkiller on the market, is no less dangerous or fraudulent than the Orangeine class which it almost exactly parallels in composition. It was at first exploited as a "new synthetical coal-tar derivative," which it isn't and never was. It is simply half or more acetanilid (some analyses show as high as 68 per cent. ) with other vmimportant ingredients in vary- ing proportions. In a booklet entitled "i^ight on Pain," and distributed on
BEWARE OF ACETANILID
The folloicing loell-knoicn "remedies,^' hoth "ethical" and "patent," depend for their results upon the heart-de- pressing action of Acetanilid:
Orangeine Megrimirie Bromo-Seltzer Anti-Headache Royal Pain Powders Dr. Davis' Headache Miniature Headache Powders
Powders Antikamnia
Ammonol Salacetin Cephalgin Phenalgin
and practically all of the drug-store-vended "headache cures'' and "anti-pain"" remedies.
Take no nostrum of this class ivithout a doctor's pre- scription, unless you are sure it contains no acetanilid. Makethedruggisttellyou. Heisresponsible. Asuit for damages has recently been icon against a New York drug store for illness consequent upon the sale of a "guaranteed harmless" headache tablet containing three
grains of acetanilid.
doorsteps, I find under an alphabetical list of diseases this invitation to form the Antikamnia habit:
"Xervousness (overwork and excess)--Dose: One Antikamnia tablet every two or three h mrs.
"Shoppers' or Sightseers' Headache--Dose: Two Antikamnia tablets every three hours.
"Worry (nervousness, 'the blues') --Dose: One or two Antikamnia and Codein tablets every three hours. "
Codein is obtained from opium. The codein habit is well known to all institutions which treat drusr addictions, and is recognized as being no less difiicult to cure than the morphin habit.
A typical instance of what Antikamnia will do for its users is that of a Pennsylvania merchant, 50 years old, wlio had declined, without apparent
:
? 39
caii. se, from 140 to IIG pounds, and was finally brought to Philadelphia in astateofstupor. Hispulsewasbarelyperceptible,hisskinduskyandhis blcod of a deep chocolate color. On reviving he was questioned as to whether he had been taking headache powders. He had, for several years. What kind? Antikamnia; sometimes in the plain tablets, at other times Antikamnia with codein. How^ many? About twelve a day. He was greatly surprised to learn that this habit was responsible for his condition.
"My doctor gave it to me for insomnia," he said, and it appeared that the patient had never even been warned of the dansferous character cf the drug. Were it obtainable, I would print here the full name and address of that attending physician, as one unfit, either through ignorance or carelessness, to practice his profession. And there w^ould be other physicians all over the country who Avould, under that description, suffer the same indictment within their own minds for starting innocent patients on a destructive and sometimes fatal course. For it is the careless or conscienceless physician who gets the customer for the "ethical" headache remedies, and the cus- tomer,oncesecured,paysaprofit,veryliterally,withhisownblood. Once having taken Antikamnia, the layman, unless informed as to its true nature, will often return to the drug store and purchase it with the impression that it is a specific drug, like quinin or potassium chlorate, instead of a dis- guised poison, exploited and sold under patent rights by a private concern. The United States Postoffice, in its broad tolerance, permits the Antikamnia company to send through the mails little sample boxes containing tablets enough to kill an ordinary man, and these sample boxes are sent not only to physicians, as is the rule with ethical remedies, but to law^^ers, business men, "brain workers," and other prospective purchasing classes. The box
bears the lying statement : "Xo drug habit--no heart efi'eet. "
Just as this is going to press the following significant case comes in from
low^a
"rARMi]N'GTON, loAVA- Oct. 6. --{Special to the Constitution-Democrat. )--
Mrs. Hattie Kick, one of the best and most prominent ladies of Farmington, died rather suddenly Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock from an overdose of Antikamnia, which she took for a severe headache from which she was suf- fering. Mrs. Kickwassubjecttosevereheadachesandwasafrequentuser of Antikamnia, her favorite remedy for this ailment. "
There is but one safeguard in the use of these remedies; to regard them as one would regard opium, and to employ them only with the consent of a physician who understands their true nature. Acetanilid has its uses, but not as a generic painkiller. Pain is a symptom; you can drug it away temporarily, but it will return, clamoring for more payment, until the final price is hopeless enslavement. Were the skull and bones on every box of this cla^s of poison the danger would be greatly minimized.
With opium and cocain the case is different. The very words are danger signals. Legalrestrictionssafeguardthepublic,toagreaterorlessdegree, fromtheirindiscriminateuse. Normalpeopledonotknowinglytakeopium or its derivatives except with the sanction of a physician, and there is even spreading abroad a belief (surely an expression of the primal law of self- preservation) that the licensed practitioner leans too readily toward the convenient narcotics.
But this perilous stuf? is the ideal basis for a patent medicine because its results are immediate (though never permanent), and it is its own best advertisement in that one dose imperatively calls for another. Therefore it behooves the manufacturer of opiates to disguise the use of the drug. Tliis he does in varying forms, and he has found his greatest success in the "cough and consumption cuj-es" and the soothing syrup class. The former of these mil be (C)onsidered in another article. As to the "soothing syrups,"
::
? *
40
designed for the drugging of helpless infants, even the trade does not know howmanyhaverisen,madetheirbaseprofit,andsubsided. Afewsurvive, probably less harmful than the abandoned ones, on the average, so that by taking the conspicuous survivors as a tyjDe I am at least doing no injustice to the class.
Some years ago I heard a prominent New York lawyer, asked by his office scrub woman to buy a ticket for some "association" ball, say to her: "How can you go to these affairs, Nora, when you have two young children at home? "
"Sure, they're all right," she returned blithely: "just wan teaspoonful of Winslow's an' they lay like the dead till mornin'. "
What eventually became of the scrub woman's children I don't know. The typical result of this practice is described by a Detroit physician who has been making a special study of Michigan's high mortality rate
"]M,rs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup is extensively used among the poorer classes as a means of pacifying their babies. These children eventually come into the hands cf physicians with a greater or less addiction to the opiumhabit. Thesightofaparentdruggingahelplessinfantintoasemi- comatose condition is not an elevating one for this civilized age, and it is a very common practice. I can give you one illustration from my own
A DANGEROUS SAMPLE BOX WHICH GOES THROUGH THE MAILS. Enougli tablets were contained in this package, marked "No Heart Effect," to stop the heart entirely if taken all at once. The chief
ingredient of antikamnia is acetanilid.
hospital experience, which was told me by the father of the girl. A middle- aged railroad man of Kansas City had a small daughter with summer diar- rhea. For this she was given a patent diarrhea medicine. It controlled the trouble, but as soon as the remedy Avas withdrawn the diarrhea re- turned. At every withdrawal the trouble began anew, and the final result was that they never succeeded in curing the daughter of the opium habit which had taken its hold on her. It was some years afterward that the parents became aware that she had contracted the habit, when the physician took away the patent medicine and gave the girl morphin, with exactly the same result which she had experienced with the patent remedy. At the time the father told me this story his daughter was 19 years of age. an only child of wealthy parents, and one who could have had every advantage in life, but who was a complete wreck in every way as a result of the opium habit. The father told me, Avith tears in his eyes, that he would rather she had died with the original illness than to have lived to become the
creature which she then Avas. "
The proprietor of a drug store in San Jose, CaL, Avrites to Collier's as
folloAVS
"I hav^e a good customer, a married Avoman Avith five children, all under
10 years of age. When her last baby Avas born, about a year ago, the first thing she did Avas to order a bottle of WinsloAv's Soothing- Syrup, and every
? 41
TO CATCH THE COCAIN-FIEND TRADE.
Were this drugstore display in Illinois instead of New York City, the druggist would be arrested and his stock confiscated. This is one of the favorite cocain powders used by victims of the cocain habit. The law now requires that it be labeled "Poison. " .
? 42
week anotliei- bottle ^vas bought at firbt, until now a bottle is bought every third dav. Whv ? Because the baby has become habituated to the drug. I am not well enough acquainted with the family to be able to say that the weaned children show any present abnormality of health due to the opmm contained in the drug, but the after-effects of opium have been thus de- scribed. . . . Anotherinstance,quiteasstartling,wasthatofamother Avho gave large quantities of soothing syrup to two of her children in in- fancy*^; then, becoming convinced of its danger, abandoned its use. These children in middle life became neurotics, spirit and drug-takers. Three children born later and not given any drugs in early life grew up strong and lioalthy.
"I fear the children of the woman in question will all suffer for their mother's ianorance, or worse, in later life, and have tried to do my duty by sending word to the mother of the harmful nature of the stuff, but without effect.
'? p^ S. --PIo^v many neurotics, fiends and criminals may not 'Mrs Wins- low' be sponsor for? "
This query is respectfully referred to the Anglo-American Drug Com- pany, of Xew York, which makes its handsome profit from this slave trade. . Eecent legislation on the part of the New^ York State Board of Pharmacy will tend to decrease the profit, as it requires that a poison label be put on each bottle of the product, as has long been the law in England.
An Omaha physician reports a case of poisoning from a compound bear- ing the touching- name of "Kopp's Baby Friend," which has a considerable saTe in the middle west and in central Kew York. It is made of sweetened water and morphin, about one-third grain of morphin to the ounce.
"The child (after taking four drops) went into a stupor at once, the pupils were pin-pointed, skin cool and clammy, heart and respiration slow. I treated the case as one of opium poisoning, but it took twelve hours before my little patient Avas out of danger. "
As if to put a point of satirical grimness on the matter, the responsible proprietor of this particular business of drugging helpless babies is a woman. ]Mrs. J. A. Kopp, of York, Pa.
Making cocain fiends is another profitable enterprise. Catarrh powders are the medium. A decent druggist will not sell cocain as such, steadily, to any customer, except on prescription, but most druggists find salve for their consciences in the fact that the subtle and terrible drug is in the form of somebody's sure cure. There is need to say nothing of the effects of cocain other than that it is destructive to mind and body alike, and appalling in its breaking down of all moral restraint. Yet in Xew York City it is distributed in "samples" at ferries and railway stations. You may see the empty boxes and the instructive labels littering the gutters of Broadway any Saturday night, when the drug trade is briskest.
Birney's Catarrhal Powder, Dr. Cole's Catarrh Cure, Dr. Gray's Catarrh Powder, and Crown Catarrh Powder are the ones most in demand. All of them are cocain; the other ingredients are unimportant--perhaps even superfluous.
Whether or not the bottles are labeled with the amount of cocain makes little difference. The habitues know. In one respect, however, the labels help them by giving information as to which nostrum is the most heavily drugged.
"People come in here," a New York City druggist tells me, "ask what catarrh powders we've got, read the labels, "and pick out the one that's got the most cocain. When I see a customer comparing labels I know she's a fiend. "
? li bn. 1 and iftti
? 43
Naturally tliese owners and exploiters of these mixtures claiui that the <<mall amount of cccain contained is harmless. For instance, the "Crown Cure," admitting 2I/2 per cent. , says:
"Of course, this is a very small and harmless amount. Cocain is now consideredtobe'themostvaluableadditiontomodernmedicine . . . it is the most perfect relief known. "
Birney's Catarrh Cure runs as high as 4 per cent, and can produce testi- monials vouching for its harmlessness. Here is a Birney '"testimonial" to the opposite effect, obtained "without solicitation or payment" (I have ventured to put it in the approA'ed form), which no sufferer from catarrh can afford to miss:
READ WHAT William Thompson, of Chicago, says of
BIRNEY'S CATARRH CURE.
"Three years ago Thompson "was a strong man. Kow he is without money, health, home, or friends. "
(Chicago Tribune. )
"I began taking Birney's Catarrh Cure (says Thompson) three years ago, and the longing for the drug has grown so potent that I suffer without it.
"I followed the directions at first, then I increased the quan- tity until I bought the stuff by the dozen bottles. "
A famous drink and drug cure in Illinois had, as a patient, not long ago, a14-year-oldboy,wiiowasaslavetotheBirneybrandofcocain.
Hehad run his father $300 in debt, so heavy were his purchases of the poison.
Chicago long ago settled this cocain matter in the only logical way. The proprietor of a large downtown drug store noticed several years ago that at noon numbers of the shop girls from a great department store purchased certaincatarrhpow^dersoverhiscounter. Hehadhisclerkwarnthemthat the powders contained deleterious drugs. The girls continued to purchase in increasing numbers and quantity. He sent word to the superintendent of the store. "That accounts for the number of our girls that have gone wrong of late," was the superintendent's comment. The druggist, Mr. McConnell, had an analysis made by the Board of Health, w^hich showed that the powder most called for was nearly 4 per cent, cocain, whereon he threw it and similar powders out of stock. The girls went elsewiiere. Mr. McConnell traced them and started a general movement against this class of remedies, which resulted in an ordinance forbidding their sale. Birney's Catarrhal Powders, as I am informed, to meet the new conditions, brought out a powder without cocain, which had the briefest kind of a sale. For weeks thereafter the downtown stores were haunted by haggard yonng men and women, who begged for "the old powders; these new ones don't do any good. " As high as $1. 00 premium was paid for the 4 per cent, cocain species. To-daytheIllinoisdruggistwhosellscocaininthisformisliable toarrest. YetinNewYork,atthecornerofForty-secondstreetandBroad- way, I saw recently a show-window display of the Birney cure, and similar displays are not uncommon in other cities.
Regarding other forms of drugs there may be honest differences of opinion as to the limits of legitimacy in the trade. If mendacious advertis- ing were stopped^ and the actual ingredients of eyevy nostrum plainly pub-
? 44
lished and frankly explained, the patent medicine trade might reasonably claim to be a legitimate enterprise in many of its phases. But no label of opium or cocain,. though the warning skull and cross-bones cover the bottle, will excuse the sale of products that are never safeh" used except by expert advice. I believe that the Chicago method of dealing with the catarrh powders is the right method in cocain- and opium-bearing nostrums. Re- strict the drug by the same safeguards when sold under a lying pretence as when it flies its true colors. Then, and then only, will our laws prevent the shameful trade that stupefies helpless babies and makes criminals of our
young men and harlots of our young women.
? v. --PREYING ON THE INCURABLES.
Incurable disease is one of the strongholds of the patent medicine busi- ness. The ideal patron, viewed in the light of profitable business, is the victim of some slow and wasting ailmen in which recurrent hope inspires to repeated experiments with any '*cure'" that offers. In the columns of almost every newspaper you may find promises to cure tonsiiinption. Consumption is a disease absolutelj- incurable by any medicine, altliough an increasing
iCi. .
percentage of consumptives are saved by open air, diet and . methodical living. This is thoroughly and defi- nitely understood by all medical and scientific men, Xevertheless there are in the patent medicine world a set of harpies who, for their own business interests, deliberately foster in the mind of the unfortunate sufferer from tuberculosis the belief that he can be saved by the use of some absolutely fraudulent nos- trum. Many of these consumption cures contain drugs which hasten the progress of the disease, such as chloroform, opium, alcohol and hasheesli. Others are comparatively harmless in themselves, but by their fervent promises of rescue they delude the sufl'erer into misplacing his reliance, and forfeiting his only chance by neglecting those rigidly careful habits of life Avhich alone can conquer the ''white plague. " One and all, the men who advertise medi- cines to cure consumption deliberately traffic in human life.
Certain members of the Proprietary Association of America (the patent medicine '? combine'") with whom I have talked have urged on me the claim that there are firms in the nostrum business that are above criticism, and have mentioned H. E. Bucklen & Co. , of Chicago, who manufacture a certain salve. The Bucklen salve did not particularly interest me. But when I came to taKe up the subject of consumption cures I ran unexpectedly on an interesting trail. In the country and small city newspapers there is now being advertised lavishly "Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption. " It is proclaimed to be the "only sure cure for consumption. " Further announcement ismadethat"itstrikesterrortothedoctors. " Asit is a morphin and chloroform mixture, "Dr. King's
\^ ^
^:^^^^^---- - - -^ -
An example of legitimate adver- tising in the con- sumption field.
. ^
New Discovery for Consumption" is well calculated to strike terror to the doctors or to any other class or profession, except, perhaps, the undertakers. It is a pretty diabolical concoction to give to anyone, and particularly to a consumptive. The chloroform temporarily allays the cough, thereby check- ing Nature's effort to throw off the dead matter from the lungs. The opium drugs the patient into a deceived cheerfulness. The combination is admirably designed to shorten the life of any consumptive who takes it steadilv. Of course, there is nothing on the label of the bottle to warn the
\
46
FREE of COSTl
The Tme Bemedy at last Biseovered! IT STRIKES TERROR TO THE DOCTORS.
' 1,, ---
? -- GREATESTDISC0YERY519gCECTURY.
--
'
Discovery for Consomptioni
The Only Sure Oure for Consumption in the World.
<<'>>--
gjijEKnE}------------'-
'
*
(^ A-tLma, Bronthiii^ lucipitnt Ci Hiniojrhag-c '>( tbf Ltii [,? , D<\ Sht rtri! ^of Bfe. a! i,i'ha->>. -;i,t. ;.
ia} by
And a'i UStea^es of *b<- Thro a,
'
OB. KINC'S ISJEW
Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption.
D IjY not >> moine that ttfi inudioiu \ipi.
pt-Mer1-5prf) i i 1
POSITIVE GUARANTEE. ! ! nbt-mfiiiletft-tt! -II t <%rx mi! )^ J t u<<-HiJ>c>tfiiecontenis^ftfei<< bott'e f<< ', >> f %>u jiOT n-turn rf ti t, ' ^ti. t,-- iv-o Uiuds of t iciruihuac ha%mg fttut-ia>>> ) 1^t>I f. u t ithe<J'eII rii fur iicu i ir>ctm ' 1 ' -yrn 1. r ' , <<i11ri>> iJd\( i iU^e)nJ^t,<<*rl(. a
ST^,f {n'. fuJiiri 1 rtj11 1 -> a! tnoirc) ^OD '. ^(t)clns c\er i^t U ! S itu oin^. d 1 > "e Ar
^ryw oiu, 'iatoitij. ' taiij'k if th^v i. a< uot ^jt t it j
lor n >rtir U Do nt I unticr *j y c rcuti<<? ii]cei Ut tJ
WortM'- prep i<<ition<< cliumm^ to be as j. ord, as its equul d t tj ? n t. Atk fof <<<<1>R Kj^o'bNewDi'5covtJ>>yFoaCo}>siMmov,"andfj>enoother.
JmioTiiiTii^^
SEWARS OF COUNTEftretTS AND if>>IITATiO^$. B6sur<<<<h>> >^ame "OH. Kt<<G S S? EW PiSCQVERY" fa on evety batt! >>.
SOLD ALL OVER THE WOULD!
H, E. BUOKLEN k CO. , Props. mimn, el, mn mm$m mmk
A TYPICAL FRAUD.
The claims are baseless, the guarantee ridiculous and the remedy harmful.
>. , }
,-wii Voice,
--
Cottt
r -eini ii vjiae
? VERDiCT
/ ''' ? 8a Inquest 'Mo.
3civ ^/ru .
I^<<Ui^a<<COfijeiT**% p. aicut,^"-1-4. 1 4 r Bros-rUtjiry r<<>>c'. . . ^^ '
''. J AX^
>> t tta1
>- ^ dri^s fee
47
purchaser. That M'oiild decrease the profits. The makers of this beneficent preparation are H. E. Biicklen & Co. , of Chicago.
Chloroform and Prussic Acid.
Another "cure" whicli, for excellent reasons of its own, does not print its formula, is "Shiloh's Consumption Cure," made at Leroy, X. Y. , by S. C. Wells & Co. Were it to publish abroad the fact that it contains, among other ingredients, chloroform and prussic acid, the public would probably
VERDICT OF DEATH FROM BULL'S COUGH SYRUP One logical result of unlabeled poisons.
exhibit some caution in taking it. Under our present lax system there is no AA'arning on the bottle that the liquid contains one of the most deadly of poisons. The makers write me: "After you have taken the medicine for awhile, if you are not firmly convinced that you are very much better we want you to go to your druggist and get back all the money that you have paid for Shiloh. " But if I were a consumptive, after I had taken "Shiloh" for awhile I should be less interested in recovering niv moiiov than in get-
:
? 48
ting back my wasted cliance of life. Would S. C. Wells & Co. guarantee that?
Morphin is the important ingredient of Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup. Never- theless, the United States Postoffice Department obligingly transmits me a dose of this poison through the mails, from A. C. Meyer & Co. , of Baltimore, the makers. The firm writes me, in response to m}^ letter of inquiry:
"We do not claim that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup will cure an established case of oonsvunption. If you have gotten this impression you most likely have misunderstood what we claim. . . . We can, however, sa^^ that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup has cured cases said to have been consumption in its earliest stages. "
Quite conservative, this. But A. C. Meyer & Co. evidently don't follow their own advertising very closely, for around my sample bottle (by cour- tesy of the Postoffice Department) is a booklet, and from that booklet I quote
"There is no case of hoarseness, cough, asthma, bronchitis . . . or consumption that can not he cured siwedily by the proper use of Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup. "
If this is not a claim that Dr. Bull's Cough Syrup "will cure an estab- lished case of consumption," what is it? Tbe inference from Meyer & Co. 's cautious letter is that they realize their responsibility for a cruel and dangerous fraud and are beginning to feel an uneasiness about it, wbich may be shame or may be only fear. One logical effect of permitting medi- cines containing a dangerous quantity of poison to be sold without the poison label is shown in the coroner's verdict reproduced on pa'ge 47. In the account of the Keck baby's death from the Dr. Bull opium mixture, which the Cincinnati papers published, there was no mention of the name of the cough syrup. Asked about this, the newspapers gave various explanations. Two of them disclosed that they had no information on the point. This is contrary to the statement of the physician in the case, and implies a reportorial laxity which is difficult to credit. One ascribed the omission to a settled policy and one to the fear of libel. When the coroner's verdict was given out, how^ever, the name of the nostrum got into plain print. On the whole, the Cincinnati papers showed themselves gratifyingly inde- pendent.
Another case of poisoning from this same remedy occurred in Morocco, Ind. , the victim being a 2-year-old child. . The doctor reports:
"In an hour, when first seen, symptoms of opium poisoning were present. In about twelve hours the child had several convulsions, and spasms fol- lowed for another twelve hours at intervals. It then sank into a coma and died in the seventy-two hours with'cardiac failure. The case? was clearly one of death from overdose of the remedy. "
The baby had SAvallowed a large amount of the "medicine" from a bottle left within its reach. Had the bottle been properly labeled with skull and cross-bones the mother would probably not have let it lie about.
Caution seems to have become a suddenly acquired policy of this class of medicines, in so far as their correspondence goes. Unfortunately, it does notextendtotheiradvertising. Theresultisaratherpainfuldiscrepancy. G. G. Green runs hotels in California and manufactures quack medicines in Woodbury, N. J. , one of these being "Boschee's German Syrup," a "con- sumptioncure. " Mr. Greenwritesme(perrubberstamp):
"Consumption can sometimes be cured, but not always. Some cases are beyond cure. However, Ave suggest that you secure a trial bottle of German Syrup for 25 cents," etc.
On the bottle I read: "Certain cure for all diseases of the throat and lungs. " Consumption is a disease of the lungs; sometimes of the throat.
49
If it "can sometimes be cured, but not always," then the German Syrup is not a "certain cure for all diseases of the throat and lungs," and somebody, as the ill-fated Reingelder put it, "haf lied in brint" on Mr.
