The number of advertised proprietary medicines for the cure of coughs was very large. Many of these contained morphine and might do serious damage.
"Consumption cures" were among the most impudent and wicked of quack medicines. Very high prices were often charged for these particularly worthless preparations. Fifty dollars was charged for a "consumption cure" sufficient to last a month, the actual cost of which was ten cents. Headache powders were sold in enormous quantities and often consisted of phenacetin or acetanilide, which were poisons and might do serious damage if habitually taken even in small doses.
"Blood purifiers" were another pitiful method of bleeding the public, The pains of rheumatism produced a regular cataract of reputed cures. Kidney medicines had the advantage of the utmost obscurity, so many symptoms might be attributed, quite erroneously as a rule, to disease of the kidneys.
The fat people readily became victims to the quack, Rather than forsake the flesh pots of Egypt they consumed colossal quantities of physic advertised as being certain cures if persisted in long enough. Even presumably educated people would purchase for years prietary medi of obesity containing citric acid dissolved in water at a price twenty-six times the actual cost. Skin diseases were 80 frequently chronic that they furnished a fine field for the quacks.
All civilized nations were, however, now at war with the seller of proprietary medicines. The arm of the law had in some enlightened count been effectually raised against them. Honesty was the best policy both in commerce and in the use of drugs.
The Gullible Public.
The interest which mankind displayed in health matters, was, yet, an uninstructed and even unintelligent interest. Were this not so it would be impossible to sell for 'a dollar a box of pills each containing aloes, half a grain; ginger, half a grain; and soap, a fifth of a grain; a box of pills which cost less than five cents to produce. By a system of universal and completely unrestrained advertising the gul-uble public contributed a huge fortune to this particular "'billionaire.""
Tt was exactly the same attitude of mind that led the public to consider a smell as an important cause of disease yet no smell ever caused typhoid or plague or any other specific disease.
The present requirement to counteract all the silly fraud in relation to quack medicines was common sense. And common sense involved fro
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.