British Medical Association

“ For it can’t be too often repeated that indigestion is the root of a great deal of evil; the origin of a great many disorders which no man quite understands how he came by. And why this is can easily be explained. Disease is poison; its symptoms are the manifestation of the poison. Indigestion creates many dangerous poisons, and is therefore the cause of many diseases.
So let us get rid of the smoke by putting out the fire, and purify our blood and system with Mother Seigel’s Syrup, which will sweep away the poisons and make us healthy and strong. ”

“ Every one must admit that few things can be more cruel than to trade upon the hopes and fears of sick people or to sell them worthless remedies with the positive assurance of cure. Yet this is what is done by the sellers of quack remedies, and the Inland Revenue pockets the patent medicine duty without a blush. Some account is here given of two much advertised preparations—Vin Urané Pesqui and Dill’s Diabetic Mixture. ”

“ It does not matter whether a Doctor is attending patients or not whilst they are under my treatment, although I always prefer a Doctor to be in attendance to see the cure being effected because I particularly wish to convince the Medical fraternity of the genuineness of my cure. ”

“ Diabetes, being a disease which runs on the whole a steady course unaffected by anything but diet, does not afford a promising field for the use of drugs; but as drowning men catch at straws, patients who have been told that they are incurable are naturally disposed to try any remedy that holds out a prospect of cure or relief. Although there are a good many proprietary remedies for diabetes, few seem to have a large sale, but such as exist are pushed by the usual pretensions set forth in advertisements and circulars. ”

“ Cure is a purely vegetable compound, and contains no narcotic or harmful drugs; it is free from sediment and is pleasant to take; it is a most valuable and effective tonic; it stimulates digestion, awakens the torpid liver, and puts the entire system in the very best receptive state for the work of restoring the kidneys. It does its work with absolute method, preparing the tissues, soothing and stimulating the enfeebled organs, healing at the same time. It builds up the body, gives it strength, and restores the energy which is or has been wasting under the baneful suffering of kidney disease. ”

“ No matter where the pain is, or how severe it is, or how long you have had it, Genoform Tablets will rid you of it. They give relief in many cases immediately, and produce a permanent cure.
Take them to-day and feel well. Genoform eases pain with a rapidity which is remarkable, at the same time doing away with the cause. Remember that.
It is no mere relief. It stamps out the cause of Gout, Rheumatism, Sciatica, and Neuralgia. It is absolutely harmless. No remedy equals it in its quick and certain effects. ”

“ To the sick—the suffering—to every man and woman victim of organic disease—local trouble or broken general health—Dr. Kidd’s offer of free treatments is given in the absolute faith and sincere belief that they can and will stop disease, cure it, and lift you up again to health and vigour.... ”

“ Why should any woman remain fat when it is so easy to reduce one’s flesh? A woman may take but little exercise and enjoy the best of food, and still preserve a beautiful figure. She has at hand a simple fat-reducer that takes the place of starving and gymnastics. It consists of a dessertspoonful after meals and at bedtime of this simple mixture: One half-ounce of Marmola, one ounce of fluid extract of Glycyrrhiza B.P., one ounce of pure Glycerine B.P., and Peppermint Water to make six ounces in all. Every over-fat person should try it. ”

“ One case of the remedies is generally sufficient to effect a cure, and I trust that it may be so in your case, but if the disease has been in the system for years it has got a firm hold, and naturally takes longer to eradicate; therefore, if this case of remedies should not cure you, you must lose no time in writing for a further supply so that no time may be lost between. You must avoid anything likely to irritate the skin, and be especially careful as to the soap you use, as many soaps are most injurious, being quite sufficient in themselves to cause an eruption. ”

“ A guarantee that any medical remedy or curative will absolutely effect its stated purpose is misleading, deceptive, delusive, and is a trap to ensnare, not intelligent individuals, but the unwary, the unsophisticated, and those utterly unable to discriminate as to the merits or demerits of any so-called specific. ”

“ There is no other treatment, drug, or medicine advertised in Great Britain to-day to cure Consumption, the ingredients of which are not known to every doctor and chemist in the world, and if you cannot obtain relief from these under the care of your own Medical Adviser, how can you be cured by using them on the advice of an American Quack. ”

“ It is, of course, impossible to determine with certainty the composition of a mixture of fats, unless a large quantity is available for analysis; but the exact nature of the fatty basis is immaterial, and no indication was obtained of any other medicinal ingredient.
The assertion that such an ointment “requires great skill in making” is absurd, and as to the costliness of the ingredients, the 55 grains in the pot are estimated to be worth one-ninth of a penny. ”

“ It may be objected that Pesqui’s Uranium Wine is not a secret remedy because it is said to contain uranium nitrate, pepsin, and “other appropriate elements” added to “old Bordeaux wine”; but uranium nitrate is a drug well-known to the medical profession, and whatever may be its properties it is not a cure for diabetes. There is no trustworthy evidence that it has ever cured a single case, and the most that can be honestly said of it is that patients have improved in general health while taking it, although it has not influenced the amount of sugar. ”

“ It will save the lives of thousands and prevent Consumption, by administering it upon the first symptoms of Cough, which will be immediately cured by a few doses.
In a circular enclosed with the bottle it was stated:
A Cough is the forerunner of Consumption. In England alone 50,000 people die of it thus constituting one-fourth of the nation’s death rate annually. It has destroyed more human beings than War, Pestilence, and Famine combined; it neither spares the old nor young, “and there is no family in which this rapacious destroyer of the human race has not had its victim.” ”

“ There is no experimenting, no guesswork, but an absolutely fixed law of cure.
Munyon’s Kidney Cure has no equal. It cures pain in the back, loins, or groins, from kidney disease, puffy and flabby face, dropsy of the feet and limbs, frequent desire to pass water, scanty urine, dark-coloured and turbid urine sediment in the urine, gravel in the bladder, and too-great a flow of urine. ”

“ There is another triple nostrum for diabetes which, on examination, was found to consist of tablets of aspirin, unsweetened lime-juice, and a pink powder composed of sodium sulphate flavoured with oil of peppermint and tinted with phenolphthalein. These simple remedies were solemnly vouched for by the vendors in the following words: “We have satisfied ourselves that the treatment is an absolute and permanent cure”! Apparently the law cannot reach those who publish deliberately untruthful statements with the object of selling their goods. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact, and one which is attested by every medical man, that the action of a drug may be made effective or ineffective according to the manner in which it is prescribed. There are certain subordinate drugs which prepare the way, as it were, for the action of a principal drug, and the proportion between the ingredients of a prescription is of vital importance in relation to the effect produced. ”

“ On the contrary, they appear curiously indifferent to taste and appearance, and perhaps count on the belief, common among the poorer classes at least, that the nastier a drug the more effective it is. There is, at any rate, the excuse for this belief that the effort to subdue the repugnance to the draught produces a glow of virtue which may perhaps have a certain stimulating effect on the mind; the patient having not only spent his money but suffered some discomfort, is anxious to justify his faith by assuming himself to be the better for the double sacrifice. ”

“ An inquiry of the kind is, from the analytical point of view, tedious and often difficult; for though the analytical chemist can easily and quickly identify the nature of inorganic salts in a mixture or powder, and estimate their amount, most vegetable drugs which exert any appreciable effect on the body owe their power to the presence of an alkaloid or glucoside. The active principle of opium, for instance, is morphine; that of cinchona bark, quinine; that of belladonna, atropine, and so on, and the chemist can recognise any alkaloids present in a mixture or pill. ”

“ Now, a sponge absorbs water, or any dry thing will absorb a liquid, but common sense will tell you that a liquid taken into the body will not absorb fat; you can clearly understand that point without further explanation. Another remedy, it is claimed, simply destroys the fat. This explanation is, as you can see, equally preposterous. In Nature nothing is destroyed. When a piece of coal is burned it is not destroyed, it is only changed into gases and smoke, and fat is not destroyed by any remedy. ”

“ The information which chemical analysis can give as to the composition of proprietary medicines is necessarily limited to the recognition of those ingredients which possess more or less definite chemical properties. The makers, of course, can make use of any one or more of a long series of vegetable extracts which very much resemble each other, and of various sweetening and flavouring materials sold for the purpose. In the case of many secret preparations analysis can afford complete and positive information as to their composition ”

“ Dodd’s Kidney Pills is the only remedy that has cured Bright’s Disease.
Diabetes—Dodd’s Kidney Pills will cure this disease.
Dropsy—The first object in treating dropsy is to restore the kidneys to their normal condition. This is what Dodd’s Kidney Pills do and hence their peculiar efficacy for this disease.
Dodd’s Kidney Pills will cure any form of heart disease.
What is known as the “change of life,” is a period of [Pg 70] great importance to woman. At such a time, no remedy could be more effective than Dodd’s Kidney Pills. ”

“ The circular continues: “The great drawback to my cure, so far as the medical profession is concerned, has always been the fact that I would not reveal its formula. This is now done away with; its formula is 80 grains of umckaloabo root and 131⁄3 grains of chijitse to every ounce, prepared according to British Pharmacopœia methods.” The farce of revealing a formula by the employment of such fancy names as these is one of the oldest dodges of the quack medicine man, and no such names as “umckaloabo” and “chijitse” appear in any available work of reference on pharmacy. ”

“ When the muscles and nerves are tortured by poisons in the Blood, be the result Rheumatism, Sciatica, or Lumbago, the only way to a cure is to Enrich and Purify the Blood. Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills, in this way alone, have cured not only Rheumatism, but Anæmia, Indigestion, Palpitations, Influenza’s After-Effects, Eczema, Sciatica, St. Vitus’ Dance, Spinal Weakness, the many forms of Nervous Disorders dreaded by men; also the special ailments of women.
The pills were ovoid in shape and coated with sugar, coloured pink; after removal of the coating they had an average weight of 3 grains. ”

“ Although Stevens is so engagingly candid about his rivals he follows the plan of sending one letter after another to any sufferer whose name he may have obtained, a system which seems to have been invented in America; it is certainly cheaper than bold advertisement in newspapers, and is apparently found even more satisfactory, as it enables the vendor to give individual attention to the depth of his correspondent’s pocket if not to the severity of his disease. ”

“ Nearly every ailment known to the medical faculty is in a greater or lessor degree dependent for its appearance and its virulence upon a Disease of the Blood. Ulcers, Tumours, Scrofula Bunches, Fistula, Piles, Painful Eruptions, indeed all afflictions manifested upon the outer surface of the body are the consequences of diseased blood. ”

“ Judging from the relative number of secret remedies advertised for different complaints, it would seem that the most attractive fields for exploitation by the “patent” medicine man are afforded by those diseases which are widely prevalent, and sufficiently serious to cause considerable suffering and incapacity, inasmuch as such disorders lend themselves to sensational descriptions of the dire consequences which will follow if the one and only real and certain cure is not purchased. ”