Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

“ When an advertising contract is submitted, for a product that physicians would know to be fraudulent, the question that arises is, “Can it be put over?” Manifestly, a medical journal published purely as a business venture would not dare long to fly in the face of the opinions of those from whom it received its support—​its subscribers and contributors. If our correspondents will go through the advertising columns of the Medical Times they will find many, many other frauds, less cruel perhaps than the Kellam advertisement, but no less disreputable or discreditable to the medical profession. ”

“ The Council refused recognition to Prunoids because the statement of composition is incomplete and therefore meaningless; because unwarranted therapeutic claims are made for them; because the name “Prunoids” gives the false impression that they depend on prunes for their effect; and because it is irrational and a detriment to medicine to disguise a well-known drug by means of a misleading name and to attempt to create the impression of special virtues by combining it with superfluous drugs.​— (From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 2, 1915.) ”

“ Angier’s Emulsion is essentially a petroleum product. When it was first put on the market commercial interests had been fostering the idea that petroleum products had food-value, and the manufacturers of Angier’s Emulsion, making use of the idea, advertised it as a “food-medicine” and an “ideal substitute for cod-liver oil.” The impression thus created has been kept alive through persistent advertising in spite of scientific proof to the contrary. To-day many who know that petroleum products have no food-value are still likely unconsciously to class Angier’s Emulsion among nutrients. ”

“ To the physiologist, the term “nerve-food” is an absurdity. The processes of digestion reduce the albuminous substances (proteins, such as casein) of the food to simpler forms. This is true no matter what may be their source. Whether the proteins are derived from the gluten of wheat, the casein of milk or the albumin of egg, one will “feed the nerves” just as well as the other. And Sanatogen “feeds the nerves” no more than, in fact not as much as, do bread and meat and eggs. ”

“ How can a physician with the slightest sense of responsibility to his patients allow his office to be used as a free advertising bureau for a preparation manifestly founded and developed on deceit and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion?
How can any medical journal, except those avowedly and unblushingly seeking to aid the nostrum maker to exploit the profession, whose interests they claim to serve, continue to carry the deceptive and misleading advertisement of a twice exposed fraud? ”

“ If a physician, knowing the composition of Labordine, wishes to prescribe it and prescribes it intelligently, he has a perfect right to do so. If he wishes his patient to have 2 grains of acetanilid, 1⁄20 of a grain of quinin, and 1⁄3 of a grain of salicylic acid, and considers a mixture of ground celery seed, starch and milk sugar as a proper vehicle for this medication, no one will question his right to administer it. No physician, however, has any right, either moral or professional, to prescribe a preparation, concerning the ingredients of which he knows absolutely nothing. ”

“ Every time an unbroken protein is introduced into the body it carries with it, and as a part of it, a poison. From the very careless, rash, and unwarranted way in which ‘vaccines’ of most diverse origin and composition are now used in the treatment of disease, this matter certainly cannot be understood or its danger appreciated by those who subject their patients to such risk. It should be clearly understood that all proteins contain a poisonous group—​a substance which in a dose of 0.5 mg. ”

“ Well-known drugs of unquestioned worth are combined with those that are little known and of doubtful value, or more likely absolutely worthless, the mixture is put on the market under a high-sounding name and it is exploited through physicians as a panacea for all kinds of diseases.
In this, as in so many other instances, an “analysis” made to order is given to lend an air of apparent respectability and scientific standing to the preparation or to its exploiters, with the object, of course, of misleading physicians into thinking they are reading unbiased testimony. ”

“ It is such men that your article holds up to contempt and dishonor when you allow the false inference to go forth that Sanatogen is a mixture of casein and glycero­phos­phates. It is such men’s careful researches and experience that you attempt to offset by the snap judgment of men whom we claim, without the slightest intent of disparaging them, to be in the present instance unfitted to give an opinion on Sanatogen inasmuch as they—​with perhaps one honorable exception—​have never tested or used the product. ”

“ The admiration and respect we have felt for your journal and our appreciation of the place it holds in the field of medical journalism, made your attack on a product like Sanatogen, representing so definitely the most painstaking and scientific research, the last thing expected. Indeed, it seems inconceivable that a journal apparently so alive to its re­spon­si­bil­ities could publish broadcast an article so calculated to do harm, without first giving those whose interests are most at stake an opportunity to substantiate their claims. ”

“ Can we blame the layman for using Peruna, Wine of Cardui, etc., simply because they are advertised, when there are physicians who, for the same reason, prescribe concoctions that are just as quackish and just as useless? And can editors of medical journals consistently find fault with newspapers for carrying advertisements of fraudulent “patent medicines” when they themselves admit to their pages advertisements of nostrums that are no less fraudulent and of no more value? ”

“ He cannot throw the blame for bad results back to the manufacturer. When he subjects his patient to the possibility of harm by the use of these unscientific and dangerous preparations, the physician assumes the responsibility, whether he wants to or not.
If physicians would report their failures when these vaccines are used, and especially report the fatalities consequent on their use, with the name of the manufacturer of the particular product used, we are quite sure there would result lessening in the enthusiasm of the purveyors of these products. ”

“ Yet, as a matter of fact, the manufacturers of proprietary preparations are under a moral obligation, at least, to tell the truth with reference to the scientific basis for their claims. To draw from exploded theories reasons for the use of proprietary preparations is reprehensible, not only because it may lead physicians to use preparations which are worthless, but also because it tends to confirm in the physician’s mind opinions which science has discarded. ”

“ It would appear to be a fair assumption that a layman, even though a highly educated and able editor of a great newspaper, does not know, and cannot be expected to know, the depth of depravity to which the consumption cure faker and the cancer quack can descend.
“Granting that the newspaper man accepts the advertisements through ignorance of the facts concerning their possibilities for evil, what can be offered in defense of the medical editor who accepts advertising matter equally pernicious in its influence? ”

“ The first lesson is, that formulas are not always what they seem. A hasty glance at the formula of Anasarcin tablets, the basis of the Anasarcin dropsy cure, creates the impression that it is a non-secret remedy; for it is said to represent a combination of the active principles of oxydendron, sambucus and scilla. As a matter of fact, it is a secret nostrum of the insidious kind. A formula which omits the quantities of its potent ingredients means very little. Further than this, we do not hesitate to charge that the claimed composition is a deliberate deception. ”

“ Is it right to present scientific material in such a way and show so little respect for those who have offered you no affront or done you no injury? A little investigation would have shown you that the statements we have made about Sanatogen are based on the experiences and opinions of such men as von Noorden, C. A. Ewald, Duhrssen, Eulenburg, Neisser, Binswanger, von Leyden, Krafft-Ebing, Tillmanns, Tunnicliffe, and thousands of other earnest, reputable physicians. Any one might differ with their conclusions, but is it courteous or decent to hold them up to ridicule and contumely? ”

“ When the history of the “patent medicine” business comes to be written impartially and fairly, it will be realized that we, the medical profession, have been in no small degree responsible for its growth. Not a few widely advertised nostrums owe their commercial success solely to the ill considered use accorded them by physicians, to whom they were first exploited. As a well-known and brilliant advertising man once said:
“The patent medicine of the future is one that will be advertised only to doctors. ”

“ The value of alcohol as a food product pure and simple in disease is, however, an open question. There is no doubt whatever but that it acts to a certain degree as a food even here, not as a tissue builder, but as a saver of fat and carbohydrate material, and in order to give the preparations in question full value as food products, the calories represented by the alcohol, are credited to each preparation, as are the proteids and carbohydrates. ”

“ Let me advise you to pay no earthly attention to the proceedings of the Medical Society where your product was criticized. These people exert no influence with the practical up-to-date element of the profession and are doing you as they do others. Never fear—​you will succeed—​your remedy is all right. No man can talk down a meritorious product. ”

“ The existence in the system of a form of phosphorus less highly oxidized than the phosphates is unproved. No evidence has been produced to show that phosphorus acts as an energizer of oxidation. There is no proof that the hypo­phos­phites enter into general metabolism or affect disease processes in any way. Not only is there no scientific evidence for the utility of the hypo­phos­phites, but science has long since demonstrated their worthlessness. ”

“ During the twelve years Sanatogen has been used, prescribed and recommended by thousands of competent physicians, it has been free from all secrecy. The truth has been told at all times. From the first we have cooperated with the profession. Never have we failed to safeguard the doctor’s interests. Never have we suggested by word or inference that any person should employ Sanatogen to the exclusion of medical treatment. Not a day passes but we refer people who inquire about this or that bodily ill, to their physicians for advice. ”

“ We believe the time will come when even the artificial stimulus of vast advertising appropriations will be insufficient to overcome the inertia inherent in a product of small merit. When that time comes, Sanatogen will die a natural death. In the meantime, its exploiters are reaping a golden harvest, of which no small part is being divided among publishers, medical and otherwise. And the credulous among the sick and suffering pay the bills!​— (From The Journal A. M. A., Dec. 6, 1913.) ”

“ Assuredly it is the definite chemical combination found in Sanatogen on which the special value of this product as a medicinal food and tonic depends. A mere mixture of ingredients would represent only the sum-total of their individual virtues, but a definite combination of such ingredients means the formation of a new compound with properties of its own which far transcend those of any simple mixture of the original ingredients. ”

“ When to the claim that the mixture is a “chemical compound” is added a complex chemical formula, it prevents the impertinent question, “What is it?” For isn’t the “formula” there, and is not the information given without the asking? Most of us have been so overcome by the display of the chemical knowledge of the nostrum maker that we have been afraid to expose our ignorance by asking for information or explanation. And thus the promoter avoids perplexing questions, which, if answered truthfully, would spell bankruptcy. ”

“ Attention has been called at various times to the fact that the value of a published “formula” to a proprietary remedy is in direct ratio to the reliability of the manufacturer publishing it. When medical journals first insisted on their advertisers letting physicians know the contents of the remedies they wished to sell them, medical literature reeked with formulas—​some of them of weird and wonderful design. ”

“ Nostrum promoters have two simple ways of “working” the medical profession. The first—​and the more profitable—​is, by lavish distribution of free samples, to get physicians to prescribe the blown-in-the-glass “original package” with the inevitable result of large sales direct to the laity. By the second method, which is merely a modification of the first, the physician furnishes the capital for floating the nostrum and then takes his share of the resulting profits. There may not be quite as much money in the second method for the promoter, but then the risks are correspondingly less. ”

“ We call your attention to a most peculiar fact: that is, that they make no comment whatsoever as to the product and its therapeutic value in the treatment of diabetes. You notice they make an awful play on our literature, which was changed merely to suit conditions in business. We also wish to call your attention to another peculiar fact, and that is that a great majority of the physicians who are in with this magazine readily recommended our foods, and we also believe that your physician, after reading this letter, will feel the same way as most physicians do in relation to our foods. ”

“ It has become a notorious fact in the medical profession that their criticisms are almost valueless, inasmuch as they stop at nothing in order to create sensationalism, and have attacked not only ourselves, but every bona fide manufacturer of foods and drugs in this country who has refused to fall in line with them. ”

“ In some cases the formulas given are impossible, in other cases they may represent the chemical composition of only one constituent or it may be an attempt at both. To a chemist such formulas are absurd and on seeing a formula which he knows to be wrong he naturally thinks “Fake,” “Ignorance,” or both. Just such a formula (C5H6N.SO) applied to a product called Pix Cresol, manufactured by the Pix Cresol Chemical Co., Kansas City, Mo., attracted our attention. ”