Ratiocination

“ Regis had done nothing, either by sales agencies or by advertising, to make her medicine or its mark known outside of the New England States, saving sporadic sales in territory adjacent to those states, and had made no effort whatever to extend the trade to Kentucky, she and her successors were bound to know that, misled by their silence and inaction, others might act, as Rectanus and his successors did act, upon the assumption that the field was open, and therefore were estopped to ask for an injunction against the continued use of the mark in Louisville and vicinity by the Rectanus Company. ”

“ If all had thought like this party, the originators of the Restriction measure might have spared themselves their scruples and apprehensions in introducing a state of things during which light guineas were worth more, in a legal way, than heavy 29ones; during which men were tried, convicted, and punished for getting less in exchange for a heavy guinea than they might lawfully have gained for a light one; during which there was no measure for proportioning the amount of the circulating medium to the quantity of commodities ”

“ Rutledge, had risen to the need of the world and crushed the yellow menace.
Such, truly, had been the case. In a single hour, through the agency of a harmless food, the subtle scientist had crushed a nation. The principle involved had been discovered nearly two centuries before, when it was well-known that if an animal were injected with a small quantity of a protein foreign to his body, a subsequent dose a hundred million times as weak would cause its immediate and violent death. ”

“ As we are following the course of things with some regard for their chronological sequence, perhaps I should state here that on the next day but one the Lysander John Curd hay and feed store was closed on executions sworn out by a coterie of panic-stricken creditors. It is a mistake, I think, to assume that rats always leave a sinking ship. It has been my limited observation that, if they are commercial rats, they stay aboard and nibble more holes in the hull. ”

“ As stated in the introduction to N. N. R., “it is ... manifestly impossible for the Council to investigate the composition of every complex pharmaceutical mixture, or to check thoroughly every therapeutic claim; it can give only an unbiased judgment on the available evidence.” Acting on this principle, the Council examined the claims made for Secretogen, an alleged secretin product manufactured by the G. W. Carnrick Company. The conclusion was that these claims were in absolute conflict with the available evidence as to the action of secretin. ”

“ On the 28th of March 1828, the trustee reported, that after giving bond, and advertising as required by the decree, he had, on the 17th day of July 1826, sold the property at public sale, to John T. Ritchie, the highest bidder, for the sum of two thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars. That Mr Ritchie, having produced satisfactory evidence of his having paid all the debts, and becoming the only creditor to an amount exceeding the amount of sales, he had made to him a deed conveying the property. ”

“ Absinthe should be under the control of the Sale of Poisons Act, and no person ought to be able to get it in any form at all without signing a book and going through all the necessary formality for the purchase of a poison. To move the country to a due regard for its own interests as well as for the interests of the ignorant and deluded toxico-maniacs who indulge in absinthe, is the duty of all honest and truthful men. ”

“ The real reason why Radisson came back to England is so new to history that I have given the instructions of the French Government in full. Radisson refers to these instructions in his affidavit of 1697, a document—which for State reasons—has never been given to the public till now. The State reasons will become plainer as the record goes on. Both governments were lying to sustain fictitious claims for damages. Herewith in part, is Radisson’s affidavit, taken before Sir Robert Jeffery, Aug. ”

“ At the trial evidence was given by Professor Tidy to the effect that the symptoms and appearances were not those of arsenical poisoning and that the amounts of arsenic found in the body were not greater than those present in cases where arsenical medicines had been taken months before death, and where there was no suspicion of poisoning. Although the prisoner was convicted and sentenced to death, there can be little doubt but that this evidence had an important influence in determining the subsequent alteration of the sentence to penal servitude. ”

“ Removals were fast and furious, until all Indiana became easy in circumstances. And it was not to be denied that, by one means or another, Ratcliffe's friends did come into their fair share of the public money. Perhaps the President thought it best to wink at such use of the Treasury patronage for the present, or was already a little overawed by his Secretary.
Ratcliffe's work was done. The public had, with the help of some clever intrigue, driven its servants into the traces. Even an Indiana stone-cutter could be taught that his personal prejudices must yield to the public service. ”

“ The American agent having promised a reform in the methods of advertising, the Council considered the available evidence regarding the identity and value of the preparation. Examination of evidence regarding the composition of Dioradin—​claimed to consist of radium chlorid, iodoform and menthol in an ether-oil solution—​showed serious discrepancies as to the amount of radium as well as to the identity and amounts of other constituents. ”

“ He sputtered, and the red of his face matched the color of the skin on his back.
"You took long enough," he said accusingly and then, when Rastignac opened his mouth to protest, the Jail-breaker said, "Never mind, never mind. Sa n'apawt. The thing is that we get you away fast. The Minister of Ill-Will has doubtless by now received word that an official jail-break is planned for tonight. He will send a company of his mucketeers to intercept you. By coming in advance of the appointed time we shall have time to escape before the official rescue party arrives." ”

“ This would seem to indicate that what has already been intimated by The Journal—​namely, that latalia rad. is a figment of the imagination—​is a fact. The second noticeable thing about the label “formula,” as distinct from the “formula” in the advertising matter, is that on the label we find there is opium in the preparation. Why is no mention made of the presence of this potent drug in the advertising matter?
To determine how nearly the present statements made by the Enteronol Company approximate truthfulness, our chemists were asked to examine the nostrum as it is now sold. ”

“ There is no evidence to show that those who paid were one hundred per cent free from rats in their warehouses, but within a week there was ample proof that at least three wholesale groceries and one laundry had been invaded overnight by rats in sufficient quantity to cause thousands of dollars' worth of damages. Moyer & Perkins heard the news and decided to pay another five thousand. ”

“ The difference in the commodities has a further bearing upon the existence and the proof of intent. There may be circumstances in which the evidence of knowledge is clear, yet the further step of finding the required intent cannot be taken. Concededly, not every instance of sale of restricted goods, harmful as are opiates, in which the seller knows the buyer intends to use them unlawfully, will support a charge of conspiracy. ”

“ By measures such as these, this dread scourge of the human race is being brought under control. Incidentally, the enormous losses due to the direct ravages of rats are being obviated and this alone would justify the expenditure many times over of the money and labor involved in the anti-rat measures. ”

“ The invention of distillation, sublimation, and other chemical processes necessitated laboratories, furnaces, and costly apparatus; so that it was thought proper that those who devoted themselves to pharmacy should be indemnified by an exclusive trade; and monopolists could be kept under closer inspection so that the danger of their selling improper drugs or poisons was lessened or entirely removed. ”

“ How can a biochemist, rather than a policeman, stop the Syndicate? Then it came to me, simple and obvious. Hit the source, the weak link, the roots of the poison tree. In short, Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy itself.
Basic, isn't it? Destroy the plant, and you cut the heart out of the drug traffic. No cops; no hopeless warfare against cunning smugglers; no battle with big-money corruption of officials. And remember: no chemist alive can synthesize opium or its derivatives. ”

“ The rats are fed at a certain time every day for about ten days, at the end of which they will come in large numbers almost on the minute. The poisoned food is then placed for them and a large proportion of the rats are destroyed. Where poison has once been tried it is useless to make any further attempts with the same poison for a long time to come, for the rats will refuse to touch it. The wholesale method outlined has been found in practise by the French to give the best results.
Our trip to the French front in the Champagne was interesting. ”

“ The same chemist further extracted 46·6 per cent. of fixed oil, 2·2 of sugar and mucilage, besides 18 per cent. of cellulose.
Tuson in 1864, by exhausting castor oil seeds with boiling water, obtained from them an alkaloid which he named Ricinine. He states that it crystallizes in rectangular prisms and tables, which when heated fuse, and upon cooling solidify as a crystalline mass; the crystals may even be sublimed. Ricinine dissolves readily in water or alcohol, less freely in ether or benzol. With mercuric chloride, it combines to form tufts of silky crystals, soluble in water or alcohol. ”

“ Regis and her firm, having during a long period of years confined their use of the 'Rex' mark to a limited territory wholly remote from that in controversy, must be held to have taken the risk that some innocent party might in the meantime hit upon the same mark, apply it to goods of similar character, and expend money and effort in building up a trade under it ”

“ Behind him hovered Detournelles and Nan Madden, the pretty nurse, both similarly garbed in grave cerements. The woman held a metal tray, from which came the limpid glow of lights on some liquid in a glass receiver and the sharp sheen of metal instruments. Flack turned to the tray, dipped gauze in the liquid, and thoroughly sponged a surface of several square inches on Crump’s arm. Then he straightened up, lifted a silver-and-glass hypodermic needle from the tray, and, holding it up to the cluster of incandescents in the ceiling, observed it with a critical, professional air. ”

“ For it is the careless or conscienceless physician who gets the customer for the "ethical" headache remedies, and the customer, once secured, pays a profit, very literally, with his own blood. Once having taken Antikamnia, the laymen, 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 disguised poison, exploited and sold under patent rights by a private concern. ”

“ Strange as it may seem, tartaric acid has destroyed life in at least one instance in this country; an ounce having been given in mistake for an aperient salt. The deceased swallowed the whole at once, and immediately called out that he had been poisoned. He complained of intense pain in the throat and stomach, as if he had swallowed oil of vitriol, or was on fire. Soda and magnesia were administered without avail; and after death, at [Pg 48] the end of nine days’ suffering, the stomach and intestines were found much inflamed. ”

“ The campaign against rats is usually carried on by the employment of rat-traps and rat-catchers, and the laying down, under precautionary conditions, of poisons such as arsenic and phosphorus. As no one method is satisfactory, it is usual to employ several at the same time. ”

“ For Gaspard Detournelles, as for his precious associates in Raoul Flack’s little company of expert criminals, these ten days between meetings with the financier had been crammed with high-tension activity. Not the least portion of this period of preparation had been spent by Detournelles among the dry-as-dust accumulation of tomes in that obscure room of the great library on Fifth Avenue which has “Pathology” inscribed over its door. The nimble wits of the man had leaped to the exigencies of the occasion, and from the many scientific works he skimmed he had culled an engaging line of patter. ”

“ It is an appalling record; the unfortunate part being that it is impossible to acquaint every citizen with the facts.
Duplicity and misrepresentation are not confined to patent medicines. Even the mineral waters are misrepresented and lied about. A much-advertised lithia water, before the passage of the pure food and drugs act, was highly vaunted as a uric acid eliminant because of the lithia it was said to contain. ”

“ It is a rule in my shop that no one sells poisons but myself. I asked the prisoner what he wanted the arsenic for. He answered that he wanted it for killing rats at his house, called Gleninch. I said, ‘Have I the honor of speaking to Mr. Macallan, of Gleninch?’ He said that was his name. I sold him the arsenic—about an ounce and a half—and labeled the bottle in which I put it with the word ‘Poison’ in my own handwriting. He signed the register, and took the arsenic away with him, after paying for it. ”