ALLAN’S ANTI-FAT.

This substance is supplied by an American “Botanic Medicine Company” from a London office, in bottles containing 6½ fluid ounces, price 6s. 6d.

On the wrapper appeared the words:

Purely vegetable. Perfectly harmless. Always efficacious.

We call special attention to the efficacy of our Anti-Fat in the cure of that distressing complaint—indigestion or dyspepsia. It acts solely upon the food in the stomach, regulating and putting the liver and discharging organs in good working order.

A circular was enclosed with the bottle, entitled, “How to get lean without starvation,” from which the following extracts are taken:

A very extensive observation has convinced us, since our first circular treatise was issued, that in the majority of cases the Anti-Fat must be taken for from two to three, and, in rare cases, even four weeks before the patient will begin to notice much reduction of flesh, after which the loss goes on rapidly—generally from three to five pounds a week. In some cases the diminution in weight commences from the first two or three days’ use of it.

The treatment of obesity has hitherto rested on no sure basis.

Through the study of physiological chemistry, a specific has at length been discovered, which, from the name of the discoverer, has been called Allan’s Anti-Fat.

Directions: Take two teaspoonfuls of the Anti-Fat in a wineglass full of water or sweet milk before each meal.

A small slip was also enclosed headed “Caution!!” which stated:

The color, as well as the flavor, of the Anti-Fat, varies somewhat with age and exposure to light, but neither in the least impairs its virtues. The temperature of the weather at the time of the manufacture of this remedy has also much to do with its clearness, or transparency, but does not affect its properties.

Analysis showed the presence of alcohol, glycerine, potassium iodide, salicylic acid, and a vegetable extract which from its properties and the analysis of the ash was evidently a purified extract of Fucus vesiculosus. The proportion of the latter drug represented could not, of course, be determined with certainty for the reasons already given, but the amounts of the other ingredients were ascertained by analysis, and the formula was approximately as follows:

Potassium iodide	0·3	grain.
Salicylic acid	1·0	”
Glycerine	40	minims.
Fluid extract of Fucus vesiculosus	70	”
Water	To 1	fluid ounce.

The estimated cost of the ingredients (6½ fluid ounces) is 3d.