BARING GOULD’S ANTI-RHEUMATIC PEARLS.

This article is introduced to the public by an advertisement headed:

“Rheumatism speedily cured.” The advertisement states that Mr. Baring Gould, of an address at a provincial watering place, “very strongly recommends Marvellous Cheap Remedy for Chronic Rheumatism, Gout, etc. Free Information for addressed envelope.”

Application for information with regard to the remedy brought a box of the “Pearls” with an intimation that the price was 5s., or 3s. 9d. for prompt cash. In the enclosed circulars the proprietor was described as “W. Baring Gould, Rheumatic Specialist and Scientist in Chemistry,” and the “Pearls” were referred to in the following terms:

Baring Gould’s Anti-Rheumatic “Pearls” (Patent and Trade Mark Registered). The Most Wonderful and Most Effectual “Anti-Rheumatic” Ever Known....

Mr. Baring Gould desires to say that from a recent careful examination of his records, he finds that he relieves or cures (mostly by his wonderful “Pearls”) at least eighty people in every hundred who come under his care.

There is nothing to approach the “Pearls” in Curative value for all kinds of Rheumatism, Sciatica, and Gout. They are entirely free from every kind of injurious substance, and may be taken with absolute safety and benefit by the most delicate bedridden sufferers.

Dose.—Take 2 Pearls twice a day. Being flexible and tasteless they are easily swallowed, or the gelatine casing may be removed and the contents placed in half a wineglass of water (hot or cold) and taken in that way. The flavour of the medicaments is agreeable to the palate and to the stomach also.

The “Pearls” consisted of gelatine capsules, of the flattened form known commercially as “perles,” containing a white powder. The average weight of the contents was 5·9 grains, the contents of single capsules varying from 5·0 to 6·5 grains. It should be said that aspirin, a drug in very common use for rheumatism, is acetyl-salicylic acid. Analysis showed the powder to consist of:

Acetyl-salicylic acid  85per cent.
Sugar of milk15”

The estimated cost of ingredients for 40 capsules is 1½d.