BUER’S PILES CURE.
On purchasing from an address in one of the Home Counties Buer’s “Piles Cure” for 1s. 1½d., it proved to consist of a box of Buer’s Mul’la, and a single sample powder of Buer’s Pile Powders, which cost a further 1s. 1½d. for a box. Several circulars were enclosed in the package. The trade mark was a picture of a donkey; a few extracts will suffice as specimens of the statements made:
Is it money (1s. 1½d.) or your life? Buer, the founder, the proprietor is the seventh son, not trading on his birthright but on his cure, testified by hundreds. Warrants it will cure you. If you suffer, will you try it?
The pains experienced range all the way from the slightest itch to the most terrible sufferings, which appear like tearing the body asunder, and unless the piles are cured with Buer’s Mul’la there is no relief....
They cause you to be despondent, caring little to live; no go in you; quarrelsome in yourself; weakening to the constitution; until something gives way and hastens your death. It is therefore money or your life; no hesitation.
But one thing—not for the sake of selling the Powders—keep a box of Buer’s Pile Powders in house—12 for 1s. 1½d. ain’t dear—and take one as directed whenever you feel any irritation.
The box of ointment contained two-fifths of an ounce. The directions were:
Apply this Mul’la to parts affected.
Analysis showed the ointment to contain:
| Lanoline (anhydrous) | 66·5 | per cent. |
| Beeswax | 1·5 | ” |
| Water | 32·0 | ” |
Hamamelis ointment is usually made from the liquid extract which contains rectified spirit, but no alcohol was present in this oddly-named preparation; it may have been made with liquor hamamelidis prepared without the use of alcohol; a minute trace of water-soluble substance contained in the ointment suggested by its behaviour with reagents that such was the case. The estimated cost of ingredients is three farthings.
Twelve of the powders are supplied in the 1s. 1½d. box. The directions are:
To be taken at bedtime in a glass of milk or water.
Analysis showed the composition to be:
| Precipitated sulphur | 14·9 | grains. |
| Calcined magnesia (partly carbonated) | 23·6 | ” |
in one powder of average weight. Single powders in one box varied from 28 to 48 grains. The estimated cost of the ingredients for twelve powders is 1¼d.