BURGESS’S LION OINTMENT.
The results of an examination of Burgess’s Lion Ointment may be given here inasmuch as it will be seen that it is recommended for the cure of a great number of disorders. It is supplied in boxes at 1s. 1½d., 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., 11s., and jars at 22s.; the 1s. 1½d. box contains 1 oz., and the next size 3 oz.
A circular wrapped round the box was headed “Amputation avoided—the knife superseded,” and continued:
E. Burgess’s Lion Ointment and Pills Have deservedly become the popular remedies for curing all diseases of the Skin, Old Wounds, Ulcers, Abscesses, (including Tuberculous), Tumours, Polypuses, Piles, Fistulas, Shingles, Venerea Sores, Whitlows, Broken Breasts, Bad Legs, Boils, Scurvy, Scrofula (King’s Evil), Scorbutic Eruptions, Poisoned Wounds of all kinds, Stings, Venomous Bites, Scurf, Ringworm, Itch, Corns, Chilblains, Chapped Hands, Cracked Lips, Cuts, Burns, Scalds, Gatherings in the Ear, Toothache, Earache, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Gout, Sciatica, Quinsey, Bronchitis, Asthma, Deafness, etc.; also Ulcerous Affections of the Womb, for the treatment of which apply to the Proprietor, personally, or by letter, in all cases free. These invaluable medicines have not been introduced as remedies for any of the above complaints, or diseases, until they have in each case PRACTICALLY proved EFFECTUAL. To those who are suffering from diseases apparently rendering amputation necessary, they are especially recommended, as they entirely do away with the necessity for the same by drawing all the cause of the disease from the affected part, cleansing the blood, and restoring the system to a sound, healthy condition.
They are vegetable preparations, and the Ointment can be applied with perfect confidence to the most tender skin. It is entirely free from all poisonous ingredients, a great recommendation for the nursery—for which it is invaluable.
In spite of the ointment being a “vegetable preparation,” analysis showed the principal ingredient to be lead oleate (lead plaster); this is blended with resin, wax, and fatty ingredients; vegetable extracts and active principles were found to be absent. It is not possible to separate the ingredients of an ointment like this sharply one from another; and, since the ingredients are not themselves simple bodies but mixtures liable to rather wide variations, they can only be approximately determined, and, as regards the lard and oil, even identification cannot be placed beyond doubt nor can small quantities of some other fats be certainly stated to be absent. These, however, are matters of minor importance. The composition given below has been checked by varying the analytical methods, as well as by comparison of various ointments prepared according to formulæ suggested by analysis. As a result of the investigation, the following formula was arrived at, which gives an ointment similar to the “Lion” ointment:
| Lead plaster | 13 | parts. |
| Beeswax | 20 | ” |
| Resin | 11 | ” |
| Olive oil | 12 | ” |
| Water | 6 | ” |
| Lard, to | 100 | ” |
The estimated cost of the ingredients is about 1Od. per lb. of ointment.
APPENDIX.
STAMP DUTY ON
SECRET REMEDIES.
The duty on secret medicines is regulated by the Stamp Act of 1804 as amended by the Stamp Act Amendment Act of 1812. The Act of 1804 was itself in part an amending Act and regulated the duties to be paid on paper, on books, on advertisements, and imposed ad valorem duties on hats and proprietary medicines. The tax on proprietary medicines remains, but that on advertisements through and by which they continue to exist and flourish has gone the way of the duties on hats, and books, and paper. The Act of 1804 contained a schedule of medicines to the number of some 450. In the Act of 1812 this was replaced by a new schedule in which about 550 proprietary medicines were mentioned by name. The final clause of this Act, however, is expressed in very general terms, for it includes “all other pills, powders, lozenges, tinctures, potions, cordials, electuaries, plasters, unguents, salves, ointments, drops, lotions, oils, spirits, medicated herbs and waters, chemical and officinal preparations whatsoever, to be used or applied externally or internally as medicines or medicaments for the prevention, cure, or relief of any disorder or complaint incident to or in any wise affecting the human body,” if the person making or selling these various preparations claim to have any occult secret or art for making them or claim to have any exclusive right or title to make them, or prepares and sells them under the authority of letters patent, or if by public notice or advertisement, or by papers or labels on, or with, the enclosures, bottles, or cases in which the preparation is sold, the maker vendor, or proprietor recommend them as “nostrums, or as proprietary medicines, or as specifics, or as beneficial to the prevention, cure, or relief of any distemper, malady, ailment, disorder, or complaint incident to or in any wise affecting the human body.”
The Inland Revenue returns show that during the last ten years the amount received by the State from the stamp duty on patent medicines so-called has increased from £266,403 10s. 3d. in the year ending March 31, 1899, to £334,141 19s. 2½d. in the year ending March 31st, 1908. The net receipts are the gross receipts after deducting repayments and allowances, but the aggregates of these deductions are small. The following table shows the net receipts in each of the ten years, and the average for the two quinquennial periods, 1899-1903 and 1904-1908:—
Table showing net Receipts from Stamps on
“Patent Medicines” for Ten Years, 1899-1908.
| Year. | Yearly. | Quinquennial average. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| 1899 | 266,403 | 10 | 3 | 298,483 | 18 | 3 |
| 1900 | 288,827 | 6 | 1½ | |||
| 1901 | 297,479 | 19 | 8 | |||
| 1902 | 306,337 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 1903 | 333,371 | 7 | 9 | |||
| 1904 | 323,445 | 14 | 0 | 328,048 | 16 | 0 |
| 1905 | 331,438 | 17 | 6½ | |||
| 1906 | 324,111 | 14 | 2 | |||
| 1907 | 327,105 | 15 | 3½ | |||
| 1908 | 334,141 | 19 | 2½ | |||
The value of the stamp which the vendor must affix to the bottle or package varies according to the price charged for the medicine, and the returns show the number of articles for which the several rates are paid. The following table gives the amount of the stamp duty on the several prices, the number of articles stamped in the fiscal year 1908, and the amount of the stamp. An attempt has also been made to estimate the total amount paid by the public for the articles stamped:—
Table showing Rates of Duty, Number of Articles Stamped
and Approximate Sum paid by the Public in the Year
ending March 31st, 1908.
| Price of Article without stamp. | Stamp. | Number of articles stamped. | Price paid by public. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1½ | 33,037,202 | 1,858,342 | 12 | 0 |
| 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 7,565,822 | 1,040,300 | 10 | 0 |
| 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1,002,549 | 225,573 | 10 | 6 |
| 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 122,249 | 67,236 | 19 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 18,445 | 20,289 | 10 | 0 |
| 1 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11,308 | 18,658 | 4 | 0 |
| 41,757,575 | 3,230,401 | 5 | 6 | |||||
This estimate of the total amount paid by the public must be too high. In the first place it will be seen that the stamp duty does not rise by regular increments ad valorem. An article, the nominal price of which is 1s., must bear a stamp of 1½d., but if the nominal price be 1s. 6d., the stamp is 3d., and for an article of the nominal price of 2s. 6d. it is the same. In the second place, a large proportion of all the articles, probably the great majority of those at 1s., are sold at a discount, “store prices.” In the above table the maximum price for each rate of stamp duty and the full nominal prices are assumed. If a deduction of 25 per cent. is made to meet these sources of error, we have a sum of £2,422,800 19s. 1½d., as an estimate of the amount spent by the public on patent medicine in the financial year ending March 31, 1908.
At one time some of the vendors of nostrums took to inserting in their advertisements phrases intended to suggest that the Inland Revenue stamp upon their packages implied some sort of Government guarantee of the efficacy of the remedy. Though the Inland Revenue authorities do not as a rule display any anxiety with regard to the welfare of the public in the matter of the sale of nostrums, their efforts being confined to the collection of the duty, and the enforcement of the provisions of the Act should any vendor show a disposition to evade them, the stamp in recent years has borne the statement “This stamp implies no Government guarantee.” In spite of this vendors still sometimes contrive to convey the suggestion that the stamp conveys some sort of government guarantee; the suggestion looks the more plausible if the vendor has his name or autograph printed on the stamp by the government authorities; this will be done for him if he pays the cost of the die, and by the use of such an endorsement the incautious buyer may be led to assume that the Inland Revenue in some way shares the vendors’ responsibility for the genuineness of the article, that is to say for the genuineness of its claims. It has been suggested that the Legislature might go further and require the composition and ingredients of any secret remedy to be stated upon the label, box, or package, and looking to the nature of the facts disclosed by the analyses published in this book, it may well be believed that such publications on the labels would act to a certain extent as a warning to the public, for it would be apparent even to the least instructed that the claims in the vendors’ circulars were not quite consonant with the commonplace nature of the ingredients of the mixture, powder, pill, lotion, or ointment.