HAEMOGLOBIN HAIR CAPSULES.
“Capsules for the Hair. When falling out or turning prematurely grey, these capsules by enriching the blood make the hair glossy, luxuriant, and full of vitality.”
These were not described on the package as containing haemoglobin, but were quoted in the price list as “Haemoglobin Hair Capsules.” They were supplied by a company in a seaside town. “Store price, 1s. 6d.” Wholesale price, 7s. per dozen packages.
SOLUBLE CAPSULES OF
HAEMOGLOBIN.
“Soluble Capsules of Haemoglobin. A natural hair food. Produces Healthy, Strong, and Luxuriant Hair.”
The wholesale price of these, supplied by a London firm, was for boxes of 36, 5s. 9d. per dozen.
CHAPTER XII.
CANCER REMEDIES.
A very slight acquaintance with the advertisements of quack medicines is enough to show that a knowledge of the causes of the disease for which a cure is promised is in no wise necessary for the composition of either the medicine or the advertisement, in fact, it is impossible to believe that the extravagant claims and absurd statements made could be put forward by persons having any knowledge of disease. It is no matter for surprise, therefore, that in the case of the least understood and least successfully combated of diseases many proprietary “remedies” are put forward. A considerable number of these articles have been received and the alleged claims tested at the laboratories of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund; specimens of a few of these were obtained and submitted to analysis, and some notes on their composition cannot fail to be of interest to members of the medical profession, who will probably from time to time have to treat sufferers from cancer who have been induced to buy one or other of these preparations.
As was to be expected, the articles examined have little or nothing in common. In the case of diseases for which the ordinary treatment involves the use of certain specific drugs, proprietary medicines are usually merely varying compounds of those drugs; thus, of the advertised cures for epilepsy, analyses of which are given in the next chapter, the essential ingredient in all but one is an alkaline bromide. But in cancer the would-be maker of a proprietary “cure” has no such accepted treatment to guide him, or to restrict the free range of his fancy in selection of ingredients; it is probable that some of the “remedies” here described were inspired by the fact that some apparent improvement followed their fortuitous use in some cases, post hoc having been assumed to mean propter hoc; the first to be described, however, can hardly rest even on this basis.
It is a colourless liquid, containing a trace of sediment; the odour is that of alcohol, though very slightly vinous. Fractional distillation showed the presence of about 40 per cent. of alcohol; on complete evaporation, a trace (0·02 per cent.) of dry residue was left. This residue was free from any alkaloid, and its behaviour with reagents gave no indication of any other active principle; it agreed in character with the “extractive” found in spirit that has been kept in a wine-cask. After removing the alcohol, the liquid was perfectly tasteless. This “remedy” is thus very simple in nature, consisting merely of diluted and slightly impure alcohol. Its composition brings to mind the analysis published some years ago of a so-called electric fluid, or “electricity,” for the cure of cancer, which was taken up by a certain well-known journalist and boomed by him in the pages of the review which he edited; many marvellous cures were ascribed to it, but examination showed that although it was sold at several shillings per fluid ounce, it consisted of plain water. Notwithstanding the exposure, the article is at present quoted in wholesale lists, and is therefore presumably still in demand. The cost of the “medicine” we are now dealing with is of course considerably greater than the cost of plain water, but this fact will be but small consolation to the victim who derives as little benefit from the one as from the other.
The next article analysed was a blue fluid containing a considerable blue sediment, and smelling fairly strongly of terebene. The chief ingredient was found to be a blue dye stuff of the oxazine or thiazine group, much resembling methylene blue (which is the only member of these groups ordinarily used in medicine), but differing from it in solubility and in its behaviour with certain reagents. This constituted the greater part of the sediment, and a portion of the dye was also in solution. The liquid further contained a dissolved gum and a trace of terebene; these, with a little magnesium carbonate, were all the ingredients present. No trace of any alkaloid was found, and the solvent was water. The gum showed no difference from ordinary acacia gum, and was probably added to suspend the undissolved dye stuff. Water dissolves very little terebene, and no more of the latter was present than could be dissolved by the water; it was probably employed to give an aromatic taste and smell, and the magnesia was doubtless used to subdivide the terebene in the manner commonly followed by pharmacists when dissolving essential oils in water. It thus appears that the essential ingredient of this medicine is the blue dye stuff; it is possible that this has been used as methylene blue, since the articles sent out under the same name by different dye manufacturers often differ in composition; but, as already stated, it is not identical with the methylene blue usually met with. The total solids in the mixture, after shaking up the sediment, amounted to 13·2 per cent., of which the dye stuff constituted something like one-half.
A third preparation was a brown liquid of syrupy consistence found to consist of wood tar. It was a much purer product than ordinary Stockholm tar, and its peculiar odour indicated that it was derived, at least in great part, from the birch; no other ingredient could be found. This article came from Sphakia, Crete; the label bore no directions for its use, leaving it uncertain whether it was intended for internal or external use, but the latter appears the more probable.
The remaining articles are clearly intended for external application; the first of these consisted of a plaster mass, in the half-pound sticks in which such masses are usually supplied. Analysis showed the principal ingredient to be lead oleate, with a little stearate, and small quantities of resin and soap. These are the ingredients of the resin and the soap plasters of the British Pharmacopœia, and the proportion of soap present showed the specimen under examination to be emplastrum resinae.
The next preparation was an ointment of Dutch origin. It contained large quantities of ammonium alum and zinc sulphate, with a little sodium sulphate, made up into a stiff ointment with a basis consisting of beeswax, soft paraffin, oil, and resin. The quantities of the salts were approximately:
| Alum | 27 | per cent. |
| Zinc sulphate | 37 | ” |
| Sodium sulphate | 8 | ” |
The presence of so large a proportion of mineral salts, of course, leaves very little tenacity in the ointment; particles of the white salts were easily visible to the eye, and the effect of applying the preparation must be practically the same as if the dry salts were rubbed on the skin except that the basis would, of course, act as a lubricant in the rubbing.
The last of these preparations was another ointment; the mineral ingredients in this case, however, were in organic combination. This ointment contained copper oleate and aluminium oleate with a basis of lard and a little resin. The proportions of the active ingredients were approximately:
| Copper oleate | 15 | per cent. |
| Aluminium oleate | 35 | ” |
No alkaloid or other active principle was found.
A bottle of lotion for cancer and other affections, obtained in the ordinary way through a dealer, was examined. The label commences with the statement that the lotion “cures cancerous or malignant sores”; then follows a list of other diseases, with the addition, “even cases that have been under the treatment of doctors and at infirmaries for years.” Analysis showed the composition of the lotion to be substantially as follows:—
| Zinc sulphate | 92 | grains |
| Carbolic acid (pure phenol) | 1·2 | oz. |
| Glycerine | 1·8 | fl. oz. |
| Cochineal solution sufficient to give a deep red colour. | ||
| Water to 3·3 fl. oz. | ||
This quantity is contained in a bottle costing 4s. 6d.; the directions are to add the whole contents to 1½ pints of water, which is to be applied to the diseased parts for about five minutes two or three times a day.
Another pretended “cure” for this disease was supplied from an address in Croydon, by a person who described himself as a retired Government analytical chemist. The bottle did not bear an Inland Revenue stamp. The vendor seems to prefer to see and examine the patients. In one such case he was paid 3 guineas, and asked for more, as it was, he said, a complicated case. The directions given were “two tablespoonfuls should be taken three times a day.” Analysis of this liquid showed the presence of ferric chloride, and traces of hydrochloric acid and alcohol, and nothing else except water; the alcohol indicates that the tincture of perchloride of iron, and not the liquor, was employed; determination of the amounts of iron and chlorine present showed that 6 fluid ounces of the mixture contained 5·7 fluid drachms of the tincture.
A few years ago a good deal was heard of the wonderful cures said to be achieved by two persons who resided at Cardigan. A great deal of secrecy was observed, but it was known that a fluid was applied to the surface of the cancerous tumour. The treatment, it was stated, began with prayer, and exhortations to the patient to trust in the Almighty; the lotion or oil, which was said to be made entirely from herbs and to contain no mineral caustic, was then painted on with a brush. Unlike other empirics who profess to remove the “roots” which the knife leaves behind, these Welsh practitioners asserted that their remedy made the “roots” shrink into the original growth which then fell off like a ripe apple from a tree. The practice seemed to be to require the patient to attend daily to have the local application made for periods extending over several months. Eventually, in some cases, a mass of dried, heaped-up crusts formed, and when this became detached it was put into a bottle and given to the patient who was told that it was the cancer extracted by the treatment. In one case which was enquired into, this bottle cancer was submitted to microscopical examination; it was found to consist of crusts formed of sloughing parts of the skin and inflammatory exudation, the whole being such a mass as might be produced by the use of an escharotic. The crusts when submitted to chemical analysis were found to contain zinc chloride in considerable amount, together with a very appreciable quantity of an insoluble compound of lead. A healing oil was also supplied to help the cancer falling off, and this when chemically examined was found to contain 27 per cent. of oil of turpentine, the remainder consisting principally of an ordinary saponifiable oil, probably cotton-seed or olive oil. In addition there was a considerable amount of deposit which proved to consist almost wholly of barium sulphate, a very insoluble salt, used, under the name of permanent white, by watercolour artists. It would seem, therefore, that the statement that the applications contained no mineral caustic was inaccurate. In other patients the effect of this Cardigan treatment was more destructive. In the case of one woman who had been informed that the cancer had been cured and that she only required some tonic medicine to complete the cure, the surgeon who was called to her when she was in extremis has said that he never beheld anything like it in his life; the whole breast was a necrosing mass, black and stinking, the ulcers extending up to the collar-bone and down to the margin of the ribs and across the middle line; the hand could have been inserted under the margin of the dead part all round. Some unfortunate patients persevered with the treatment although suffering pain described as excruciating.
Caustics are, in fact, the weapon of the quack, and although they may have a legitimate sphere in surgery, it is very limited; zinc chloride, for instance, has occasionally been used in a strong solution or paste as a caustic under special circumstances. Although portions of a tumour may be removed by caustic application, it is impossible to eradicate the whole in this way, as the cancerous process is extending into adjacent parts. The formula of the quack—“cancer treated without the knife”—appeals with great force to the public who do not know the terrible long-drawn-out agony which those treated with caustics have to undergo. Of this a vivid description was given by a well-known naturalist, the father of a distinguished man of letters, in a little book in which he related the suffering of his own wife; she was treated by an American cancer-curer by caustics. The process of “cure” lasted several months, and the result may be summed up in the statement that “suffering never ceased from the beginning of the operation till her spirit was freed from the worn-out body.”
CHAPTER XIII.
REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.
The nostrums which appear to be most advertised at the present time for the treatment of epilepsy afford a good example of the fact which has been previously pointed out that in some instances the vendors of secret preparations make use of drugs in common use by the medical profession for the treatment of some particular disorder; this is, of course, only possible when the symptoms are well-marked and easily recognised. As will be seen from the analyses given below of a number of nostrums advertised as remedies for epilepsy it was found that all, with one exception, contained bromide salts, that is to say, a drug the effect of which is described and discussed in every medical work dealing with the disease; nevertheless, the advertisers endeavour to lead the purchaser to believe that the preparations possess peculiar virtues unknown to the medical profession. The exceptional preparation contains vervain (Verbena officinalis) which held a place in the old pharmacopœias and herbals, chiefly as an astringent application to wounds or as a lotion for sore mouth. Dodoens (1572) says it is good for headache applied as a plaster, while Gerarde (1633) mentions its use as a garland round the head for the same condition, but he disapproves of the many old wives’ tales told regarding it which tend to sorcery, and are such as honest ears abhor to hear; indeed, he hints that some assert that the “divell did reveal it as a secret and divine medicine.” According to Pliny, vervain was gathered by the Druids of Gaul and Britain at the rising of the Dog Star, when neither sun nor moon shone, with the left hand only, and after libations of honey. When thus obtained it was said to vanquish fevers and other distempers, to be an antidote to the bite of serpents, and a charm to conciliate friendship. Paris speaks of it as in his own time the subject of a work on scrofula by a Mr. Morley, which was written for the sole purpose of restoring the much injured character and use of vervain, so that it is evidently a herb which has suffered much from detraction. Mr. Morley directed the root of the plant to be tied, with a yard of white satin ribbon, round the neck where it was to remain until the patient was cured. The modern vendor does not indulge in these refinements.
In submitting the following analyses it should be stated that a mixture or powder, dispensed according to the prescription obtained by the analysis, produced in each case a preparation closely resembling in appearance and taste that sold by the secret medicine vendor; further, the mixtures possessed the same specific gravity as the originals.