KAPUTINE.
This preparation, put up by an English Company, is stated to cure in ten minutes headache, neuralgia, and all nerve pains. In view of the similarity in composition of these articles, the claims to uniqueness are amusing. In this case the wrapper bore the words “Nothing as good. Nothing similar,” while on the circular enclosed in the package it was stated that “Kaputine is composed of several approved ingredients. That is, unlike the white headache powders, which consist solely of one crude drug, and which have frequently been condemned as dangerous by the Medical Press—Kaputine is most carefully prepared from several ingredients which have the absolute confidence of the Medical Profession.”
The price of 18 powders is 1s. 1½d. The average weight of one powder was 6·6 grains; the weight of individual powders in a package varied from 5·7 to 7·5 grains.
Analysis showed the composition of the powder to be:
| Acetanilide | 6·30 | grains. |
| Ferric oxide | 0·05 | ” |
| Sugar | 0·21 | ” |
That is, the acetanilide was tinted pink with what is practically the saccharated carbonate of iron of the British Pharmacopœia.
The dose was given as one powder: “If not completely cured in two hours, the dose may be repeated. Half a powder for children under 12.”
The estimated cost of the drugs (119 grains) in a packet is just over ¼d.
HOFFMAN’S HARMLESS
HEADACHE POWDERS.
These powders are prepared by a New York Drug Company, but the package also bears the name of another company, presumably the English agents. The powders are described as “a simple and effective cure for all headaches.”
Ten powders were sold for 1s. 1½d. The average weight of one powder was 10·5 grains; nine out of ten weighed from 9·3 to 10·5 grains, the tenth weighing 15·3 grains.
Analysis showed the composition of the powder to be:
| Acetanilide | 5·02 | grains. |
| Cocoa | 4·02 | ” |
| Sodium bicarbonate | 1·01 | ” |
The dose was given as one powder, to be repeated in half an hour if not relieved.
Estimated cost of drugs (105 grains), one-third of a penny.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
SPECIALITIES.
In addition to the above proprietary articles, large numbers of headache powders are supplied singly by retailers, and are commonly bought for this purpose ready packed from a wholesale house. It was, therefore, thought worth while to examine a sample of such powders; the one taken for the purpose is known as the “Good as Gold” headache powder; three dozen were attached to a card for exhibition, and the powders are retailed at 1d. each. The average weight was found to be 2·8 grains, six individual powders ranging from 2·7 to 2·9 grains. The powders consisted of acetanilide only.
The estimated cost of the drug for three dozen powders is ¼d.
There is reason to believe that practically all the others sold in this way are of the same composition.
CHAPTER V.
BLOOD PURIFIERS.
Although, as a rule, the makers of any kind of quack medicine find no difficulty in showing that almost any disease that can be named takes its rise in the organs or part of the system which their own particular nostrum professes to benefit, it is, of course, particularly easy to connect a great variety of diseases with the condition of the blood. The claims made for some of the following “blood purifiers” do not fail in comprehensiveness, for ringworm and itch, among other complaints, appear to be regarded as disorders of the blood.
CLARKE’S WORLD-FAMED
BLOOD MIXTURE.
This is advertised and sold by an English Drug Company, price 2s. 9d. a bottle, containing 8¼ fluid ounces.
The following passages are quoted from a pamphlet enclosed with the bottle:
No matter what the symptoms may be, the real cause of a large proportion of all diseases is bad blood. Clarke’s World-famed Blood Mixture is not recommended to cure every disease; on the contrary, there are many that it will not cure; but it is a guaranteed cure for all blood diseases.... It never fails to cure Scrofula, Scurvy, Scrofulous Sores, Glandular Swellings and Sores, Cancerous Ulcers, Bad Legs, Secondary Symptoms, Syphilis, Piles, Rheumatism, Gout, Dropsy, Blackheads or Pimples on the Face, Sore Eyes, Eruptions of the Skin and Blood, and Skin Diseases of every description.
On the label it was stated:
The Mixture is pleasant to the taste, and warranted free from anything injurious to the most delicate constitution of either sex, which all Pills and most Medicines sold for the above diseases contain.
Directions: The mixture must be taken about half-an-hour after meals, in the following doses:—
- For Adult Males.—One tablespoonful four times a day.
- ” Adult Females.—One tablespoonful three times a day.
- ” Children under 12 years of age.—Two teaspoonfuls
- three times a day.
- ” Under 12 years.—From half to one teaspoonful, according
- to age, mixed with a little water and sugar.
Analysis showed the mixture to contain 1·5 per cent. of potassium iodide, 1·2 per cent. of sugar (partly inverted), 1·6 per cent. by volume of alcohol, and traces of chloroform and ammonia, a brown colour being given by a small quantity of what was evidently burnt sugar. The composition of 8 ounces is thus:
| Potassium iodide | 52·5 | grains. |
| Spirit of sal volatile | 10 | minims. |
| Spirit of chloroform | 67 | ” |
| Simple syrup | 50 | ” |
| Burnt sugar | q.s. | |
| Water to | 8 | fluid ounces. |
The estimated cost of the ingredients is 1⅓d.
OLD Dr. JACOB TOWNSEND’S
AMERICAN SARSAPARILLA.
This is sold by a Company having offices in London. A bottle, holding a little under 9 fluid ounces, costs 2s. 6d.
On the wrapper it was stated:
This Sarsaparilla is the great purifier of the blood and general juices of the system, it effects the most salutary changes in disease; cures scrofula, salt rheum, all scorbutic disorders, chronic sore eyes, rheumatism, piles, liver complaints, erysipelas, all blotches and eruptions of the skin; in short, it removes every impurity of the blood, and all humours and morbid collections of the body.
The directions given on the label were:
Take half a wineglassful three or four times a day, an hour before or after meals. Persons very weak and debilitated may begin with a tablespoonful and increase the dose as the patient recovers health and strength. It is better to take it without the addition of water.
Analysis showed 100 fluid parts of the liquid to contain 18·2 parts of solids, of which 5·5 parts were sugar (partly inverted) and 2·5 ash, the remainder being of the nature of a vegetable extract. The mineral constituents were only those common to the ash of most drugs, and no metallic salts were found in medicinal doses; nothing of alkaloidal nature was present. The mixture contained 8·1 per cent. by volume of alcohol. In the case of a vegetable preparation of this kind, containing no definite active principle that can be identified chemically, it is not possible to state with certainty the various drugs from which it may have been prepared; a study of its general properties, and a series of careful comparisons, pointed to the present mixture being of similar nature to the compound concentrated solution of sarsaparilla (liquor sarsae compositus concentratus) of the British Pharmacopœia, with the omission of the liquorice, and with the addition of sugar: the drugs in the official preparation (besides liquorice) are sarsaparilla, sassafras, guaiacum wood, and mezereon. A liquor prepared in this manner, with the alcohol reduced to the amount found in the mixture under examination and the aroma slightly increased by adding a little additional oil of sassafras, agreed fairly well both in general properties and the results of chemical examination with the medicine under consideration.