ROLLO’S REMEDY FOR PILES.
This ointment, made by a Scottish company, is sold in tins, price 1s. 1½d., containing rather under 1 oz. It is described in an accompanying circular as a remedy for a good many disorders besides Piles:
Rollo’s Remedy for Piles, Eczema, Rheumatic Pains, Burns and Scalds, Chilblains, Soreness or Roughness of the Skin, Itching.
Rollo’s Remedy is a Vegetable Extract in the Highest Possible State of Purity, without any addition whatever. It is obtained from a little known part of Africa, and has been brought to its present perfection after a long series of scientific experiments. It does not contain any Poisons, Drugs, Chemicals, or Impurities of any kind, and although intended for external use only, it is so pure that even if eaten it would be quite harmless.
Analysis showed the ointment to contain over 99 per cent. of fatty basis, with a very small quantity of a dark substance which appeared to be vegetable extractive. It contained no alkaloid and no tannin, and possessed no characters indicative of the drug or plant from which it was derived. The basis showed the characters of a mixture of fats in which oil of theobroma (cocoa butter) predominated, with about 15 per cent. of lanoline (anhydrous).
Dr. VAN VLECK’S COMPLETE
ABSORPTIVE PILE TREATMENT.
The preparations sold under this name are, or were, very widely advertised by a company giving an address in London. They are offered without previous payment, as indicated by the following extracts from an advertisement:
To every person who sends us the coupon below at once, we will send—Free to try—our complete new threefold absorption cure for Piles, Ulcer, Fissure, Prolapse, Tumours, Constipation, and all rectal troubles. If you are fully satisfied with the benefits received, send us 4s. 6d. If not, we take your word, and it costs you nothing; you decide after a thorough trial.
Our valuable new Pile Book (in colours) comes free with the approval treatment all in plain package. Send no money—just the coupon—to Dr. Van Vleck Co.
The “new Pile Book,” a pamphlet of 40 pages, entitled “The Rational Treatment of Rectal Diseases,” included a description of the rectum, with eleven illustrations—several of them coloured—with descriptions of various kinds of piles and treatments, and of the Van Vleck remedies. A few extracts only can be given:
Unless you are beyond every chance of recovery, this wonderful threefold Absorption treatment will cure you....
The Absorption Cure is Threefold because there are three avenues of approach to the seat of the ailment. To neglect one of these avenues means to leave an open gateway for the return of the malady. Dr. Van Vleck struck at the well spring of the disease, as well as at the visible effect of it. Once cured by our treatment the disease is cured to stay cured. There is no pain, no confinement, no heavy doctor’s or surgeon’s bill, no operation. The cost is placed within the reach of all, and the treatment is accompanied by a positive guarantee of cure. The treatment embraces:
- 1. Dr. Van Vleck’s Absorptive Plasma.
- 2. Dr. Van Vleck’s Muco-food Cones.
- 3. Dr. Van Vleck’s Pile Pills (and System Regulator).
The “positive guarantee” is given inside the back cover of the pamphlet, as follows:
GUARANTEE.
The Dr. Van Vleck Co.... Hereby positively agrees that Dr. Van Vleck’s Absorption Cure for Piles, when taken and used in accordance with our simple instructions and directions, will cure any case of Piles, and in the event of its failure to cure,
AGREES TO REFUND
The entire amount paid immediately upon required statement that benefit has not been received.
The Dr. Van Vleck Co.
It will be observed that this purported to be a guarantee to cure, and would be read by most as a promise to refund the amount paid if the treatment did not cure; whereas it was only a promise to refund if a “required” statement were made that benefit (that is, any benefit) had not been received, a statement most uncured persons might hesitate to make.
On application for the 4s. 6d. treatment, 5 suppositories, 10 pills, and about 65 grains of “plasma” in a collapsible tube were sent, with a long circular letter of the usual type, offering the:
Large special treatment, including our new Rectal Applicator, made from pure Stannum,[2] for 21s., or for 16s. 6d. in addition to the 4s. 6d. to be sent for what was supplied.
[2] Stannum: tin. Latin Dictionary.
The labels of the preparations were stamped “made in U.S.A.”
Letters subsequently received urging continued use of the treatment and pressing for particulars of the case, were much like those from other nostrum dealers which have been printed in earlier chapters, and included such statements as:
We have made a special study of your case, and we are convinced that if this, our final offer to you, is accepted, a permanent cure will be assured.
No “case” had been even mentioned in sending for the preparations. The “final offer” was:
On receipt of 12s. 6d. we will forward you our Full Size Guinea Treatment, post free. We are perfectly willing to trust to you to remit us the balance of 4s. on completion of the cure. Remember you are absolutely protected by our guarantee (see last page of booklet).
Other papers sent were a “Patient’s Special Symptom Form,” to be filled up after using the “treatment,” and including such questions as “Are your Piles better?” “Please state in what way your condition has changed since you commenced taking our treatment,” and a form for names and addresses of other persons suffering from piles.
Analysis of the “plasma” showed it to be a paraffin ointment containing about 6 per cent. of powdered galls and a small quantity of menthol (approximately 1 per cent.); the basis consisted principally of soft paraffin, with a dark substance which appeared to be the natural impurities of crude petroleum. The formula is thus approximately:
| Powdered galls | 6 | parts. |
| Menthol | 1 | ” |
| Crude petroleum jelly to | 100 | ” |
The “Muco-food Cones” had an average weight of 21 grains; analysis showed them to consist of:
| Wheat flour | 28 | per cent. |
| Oil of theobroma (cocoa butter) | 68 | ” |
| Water | 4 | ” |
Careful search failed to show any other ingredient.
The pills were coated with a mixture of talc and sugar, tinted an orange colour; after removing the coating they had an average weight of 1·1 grain. Analysis showed them to contain small quantities of powdered capsicum, powdered liquorice, and maize starch; 23 per cent. of ash, about half of which consisted of silicious matter and was apparently talc that had got into the pill from the coating; the remainder of the ash showed the usual constituents of the ash of vegetable drugs and extracts, together with a small quantity of zinc, which was present in the pill in the metallic state and was presumably derived from some vessel used in the preparation; a bitter extract, agreeing in its properties with extract of cascara sagrada, constituting the major portion of the pill; and a resinoid substance which resembled iridin. As a definite formula cannot be given for such a pill, the cost of ingredients can only be estimated somewhat roughly. After making liberal allowance for the unknown resinoid, the estimated cost of the ingredients of the quantities of the three preparations supplied for 4s. 6d. is three-farthings.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PREPARATIONS FOR RUPTURE.
Advertisements of means of curing rupture without operation are very common, but in most cases the advertiser has for sale a special form of truss or other appliance. The disorder is so well-known to be of a mechanical or structural nature, that it might have been thought that it would hardly have been worth anybody’s while to advertise drugs for its cure. Nevertheless there are, at least, two instances in which medicine for internal or external use is supplied; the results of examination of these are here given.