SOME GERMAN NOSTRUMS.
The eye preparations analysed by Dr. Zernik are not very interesting. One called Okterin is a sulphate water, colourless, odourless, acid, and astringent, apparently pumped out of a mine containing ochre. Another sold under the name Opthalmol, and described as a natural remedy for all kinds of eye disease is supposed to be made from the glands of a fish. It yielded analytical data which appeared to prove that it was rancid olive oil, with 6 or 7 per cent. of a mineral oil like paraffin. A third wonder-working application, Augenwol, said to be made from various plants obtained from many countries proved to be a coloured and perfumed solution of common salt containing a little glycerine and some extractive substances.
CHAPTER XVII.
REMEDIES FOR PILES.
The series of analyses of secret remedies for hæmorrhoids, and the extracts from the advertisements by which these nostrums are commended to the public, make it evident that the prevalence of this complaint, which is always disagreeable and painful, and sometimes incapacitating, provides a happy hunting ground for the nostrum monger. An additional attraction is, perhaps, to be found in the fact that considerable variety is possible in the method of treatment. Local applications, represented by suppositories and ointments, appear to be most in favour, but there is an obvious opportunity for the man who wishes to sell a medicine to be taken internally to declare that local applications “only afford temporary ease, and do not tend to remove the cause. Only internal treatment can cure.” The further possibility of extracting double or threefold payments from sufferers by insisting on the necessity of both local and internal remedies has by no means been neglected; in some cases one preparation only is advertised, and after obtaining this the sufferer learns that something further must be bought if the promised cure is to be effected. In another case, where the remedy is a “threefold treatment, because there are three avenues of approach to the seat of the ailment,” it is advertised to be sent without payment, the money to be paid after a week’s trial if benefit has been received; any one availing himself of this offer necessarily supplies the vendors with his name and address, and will then, it seems, become the recipient of numerous letters, emphasizing the dangers of neglect, and offering “our full-size guinea treatment” on special terms. It has been shown in previous chapters that this method of doing business directly with the persons taking quack remedies is in great, and apparently growing, favour with makers of such things. The letters with which the sufferer is inundated are, as a rule at any rate, printed in imitation of typewritten letters or reproduced by some manifolding process, and the recipient, unless he be something of an expert, is likely to suppose that he is receiving letters composed for his personal benefit, an illusion that is sedulously maintained by a profession of “special interest in your case,” or some equivalent fiction. The majority of the preparations described in this chapter contain substances commonly employed for the relief of piles, such as hamamelis (witch hazel), lead acetate, zinc oxide, calomel, or others, if possible, still more old-fashioned; some, like the “Muco-Food Cones, containing concentrated glutinous nourishment,” consist of flour and cocoa butter, and are innocent of medicinal ingredients. Advertisers, of course, indulge in the usual impudent reflexions on the work of the medical profession; one, for instance, hazards the statement that “for centuries piles have been treated in a careless, listless, manner by physicians, who, through ignorance or indifference, were unfit to be entrusted with such cases.” These same advertisers remark: “The people do not like to be humbugged”—a statement, perhaps, as far from the truth as some other assertions in the advertisements and letters. One company—two of whose “cures” have been shown in previous chapters to consist of sugar only, and whose ointment for piles is about equally active—invites those who are not cured by it to detail their symptoms to “our medical correspondence department”; it is easy to believe that “you will receive the same thorough attention from our medical staff as if you were examined personally,” but how much attention that would be is wisely not stated. The majority of the articles are of American origin, some of them being marked “Made in U.S.A.,” and others being now prepared in this country, but having originally come from across the Atlantic. Whether English or foreign, however, the usual disproportion is to be found between the prime cost and the price charged. If in the present series the highest price is charged—and the greatest pertinacity in extracting the sufferer’s money is shown—by a transatlantic concern, in other chapters English quacks have been shown well to the fore as regards both price and methods.