ENTERONOL
The “Greatest Germicide Known to Science!”
This preparation is put on the market by the Enteronol Company, Oswego, N. Y., which declares that Enteronol is “the greatest antiseptic and germicide known to science,” and that it “destroys the germs of typhoid fever, acute and chronic diarrhea, dysentery, cholera infantum, cholera morbus, summer complaint, Asiatic cholera, etc., within two hours.” The formula furnished by the company reads as follows: “Ipecac, sub. nit. bismuth, latalia rad., camphor, lupulin, caffein and rheum.” The attention of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association was directed to this preparation by a correspondent who had received a circular from the Enteronol Company. He sent a dollar to the company asking for a sample of “latalia rad.” that he might study the drug botanically, as he was unfamiliar with it. He expected to receive by return mail a sample of root or bark, but instead, he received three boxes of Enteronol and the information that as “latalia rad.” costs from $25 to $45 a pound the company could not afford to send samples. In a circular letter sent out by this company “latalia rad.” is said to grow on the sides of the Himalaya Mountains in India, and that the company is unable to obtain enough for its own use. This statement is probably correct, and no one else could secure the drug either. A sample of Enteronol was submitted to Professor Day, of the University of Illinois, and to Professor Kraemer of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Professor Day reports that he was “unable to find any mention of the drug of ‘latalia rad.’ which is stated as one of the ingredients of this preparation. I have searched the usual works of reference on pharmacognosy without being able to find any reference to a drug of this name. A microscopic examination of the tablets shows the presence of rhubarb and of ginger, but no lupulin, at least not in substance; nor could I locate definitely any ipecac, also stated to be one of the ingredients. Since ginger is not stated to be one of the ingredients of the compound, it, perhaps, may be the mysterious stranger ‘latalia rad.’ I was unable to locate any of the ordinary astringent drugs, such as kino, krameria, or nutgall.” The results of Professor Kraemer’s examination were practically identical with those obtained by Professor Day. A report from the chemical laboratory of the American Medical Association states that as Professors Kraemer and Day suggested the presence of alum, tests were made for this substance. The analysis, details of which are given, leads to the conclusion that alum is the chief constituent of Enteronol. The report adds strongly to the impression that “latalia rad.” is simply a ruse to catch the unwary and trusting physician who lacks the time to look into the botany of every new plant discovered, and who is willing to trust the honesty of every manufacturer. Attention is also directed to the fact that while bismuth and caffein are mentioned as ingredients tests made in the laboratory failed to discover either of these substances. Since there is no lupulin, no ipecac, no caffein, no bismuth, and possibly no “latalia rad.” one is forced to the conclusion that the “formula” is meaningless and worthless, and that it is simply used to satisfy the demand for formulas for proprietary remedies. This is one more beautiful illustration of the absurdity of accepting a preparation because the “formula is on every package.”—(Abstracted from The Journal A. M. A., March 21, 1908.)
An Invitation to The Journal to Humbug the Profession
The Journal has received a circular letter from the Enteronol Company, in which the following liberal offer is made:
“We are willing to take one-fourth or one-half page ‘ad’ in your Journal for a year at the regular rate, on condition that you accept payment therefor in our GUARANTEED 7 per cent., preferred stock at par; or if you desire, in ENTERONOL at the net wholesale price to physicians.”
Not that this offer is made exclusively to The Journal:
“A large number of medical journals have accepted the foregoing proposition; many carrying this advertising for several years already.”
“Our company is cooperative; we paying no cash for advertising. The company is owned principally by physicians, medical journals, and druggists.”
The journals of which we have record that carry the enteronol advertisement are: Kansas City Medical Record, Milwaukee Medical Journal, Toledo Medical and Surgical Reporter, Proctologist, Pediatrics, and the Atlanta Journal-Record of Medicine. If the statements made by the Enteronol Co. are true, we might infer that these journals are being paid for advertising space either with “preferred stock” or with the nostrum itself. As we have previously shown, however, the veracity of the enteronol advertising matter is by no means unimpeachable.
Enteronol, it will be remembered, was exposed in The Journal, March 21, 1908. It is advertised as the “greatest antiseptic and germicide known to science,” and possesses (?) such remarkable power that it “destroys the germs of typhoid fever, acute and chronic diarrhea, dysentery, cholera infantum, cholera morbus, summer complaint, Asiatic cholera, etc., within two hours.” “The original product is found only high up on the sides of the loftiest mountains in the world—the Himalayas of India.”
THE “LITERATURE” FORMULA
Of course, it has a “formula”:
| Ipecac | Lupulin | |
| Sub. nit bismuth | Latalia rad. | Caffein |
| Camphor | Rheum |
This seems very open and above board, except as to quantities, until one tries to find out what “latalia rad.” is; then it is discovered that it is the “mysterious stranger” of pharmacognosy. Experts to whom this “remedy” was submitted were unable even to find mention of such a drug or plant as “latalia rad.” Nor was this the only fake found concerning the stuff; carefully conducted experiments repeatedly carried out in the Association’s laboratory failed to disclose even a trace of bismuth subnitrate or caffein. These experiments did show, however, that the tablets contained an amount of aluminum corresponding to over 25 per cent. of crystallized alum. This led to the conclusion that alum, whose presence is not even hinted at in the “formula,” is the chief constituent of enteronol and as a corollary that the formula is meaningless and worthless.
THE LABEL FORMULA
There is a curious lack of coordination between the “formula” as printed on the label and that given in the “literature.” The Food and Drugs Act, it will be remembered, makes lying on the label illegal, and therefore dangerous; statements in advertising matter that does not accompany the product, however, are not controlled by that law. The “formula” in the “literature” we have already given; the “formula” on the label gives the following ingredients:
| Ipecac | Lupulin | |
| Sub. nit. bismuth | Opium, 1⁄4 gr. | Caffein |
| Camphor | Rheum |
Two things about this are worth noting: One is that the name of the ingredient on which the manufacturer lays so much stress—latalia rad., the mysterious Himalayan plant—is absent from the label. This would seem to indicate that what has already been intimated by The Journal—namely, that latalia rad. is a figment of the imagination—is a fact. The second noticeable thing about the label “formula,” as distinct from the “formula” in the advertising matter, is that on the label we find there is opium in the preparation. Why is no mention made of the presence of this potent drug in the advertising matter?
To determine how nearly the present statements made by the Enteronol Company approximate truthfulness, our chemists were asked to examine the nostrum as it is now sold. Their report follows:
LABORATORY FINDINGS
An original package of enteronol tablets was purchased on the open market and submitted to the Association laboratory for examination. In general appearance, odor and taste the new tablets are similar to those previously examined. The formula for the old tablets was given as “Ipecac, Sub. nit. bismuth, Latalia rad., Camphor, Lupulin, Caffein, Rheum,” and is still used in the circular. But the label on the trade package no longer mentions “latalia rad.” Since the presence of “latalia rad.,” in the old tablets, was questioned, and as new labels have ceased to display the name, it was thought possible that caffein and bismuth might now be constituents of enteronol, as the drugs are still mentioned in the new formula on the label. Accordingly, enteronol was examined chemically to verify the statements on the label regarding the presence of caffein and bismuth in the tablets.
The specimen submitted to the laboratory some time ago was found to contain neither bismuth nor caffein. By employing the same methods as were used before (the usual tests for detecting caffein and bismuth), neither caffein nor bismuth could be demonstrated. It is thus evident that this new specimen of enteronol, the statement on the label to the contrary notwithstanding, contains neither bismuth nor caffein—at least, in appreciable quantities.
One would think that the discrepancy between “formulas” and facts would prove of interest to the stockholders of the Enteronol Company, especially as we are told that the policy of the company is to have “practical men as stockholders.” We are informed:
“Therefore, we have physicians, advertising experts, printers, publishers, engravers, boxmakers, lithographers, druggists, lawyers, traveling salesmen, officers and men holding executive positions in various manufacturing and commercial corporations, editors of medical publications, bishops, clergymen and missionaries—men from all the fields particularly valuable commercially for our great enterprise.”
Yet if the physician-stockholders do not care to concern themselves about the composition of the nostrum from the sale of which they derive dividends, it can hardly be expected that the boxmakers or traveling salesmen will be interested.
STOCK FOR SALE
Medical journals are not alone in being invited to participate in the exploitation of this nostrum, vide a circular letter from the Enteronol Company addressed “To Investors”:
“We offer at par of $10 each, 1,000 shares of our Guaranteed 7 per cent. Preferred Stock, cumulative dividends, payable quarterly ... Profits on business done last year were 54 cents for every dollar expended ... We guarantee absolute security for your investment. Safer than a bank.” [Italics ours.—Ed.]
We are told that at present the Enteronol Company manufactures two products: a castor-oil preparation, known as fig-ol, and enteronol. Very shortly, however, the company expects to “add seven equally efficient products.”
“The average cost to manufacture, ready to ship, a dollar’s worth of these goods is less than ten cents.”
“In enteronol alone, the company has fortunes and the only thing needed to bring tremendous results and dividends of 100 per cent. is the proper amount of judicious advertising.”
Here are some samples of the judicious (?) advertising:
“One Christian missionary, the Rev. Paul Singh of Jubbulpore, India, testifies that he cured thirteen severe cases of Asiatic Cholera with a box containing less than thirty tablets” [of enteronol].
“Wm. F. Oldham, bishop of Southern Asia, writes us that enteronol cured nine cases out of ten of Asiatic Cholera. Now just think of India and China with their 800,000,000 people who are dying by the thousands of a disease which we have the power to cure so easily.”
How like a discourse by that delightful character of Mark Twain’s—the visionary Colonel Sellers—this reads. As he said about his “Infallible, Imperial, Oriental Optic Liniment”:
“Why in the Oriental countries ... every square mile of ground upholds its thousands on thousands of struggling human creatures—and every separate and individual devil of them’s got the ophthalmia.”
The prospective stockholder is told that an ordinary business concern reaches the limit of financial possibilities in a few years, but:
“Not so with the Enteronol Company—it is a mail-order business and the world is its territory.”
Even so with Colonel Sellers’ “Optic Liniment”:
“... it’s a patent medicine whose field of operations is the solid earth.”
And we are told elsewhere that “about four-fifths of the outstanding stock is held by the medical profession alone”!
And this stuff is advertised in medical journals!!
We are sometimes in danger of being too optimistic regarding the results of the propaganda for reform in proprietary medicine. Cases like this act as a corrective.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 20, 1909.)