GLYCO-THYMOLINE AND POLIOMYELITIS
One characteristic of the “patent medicine” business is that it trades on fear. Should an epidemic occur the market is flooded with new nostrums purporting to cure or prevent the disease in question, while the manufacturers of older “patent medicines” revamp their advertising so as to make it appear that their preparations are all that stand between the scourge and the public. One has but to remember “Peruna’s” exploitation of the yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans some years ago and the way in which the exploiters of “Pond’s Extract” played on the fears of the public at the time of the former meningitis epidemic in New York City.
At present the public is much exercised over the epidemic of infantile paralysis. Anticipating that the nostrum fraternity would attempt to reap a golden harvest from the public distress, the federal officials issued a bulletin of warning on the subject. Naturally, the bulletin was addressed to the lay public, the government assuming that physicians knew enough to avoid being misled by any such advertising campaigns. Apparently, the assumption is too broad. At any rate, the manufacturers of “Glyco-Thymoline” are circularizing physicians, one of whom writes as follows:
To the Editor:—I am enclosing circular letter that I received this morning which seems to me almost a crime. I do not suppose that there is any way to prevent anything of this sort, but it is certainly a shame to attempt to deceive people in this way. As I recollect, Glyco-Thymoline is almost inert, practically no more efficient than Dobell’s Solution.
E. Fletcher Ingals, M.D., Chicago.
The circular letter referred to was on the stationery of Kress & Owen Company, manufacturers of Glyco-Thymoline. It read:
Dear Doctor:—Regarding Infantile Paralysis, it is conceded that the source of infection is through the Nose, Mouth and Throat.
Taking this measure to be correct, we believe that there is no safer prophylactic measure than the use of Glyco-Thymoline, with three parts of water, as a mouth, tooth and nasal wash, by means of the K. & O. Nasal Douche and the toothbrush.
Glyco-Thymoline tends to promote exosmosis, and prevents the absorption of the germ or toxic matter.
We would be glad to send you samples of both Glyco-Thymoline and the Douche should you so desire.
With best wishes, we beg to remain,
Yours very truly,
Kress & Owen Company.
Glyco-Thymoline has been discussed in these pages. A report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry pointed out that this “patent medicine” is simply a weak antiseptic, so feeble that even in full strength it does not kill Staphylococcus aureus in four hours and is of little, if any, greater therapeutic value than sterile salt solution. Yet, Glyco-Thymoline has been recommended by its manufacturers, either directly or inferentially, for such diseases as diphtheria, ophthalmia neonatorum and consumption. Today its manufacturers put it forward as one of the safest prophylactic measures against infantile paralysis and have the effrontery to make this suggestion, not to the uninstructed public but to the medical profession. Presumably, as a business organization, the concern believes it will convince a sufficient number of physicians of the therapeutic efficacy of its product to pay for the cost of this advertising campaign. If it appraises the situation correctly there need no longer be any wonder expressed that in the recent suit against The Journal, “patent medicine” makers were able to enlist the help of medical men.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Sept. 16, 1916.)
GLYKERON: COLD STORAGE TESTIMONIALS [N]
The law which limits the length of time that food products may be kept in cold storage could with advantage have its scope extended to include “patent medicine” testimonials. Physicians recently received through the mails—at a time when the mails were frightfully congested with Christmas business—a sixteen page pamphlet sent out in a plain envelop as first class matter. The caption of the pamphlet reads: “Cough and Its Treatment in Pulmonary and Laryngeal Tuberculosis: By Henry Levien, M.D., While Medical Director and Physician-in-Charge of the Liberty Sanitarium, Liberty, N. Y. From the Buffalo Medical Journal.” The pamphlet is devoted to the alleged virtues of that dangerous and widely advertised nostrum, “Glyco-Heroin (Smith),” whose more recent and less descriptive name is now “Glykeron.” Physicians might assume, and doubtless will assume, from the pamphlet that this reprint represents a recent pronouncement on the subject with which it deals. The facts are that the “Liberty Sanitarium” has, apparently, been out of existence for at least fifteen years, while the article itself originally appeared more than eighteen years ago—September, 1901. One of many physicians who sent in the copies received called attention to the fact that he had left the address to which the pamphlet was directed, more than six years ago. Even at that, the mailing lists of the concern that sells this heroin-containing nostrum are more than twelve years ahead of its “clinical reports.”—(Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 17, 1920.)