SUCCUS CINERARIA MARITIMA
Another Illustration of One of the Weaknesses of the Federal Food and Drugs Act
The Walker Pharmacal Company of St. Louis was, we understand, if it is not still, one of the subsidiary concerns of the Luyties Homeopathic Pharmacy Company. It has for years sold a nostrum, “Succus Cineraria Maritima,” under the claim that by simply dropping this stuff into the eye, twice daily, cataract and other opacities of the eye will be cured. For instance:
“... the only remedy for the relief of cataract and other opacities of vision, which stands before the medical fraternity on a firm foundation of accomplished results....”
“... possesses a specific power in removing the obstruction to vision.”
“In this class of cases [cataract] physicians can place reliance on Succus Cineraria Maritima (Walker) which does not require the services of a specialist but is simply dropped into the eye with an ordinary medicine dropper twice daily....”
“... has been used with success in cataract, both lenticular and capsular, pterygium and opacities of the cornea, softening the opaque deposits, causing dissolution, and by its stimulating properties, hastening absorption.”
Succus Cineraria Maritima is advertised to the medical profession in true “patent medicine” style by means of testimonials from doctors, obscure and deceased. The preparation is valueless for the purposes for which it is sold and “has about as much effect on the dissolution or dispersal of opacities due to organic changes in the lens as pouring the same down the back of the patient’s neck!” More than five years ago the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry reported on the worthlessness of the drug, Cineraria maritima, and, at the same time, The Journal pointed out that the drug would have been forgotten long ago had it not been for the prodigal use of printers’ ink by the Walker Pharmacal Company in advertising its Succus Cineraria Maritima.
These facts are given for the purpose of refreshing the memory of our readers and are but incidental to the object of this article. In due time the federal authorities proceeded against the Walker Pharmacal Company charging that Succus Cineraria Maritima was misbranded under the federal Food and Drugs Act. The government chemists reported that analysis “showed that the product was essentially an aqueous solution of glycerin, boric acid and vegetable drug extractives carrying tannin-like bodies.” The direct and inferential claims made in the advertising matter accompanying the trade package were quoted by the federal authorities, who pointed out that the Walker Pharmacal Company was selling the nostrum under claims that would create in the minds of the purchasers the belief that Succus Cineraria Maritima was a remedy for cataract and other opacities of the eye causing impaired vision and that it was a cure for senile cataract, trachoma, secondary opacities, etc. These claims the government charged were “false and fraudulent in that the same were applied to the article knowingly, and in reckless and wanton disregard of their truth or falsity,” because “in truth and in fact it was not, in whole or in part, composed of, and did not contain, such ingredients and medicinal agents” as would produce the therapeutic effects claimed.
Facsimile of a letter, dated October, 1916, suggesting the use of “Succus Cineraria Maritima” as a cure for cataract and other opacities of vision. Eight months previously (February, 1916), the Walker Pharmacal Company had pleaded guilty to the charge that the claims that “Succus Cineraria Maritima” was a cure for cataract and other eye opacities were false and fraudulent and applied knowingly and in reckless and wanton disregard of their truth or falsity. The federal Food and Drugs Act does not apply to claims made in circular letters or elsewhere than in the trade package.
These charges put the matter flatly up to the Walker Pharmacal Company. This company has for years been telling physicians that their stuff could and would do just what the federal authorities insisted it can not and will not do. Did the Walker Pharmacal Company attempt to defend its claims? Did it demonstrate that Succus Cineraria Maritima would cure cataract? Did it produce evidence of the numerous cases of recovery from blindness or partial blindness which must have been available if the preparation had the powers claimed for it? No! The Walker Pharmacal Company in February, 1916, pleaded guilty—and was fined a paltry $10 and costs.
This, however, is not the end of the story. The company was prosecuted because it had published the false and fraudulent claims in the trade package, thus bringing the claims within the purview of the federal Food and Drugs Act. Had the Walker Pharmacal Company confined its false statements to medical journal advertisements, to the circular letters sent to physicians or to any other advertising matter not part of the trade package, it could have snapped its fingers at the Food and Drugs Act.
It was in February, 1916, that the Walker Pharmacal Company pleaded guilty to the charge of making false and fraudulent claims for Succus Cineraria Maritima. In October, 1916, they were still sending out circular letters to physicians urging the use of Succus Cineraria Maritima in the treatment of cataract and enclosing the usual booklet of testimonials claiming cures for cataract and other opacities of the lens and cornea!
Facsimile of some of the pages from the booklet that accompanied the letter reproduced herewith. The obvious intent of this booklet was to lead physicians to believe that Succus Cineraria Maritima will cure “Opacity of the Cornea,” “Opacity of the Lens,” “Senile Cataract,” “Incipient Cataract,” “Double Cataract,” etc.
Can one conceive a better illustration of the inadequacy of the Food and Drugs Act? The dishonest exploiter of proprietary medicines cares little that the law requires him to keep within certain bounds of truthfulness in the advertising that accompanies the trade package. It isn’t the claims in the trade packages that sell the product; it’s the advertising in medical journals, in circular letters, etc. Yet, the Food and Drugs Act offers no check or curb on false statements or fraudulent claims made for proprietary or “patent medicines” in any other place than the trade packages.
A few weeks ago The Journal called attention to a flagrant case of fraud; and at that time it said, “It is justifiable to assume that when any man, whatever his business, admits in court that he has made fraudulent claims and then continues to make the same claims through channels that are not controlled by penal enactment, that man’s standard of business ethics is such that the public needs protection against it. There are many such men in the ‘patent medicine’ world. The only way in which the public may properly be protected against being defrauded in such cases is for the federal Food and Drugs Act to have its scope extended to cover all advertising of the products coming under the purview of the act.”—(From The Journal A. M. A., March 17, 1917.)