TABLE
From the Report of the Massachusetts Board of Health
Tonics and Bitters

The following were examined for the purpose of ascertaining the percentage of alcohol in each. Some of them have been recommended as temperance drinks!

Per cent, of Alcohol (by volume).
"Best" Tonic 7.6
Carter's Physical Extract 22.0
Hooker's Wigwam Tonic 20.7
Hoofland's German Tonic 29.3
Hop Tonic 7.0
Howe's Arabian Tonic, "not a rum drink" 13.2
Jackson's Golden Seal Tonic 19.6
Liebig Company's Coca Beef Tonic 23.2
Mensman's Peptonized Beef Tonic 16.5
Parker's Tonic, "purely vegetable," "recommended for inebriates" 41.6
Schenck's Sea Weed Tonic, "entirely harmless" 19.5
Atwood's Quinine Tonic Bitters 29.2
L. T. Atwood's Jaundice Bitters 22.3
Moses Atwood's Jaundice Bitters 17. 1
Baxter's Mandrake Bitters 16.5
Boker's Stomach Bitters 42.6
Brown's Iron Bitters 19.7
Burdock Blood Bitters 25.2
Carter's Scotch Bitters 17.6
Colton's Bitters 27.1
Copp's White Mountain Bitters, "not an alcoholic beverage"6.0
Drake's Plantation Bitters 33.2
Flint's Quaker Bitters 21.4
Goodhue's Bitters 16.1
Greene's Nervura 17.2
[{94}]
Hartshorn's Bitters 22.2
Hoofland's German Bitters, "entirely vegetable and free from alcoholic stimulant" 25.6
Hop Bitters 12.0
Hostetter's Stomach Bitters 44.3
Kaufmann's Sulphur Bitters, "contains no alcohol." As a matter offact, it contains 20.5 per cent, of alcohol and no sulphur 20.5
Kingsley's Iron Tonic 14.9
Langley's Bitters 18.1
Liverpool's Mexican Tonic Bitters 22.4
Paine's Celery Compound 21.0
Pierce's Indian Restorative Bitters 6.1
Puritana 22.0
Porter's Stomach Bitters 27.9
Pulmonine 16.0
Rush's Bitters 35.0
Richardson's Concentrated Sherry Wine Bitters 47.5
Secor's Cinchona Bitters 13.1
Shonyo's German Bitters 21.5
Job Sweet's Strengthening Bitters 29.0
Thurston's Old Continental Bitters 11.4
Walker's Vinegar Bitters, "contains no spirit" 6.1
Warner's Safe Tonic Bitters 35.7
Warren's Bilious Bitters 21.5
Wheeler's Tonic Sherry Wine Bitters 18.8
Wheat Bitters 13.6
Faith Whitcomb's Nerve Bitters 20.3
Dr. Williams' Vegetable Jaundice Bitters 18.5
Whiskol, "a non-intoxicating stimulant, whiskey without its sting" 28.2
Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic, "recommended for treatment of the alcoholic habit" 26.5
Ayer's Sarsaparilla 26.2
Thayer's Compound Extract of Sarsaparilla 21.5
Hood's Sarsaparilla 18.8
Allen's Sarsaparilla 13.5
Dana's Sarsaparilla 13.5
Brown's Sarsaparilla 13.5
Corbett's Shaker Sarsaparilla 8.8
Radway's Resolvent 7.9

The dose recommended upon the labels of the foregoing preparations varies from a teaspoonful to a wineglassful, and the frequency also varies from one to four times a day, "increased as needed."
Many so-called tonics not on this list are also known to contain alcohol, [{95}] though not as yet officially analysed so as to give exact figures. Most of the cure-alls for women's ills contain alcohol in noteworthy amounts, this being in fact usually the only active ingredient in them.

As the analyst of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts is a thoroughly competent chemist, and as these figures have now been before the public for over five years without any contradiction on the part of the manufacturers of these remedies, though it is evident how undesirable the truth of the matter is from an advertising standpoint, there can no longer be any question as to the authoritativeness of the proportions of the alcohol in the remedies as given.

It is rather sad to think of mothers giving these remedies to their children, hopeful of the good they may accomplish, when, as a matter of fact, it would be so much simpler and just the same in the end, to give them, instead of a tablespoonful of the favourite sarsaparilla, whatever it might be, a tablespoonful of dilute whiskey. As was noted in the volumes on the Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem published recently by a sub-committee of the Committee of Fifty for the investigation of the liquor problem, not a few prominent total abstinence advocates have put themselves on record as recommending these remedies, though there can be no possible doubt of the great harm likely to arise from their use. There are many physicians who feel sure that some of the alcoholic habits in women, whose origin it has been hard to account for, were really contracted during this secret "tippling" process under the form of a tonic remedy. Everyone knows that any tonic, in order to be effective, has to be gradually increased, so it is not surprising that in many cases physicians have heard of patients taking six to ten tablespoonfuls of some tonic remedy every day. This would be the equivalent, in some cases, of from three to five ounces of whiskey—a rather liberal allowance even for a confirmed whiskey drinker.

As noted by the Massachusetts Board of Health, the dose recommended upon the labels varies considerably, but practically all agree in suggesting that the amount of the remedy taken shall be increased as needed. A simple presentation of this subject will surely be sufficient to arouse clergymen [{96}] to a proper sense of their duty in this matter. Senators, judges of Supreme Courts, Congressmen, and even university professors and teachers may be so benefited by dilute whiskey, taken early and often, as to be tempted to furnish testimonials for them (for a due consideration usually), but clergymen should at least know something of the consequences of their act before committing themselves.

An almost precisely similar state of affairs obtains with regard to another class of favourite popular remedies. A number of so-called blood-purifying remedies have been recommended at various times, and here, as in other things, it is surprising to find how many intelligent people lend themselves to the exploitation of the public in the interests of the proprietary vender, who cares only to sell, and cares very little what effect his remedies may produce. Most of the sarsaparillas are said to be blood purifiers. It is surprising what vogue this word "sarsaparilla" has obtained. A little more than half a century ago a German chemist and pharmacist announced that the sarsaparilla plant contained certain principles that could be extracted by boiling, and that form excellent remedies for atonic and anaemic conditions. This announcement was received by the medical profession very kindly, and immediate tests as to the efficacy of the new remedy were made. As a result of these tests, within a few years the inefficacy of sarsaparilla became very clear. It is almost entirely without effect upon the human system. In the meantime, however, the word "sarsaparilla" was one to conjure with for the popular mind, and the sarsaparilla remedies began to be manufactured. Millions have been made on them and out of the public. The only active agent as regards tonic qualities which they contain is, as we have said, alcohol. Most of them however, contain at least one other well-known drug likely to be at least as harmful as alcohol. This is iodide of potash. Very few of the so-called sarsaparillas are without a notable proportion of this strong mineral salt, as the Massachusetts Board of Health said.

"With but few exceptions they contain a considerable percentage of a very active and powerful remedy, the iodide of potassium. The sale of such an article in unlimited [{97}] quantities by druggists, grocers, and others is censurable. More than this, the method of its sale is dishonest, since the unwary purchaser is led to believe that he is purchasing a harmless vegetable remedy, namely, sarsaparilla.

"It may be seriously questioned whether the blood of persons who take iodide of potassium continuously is not decidedly impoverished, instead of being purified, as is claimed by the manufacturers. It is not uncommon to find persons who have used continuously six, eight, or ten pint bottles of one of these preparations.