"Unlike sarsaparilla, the iodide of potassium is classed among poisons by nearly every writer upon toxicology."
Practically all the proprietary remedies have their most potent principle in the supposed mystery of their composition. As a matter of fact, all are simple prescriptions, well known to physicians, and owing their successful treatment of many ills much more to the printer's ink used to secure their sale than to any pharmaceutical ingredient which they contain. No important remedy has ever been put on the market by advertising methods. Exposure of the charlatanry of such methods will not, however, cause an interruption of their sale. Long ago Barnum said that people wish to be humbugged, and there is no doubt that they have been, are, and will be humbugged just to the extent to which they lay themselves open to the alluring methods of the advertiser. It does seem too bad, however, that the influence of the clergymen and of religious as well as charitable visitors—an influence acquired because of the confidential position they occupy and the feeling of good faith their mode of life inspires—should be abused for the encouragement and extension of what is manifestly a great evil.
Alcohol and iodide of potash are not the only drugs likely to do harm that are incorporated in proprietary medicines. Great complaints have recently been made with regard to the spread of the cocaine habit in this country. Not a few of the remedies that are supposed to give immediate relief to colds in the head contain cocaine in dangerous amounts; and there seems no doubt that in many cases the drug habit for this substance has been acquired innocently and [{98}] unconsciously at first by the use of such preparations. These are only the more notable evils likely to result from the indiscriminate employment of medicines of whose composition there is complete ignorance, and of whose effect there can be only the judgment dependent upon the subjective feelings of the patient. It must not be forgotten that the patient's feelings are for the moment often favourably influenced by some substance that may do no good to the ailment, though making the patient less sensitive to any symptoms from which he was suffering; but in the end doing positive harm, because of the contraction of the alcohol or some drug habit, or because the suppression of symptoms may be the very worst thing for the patients, since it allows the underlying ailment to progress to a serious stage without forcing them to have it treated in radice.
These are only a few examples that show very well the inadvisability of recommending in any way medicines of which one does not know the exact contents. The present writer has had one example of how utterly disingenuous, though one feels much more like calling it rascally, the manufacturers of so-called patent medicines or proprietary remedies may be. One of the remedies widely advertised for the cure of epilepsy, or fits, is announced always as containing no harmful drugs, no bromide of potash. The manufacturer of the remedy was asked how he could say any such thing, since it was very evident even to the taste that the remedy contained bromides. "Oh," he said, "yes, it contains sodium bromide, but not bromide of potash." Almost needless to say, sodium bromide is at least as harmful as potassium bromide, and the advertisement is entirely for purposes of deception.
The poor epileptics have been a source of revenue for quacks and charlatans as long as history runs. At the present time one not infrequently finds testimonials from convents, asylums, reformatories, and the like, asserting the value of some particularly advertised remedy for this disease. All these remedies contain bromides. The treatment of epilepsy is now better understood by physicians and it is generally recognised that the two things that epileptic [{99}] patients need are outdoor air and as far as possible all freedom from responsibility. Bromides will, for a time, control the number and frequency of the attacks, but if used indiscriminately, and especially if employed without any proper realisation of their possibilities for harm, these salts are almost sure to make the condition of the patient much worse than before, to bring on a state in which mental symptoms predominate over physical, and in which the patient may go into dementia, or some form of mental alienation. Especially is this true with regard to epileptic children. Continuous dosing with drugs of any kind is sure to do them harm rather than good. Care for their diet and rest and the removal of all sources of disturbance of their digestive tract is more important than any other method of treatment.
The poor children have to suffer many things from many people. People hesitate, as a rule, to accept recommendations with regard to the administration of drugs to their animals when the person who gives the recommendation is known not to be an expert in the matter. Almost any suggestion, however, with regard to the dosing of their children is likely to be followed by loving but indiscreet mothers. It is well known now, and in many cases is admitted, that the so-called soothing syrups so often given to children contain opium in quite appreciable quantities. Needless to say, nothing much worse than this could possibly be given to children. The child soon becomes accustomed to its daily dose of opium and craves the repetition of it. It will not sleep without it, and as this adds to the sales of the remedy, this special ingredient continues to put money in the pockets of the manufacturers, but at the expense of the nervous stability of the child, and lack of resisting power later in life. It would be hard to say how many of the nervous wrecks so commonly met with in young adults now are to be attributed to this unfortunate state of affairs early in life; but undoubtedly this evil has had much to do with the noticeable increase in the nervousness of our people. The more nervous the heredity of the child, the more it must be guarded against such mistaken methods of inducing sleep, or the result is sure to be serious.
Scarcely too much can be said in condemnation of most of the proprietary remedies for constipation, though it is in this department of medication that the non-medical are freest with their advice. First, the cheapest possible drugs are selected by the manufacturers of such remedies. Secondly, those drugs especially are employed which, while producing the desired immediate effect, are always followed by a reaction which requires further use of the medicine. One finds testimonials, however, from all classes of the community, even from clergymen, with regard to such remedies, though at the last international medical congress it was confidently asserted, by three of the most prominent specialists in digestive diseases in the world, that the modern problems in digestive disturbances are so much more intricate than they used to be, and the affections which develop are so much more difficult of treatment, because of the use of these unsuitable remedies, and the consequent habituation to drugs, which has been acquired during the prolonged period of their employment.
In recent years catarrh has become the word that is supposed to attract popular attention most, and accordingly is the watchword of the proprietary medicine manufacturer. A long time ago, that is, about half a century ago, catarrh was supposed really to mean something in medicine. Those were the days of humoral pathology, when disturbances of secretion were supposed to be the basis of all disease. Accordingly, whenever there was an excessive discharge from the nose, a patient was said to be suffering from catarrh, and as the nasal secretion was supposed to be connected in some way with the brain, it is easy to understand how significant such a pathological condition might well be thought. In more recent years, the word "catarrh" has still been employed by physicians who thoughtlessly employ terms that they think will be better understood by the laity, owing to their familiarity with them, though they have been outlived in medicine. From representing an affection of the nose, catarrh, as a consequence, has come to be employed for an excess of secretion from any mucous membrane. Accordingly we hear of catarrh of the stomach, catarrh of the bladder, or catarrh of the [{101}] bile-ducts, and there has come to the general public a notion that catarrh is an all-pervading affection whose ravages must be prevented, at all hazards, and whose beginning must be the signal for prompt medical treatment.
As a matter of fact, catarrh, when it means anything, means only that stage of inflammation in which there is an increased secretion and which represents an inflammatory condition so mild as often to be described as only hyperaemic, that is, due to an increase of blood in the part. It is rather easy to understand that if more blood flows through a mucous membrane, there will be greater secretion from it than would normally be the case. This is what happens in the production of catarrh. As a rule, it is only a passing congestion without any lasting changes in the tissue. Catarrh may, however, continue to be present if the irritation, which originally caused the congestion, be allowed to continue. It is this irritation, however, which needs to be treated, and not the catarrhal inflammation, which is only a symptom of it. The three most used words in popular medicine,—catarrh, rheumatism, and gout,—when traced to their etymological signification, mean the same thing. Catarrh means a flowing down, rheumatism a state of flowing, both being formed from the Greek verb