CHAPTER III.
CONSUMPTION CURES.
Nostrums and quack medicines vary greatly in the extent to which they constitute deliberate fraud. In the case of some of them, it is easy to believe that the makers themselves have a certain faith in their preparations, and recommend them in cases for which they are unsuited with that bona fides which arises from ignorance, assisted, unconsciously perhaps, by an appreciation of the profitable nature of the business. Such preparations frequently contain some one or more of the drugs in common use for the complaints for which the nostrum is offered, and are even, occasionally, combinations compounded in the first place from a medical prescription which may have been found useful in certain appropriate cases. The injury to the public in such instances arises from the excessive nature of the claims made, the excessive price usually charged, and the probability of the advertised medicine being taken in cases for which it is quite unsuitable, when it may do harm positively by its effects or negatively by preventing the sufferer from seeking proper advice.
But with other proprietary medicines it is quite clear that the makers cannot in the slightest degree believe in the claims they make; the “remedy” in these cases is some substance or mixture devoid of medicinal activity, or possessing some slight therapeutic property having no relation to the disease for which the nostrum is put forward as a cure. It is often, indeed, for inert preparations that the most extravagant and emphatic claims are made; the makers, and the advertisement-writers whom they employ, are untrammelled by any necessity of squaring their statements with the real properties of the thing to be recommended, and having set out consciously and deliberately to deceive, they are able to give their whole attention to telling the most effective stories in the most plausible manner, and reaping the maximum of payment for the minimum of expenditure. People who are ill or suffering are to be frightened with impressive pictures of the aggravated suffering and premature death that await them unless they take the “only cure” in question, therefore let them be frightened thoroughly. Careful suggestion will induce people who are not ill to believe that they or some of those dear to them are in the early stages of some disease; therefore let everything possible in the way of striking advertisements, personal letters, and repeated assertions be utilised to produce the result. It is the victim’s money that is wanted; therefore let the price be fixed high, and the advertisements be written up to it. If it should be discovered by correspondence that so much cannot be cajoled or frightened out of an individual sufferer, the price can be reduced gradually as “special concessions,” in return for which testimonials may be extracted.
Of quack medicines the sale of which is conducted more or less on these fines, two examples are described in this chapter, and other examples will be enumerated later.
One of the two now dealt with is “Tuberculozyne,” largely advertised in Great Britain but apparently of American origin; it affords an instructive example of the methods of the Transatlantic nostrum monger. The two liquids sold under this name consist of little more than coloured, flavoured water, but the modest price demanded is £2 10s. for a month’s, supply. No effort is spared to induce the victim to continue the “treatment” month by month, in spite of the evident absence of any benefit, which is unblushingly accounted for by the seriousness of the particular case, while the necessity of getting the system thoroughly permeated with the remedy is insisted on. The sale of another preparation advertised as a cure for consumption, Stevens’ Consumption Cure, is conducted in a very similar way, but this time the herbs are said to be African, and the odd names they bear certainly have a Kaffir flavour. The vendor considerately warns the public against American quacks and impostors and against the preposterous and wicked swindles of Polish or German Jews. Although Stevens is so engagingly candid about his rivals he follows the plan of sending one letter after another to any sufferer whose name he may have obtained, a system which seems to have been invented in America; it is certainly cheaper than bold advertisement in newspapers, and is apparently found even more satisfactory, as it enables the vendor to give individual attention to the depth of his correspondent’s pocket if not to the severity of his disease. But Stevens has somewhat bettered his instruction, and his letters and circulars have a character of their own due to the effrontery of his attitude toward the medical profession. Persons who respond to the advertisement receive a list of questions to be answered by the doctor who has attended them, and are advised to continue under the observation of their medical man in order that the latter may be impressed by the marvellous effects of the remedy. Not long ago a circular letter was sent out to medical practitioners, asking them to treat consumptive cases “which defy all the ordinary remedies” with this secret preparation. The circular continues: “The great drawback to my cure, so far as the medical profession is concerned, has always been the fact that I would not reveal its formula. This is now done away with; its formula is 80 grains of umckaloabo root and 13⅓ grains of chijitse to every ounce, prepared according to British Pharmacopœia methods.” The farce of revealing a formula by the employment of such fancy names as these is one of the oldest dodges of the quack medicine man, and no such names as “umckaloabo” and “chijitse” appear in any available work of reference on pharmacy. Enquiries made in various parts of South Africa have been negative, experts in native matters being unable to ascertain that the names were known. Further, the Native Affairs Department of Cape Colony has caused enquiries to be made in the Transkeian territories into the question whether the native tribes there resident had any knowledge of “umckaloabo” and “chijitse,” or of their reputed medicinal properties. The result of the inquiry was entirely negative. Nothing was known of any such plants, nor was it even possible to identify their names. Smith’s South African Materia Medica contains no record of any such names as “umckaloabo” and “chijitse.”
A similar system of repeated letters sent in series to the sufferer or his friends appears to be followed by the Weidhaas Hygienic Institute, Ltd., which carries on a home in the south of England but also treats patients by correspondence. The proprietors, who would seem to hail from Germany, issue a pamphlet with the title Dum spiro spero, which is made up mainly of the usual testimonials, but contains also a sort of outline of the physiology of various organs, taken from medical works. The pamphlet does not differ from the ordinary productions of advertising quacks; the terms are said to be very moderate, the more so as it is the rule to make one charge only for the whole treatment, the proprietors taking the risk of its being of long duration. It would seem, however, that this arrangement is not always followed, for in a “Diet Table” headed “Direction for Weidhaas Home Treatment” we find the following:
It is absolutely necessary that all patients, while under my treatment, shall take the “Star Tonic” regularly.
On Rising.—Take one cup of “Star Tonic.” (This must be always taken in sips only.)
For Breakfast.—Take the delicately flavoured Nutritive Salts Cocoa, boiled in milk (which, being specially prepared for invalids, on account of the great percentage of nutritive salts which no other cocoa contains, is most suitable in your case....)
Between Breakfast and Lunch take one or two tumblers of milk. If possible this should always be taken in the form of Kefyr, one of the easiest digestible nourishing and strengthening tonics. (Full particulars of this are enclosed herewith.)...