BACILLENTOD.
Bacillentod or “death to bacilli” also described as a “family tea,” is advertised as a miraculous preparation which cures all diseases of the respiratory tract. In the prospectus the word “phthisis” is misspelt. One packet costs 1s., and consists of 85 grams of galeopsidis, the dog, flowering, or hemp nettle, a herb which is now quite obsolete but was an ingredient of “Lieber’s tea for consumption,” which used to have an extended sale.
HONEY COD LIVER OIL.
Pastor Felke’s Honey Cod Liver Oil is recommended in preference to the ordinary forms of cod liver oil, on account of its pleasant taste and of the absence of any disturbing effect on the digestion. It is said to contain “fat extracted cod liver oil,” whatever that may mean, but proved on examination to be nothing more than a mixture of 0·05 per cent. of cod liver oil with oil of peppermint and raspberry syrup.
CHAPTER IV.
HEADACHE POWDERS.
Headache is so common a disorder that it was to be expected that secret remedies asserted to be certain and safe cures would be extensively advertised, and the sale, especially to women, of headache powders, in most cases as proprietary articles, is at the present day undoubtedly enormous. Persons who may be disposed to resort to their use should, however, bear two facts in mind; the first is that headache is not a disease but a symptom, and that the only rational treatment is to ascertain and remove the cause, whether it be error in diet, want of exercise, local irritation of some nerve as by an unhealthy tooth, eyestrain, or some serious chronic nervous disease. The second is that fatal results have been known to follow self-treatment with antifebrin (acetanilide), which figures largely in most of them.
The powders analysed were in all cases obtained from ordinary dealers in unopened packages; the composition of each is given in such a way as to show the dose of each article in one powder of average weight. Since the separation of the ingredients depends largely on their different solubilities in various liquids, it is not possible to obtain quantitative results having quite the same degree of accuracy as in some other kinds of analytical work; but the results of analysis have been checked by preparing mixtures of the composition calculated and submitting them to the same analytical process; the possible error in the proportions given below does not in any instance exceed a very small fraction.
DAISY POWDERS.
The English Company which sells this remedy charges 7½d. for 10 powders; the average weight of one powder was 6 grains, but the weight of individual powders in a packet was found to vary from 5·7 to 6·4 grains.
The medicament consisted of acetanilide alone. Being an unmixed drug it was not liable to stamp duty, and the package was accordingly unstamped. The dose was stated to be one powder, repeated in two hours if necessary; half a powder for children of 12 years; not adapted for children under 12 years.