Gloria Tonic, price 4s. 6d. a box, containing 50 tablets, was described on the box as “a scientific preparation for the cure of all uric acid ailments, including Rheumatism and Gout, Lumbago, Sciatica, Scrofula, and all other diseases resulting from Impurities of the Blood.” This rather wide claim was somewhat at variance with statements made in the booklet, from which a few extracts may be given:
It was with the object of curing all rheumatism that I introduced “Gloria Tonic” to the public, and I believe that it is a task worthy of the cause. I do not propose to make the attempt with a remedy similar to the many thousands of cure-alls with which the market is overloaded, but with a true and reliable rheumatism specific—“Gloria Tonic.”
I am not offering you a remedy of that kind, but one which is solely compounded for the cure of rheumatism, one that has been tested in Hospitals and Sanatoriums, one that has the endorsement of physicians and University professors, and, above all, one which has already enabled many hundreds of persons to abandon crutch and cane. Do not wonder if this can be true. The foregoing statement is an absolute fact....
I could easily get many times 4s. 6d. for a box of “Gloria Tonic,” but it is my purpose not so much to accumulate wealth as to benefit suffering mankind....
“Gloria Tonic” is to-day the only remedy on the market that cures all forms of rheumatism effectively, and without destroying the delicate tissues of the Heart, Stomach, Liver, and Kidneys....
The merit of this remedy is unapproachable. I have no object in telling you this aside from having your interests at heart, and wish to protect you against the many harmful drugs. You need not have any fear in taking “Gloria Tonic” as directed, while the smallest dose of other rheumatic remedies might harm you.
The directions were:
For adults: From one-half to one tablet is a dose, and four doses should be taken daily as follows: Half to one tablet before the morning, noon, and evening meal, and on retiring.... Dose for children from 10 to 15 years, one half-tablet. From 5 to 10 years, one-quarter of a tablet. Below these years, the medicine should not be given.
The average weight of the tablets was 11·2 grains; among 12 weighed separately the weights varied from 10·5 to 12·5 grains. Analysis showed the presence of potassium iodide, guaiacum resin, extract of liquorice, powdered liquorice, starch, mineral matter—apparently a mixture of talc and kaolin—a resinoid substance, and a trace of alkaloid. The alkaloid amounted to 0·016 per cent.; it did not agree in properties with any of the common alkaloids, but agreed, so far as it was practicable to examine it, with the alkaloid of phytolacca (the American weed, poke-root, or pokeberry); the resinoid also agreed in its properties with the resinoid phytolaccin, but there are no distinctive tests by which its identity could be certainly established. The quantities of the various ingredients were estimated as accurately as possible, and the following formula was indicated:
| Potassium iodide | 1·8 | grains. |
| Guaiacum resin | 0·8 | grain. |
| Extract of liquorice | 1·0 | ” |
| Resinoid (phytolaccin?) | 0·9 | ” |
| Powdered liquorice | 1·7 | grains. |
| Rice starch | 2·0 | ” |
| Talc and kaolin | 2·1 | ” |
| In one tablet. | ||