A “medical pamphlet” of 34 pages accompanied the bottle, from which the following extracts are taken:
Warner’s “Safe” Cure is a purely vegetable compound, and contains no narcotic or harmful drugs; it is free from sediment and is pleasant to take; it is a most valuable and effective tonic; it stimulates digestion, awakens the torpid liver, and puts the entire system in the very best receptive state for the work of restoring the kidneys. It does its work with absolute method, preparing the tissues, soothing and stimulating the enfeebled organs, healing at the same time. It builds up the body, gives it strength, and restores the energy which is or has been wasting under the baneful suffering of kidney disease. Warner’s “Safe” Cure was discovered about thirty years ago by one of the most eminent specialists in diseases of the kidneys, who had made a life-study of kidney and kindred diseases.
How to test your kidneys. Put some morning urine in a glass or bottle; let it stand for twenty-four hours; if there is a reddish sediment in the bottom of the glass, or if the urine is cloudy or milky, or if you see particles or germs floating about in it, your kidneys are diseased and you should lose no time but get a bottle of Warner’s “Safe” Cure, as it is dangerous to neglect your kidneys for even one day. Bright’s disease, gravel, liver complaint, pains in the back, rheumatism, rheumatic gout, inflammation of bladder, stone in the bladder, uric acid poison, dropsy, eczema, scrofula, blood disease, offensive odour from sweating, so-called ‘female weakness,’ painful periods, too frequent desire to urinate, and painful passing of urine are all caused by diseased kidneys, and can be speedily cured by Warner’s “Safe” Cure, which has been prescribed for twenty-five years.”
Of Bright’s disease it is remarked:
It is one of the harassing complaints which physicians in family practice seldom have the patience to investigate and manage with sufficient care.
The assumed predilection of the public for vegetable remedies is no doubt answerable for potassium nitrate being classed as “purely vegetable” in so many of these medicines. In the present case analysis showed the presence of potassium nitrate, alcohol, glycerine, a trace of oil of wintergreen, and vegetable extractive; there was no alkaloid or similar active principle, and the extract had little distinctive taste or character; all its properties pointed to its consisting largely of extract of taraxacum, with some other extract containing a small quantity of tannin; a careful series of comparisons with all the drugs in ordinary use which were not excluded by various tests did not identify it with any of them, and it is probable that it is obtained from some non-medicinal plant.
The following formula gives an almost identical mixture:
| Potassium nitrate | 50 | grains. |
| Oil of gaultheria | ⅓ | minim. |
| Rectified spirit | 5 | fluid drams. |
| Liquid extract of taraxacum | 10 | ” |
| Glycerine | 4 | ” |
| Water to | 8 | fluid ounces. |
This contains about 10 per cent. of pure alcohol, which is the proportion found in Warner’s Cure; in a mixture of which a tablespoonful was to be taken five or six—or, according to the handbill with it, six to eight—times a day, this proportion of alcohol is by no means negligible.
In such a mixture there is no means of determining exactly the amount of liquid extract of taraxacum, especially as it is liable to vary considerably in colour and in amount of solid residue; this is by far the most expensive ingredient in the above formula, and it is probable that the amount is here over-estimated. Taking the quantity here given, the estimated cost of the drugs for one bottle of the mixture is 5¼d.