VENO’S SEAWEED TONIC.
The Company in Manchester which advertises Veno’s Seaweed Tonic sells it at the price of 1s. 1½d. a bottle, holding 2¾ to 3 fluid ounces.
The label states:
Contains in a pleasant and agreeable form the active principles of seaweed. First introduced into the medical world by Mr. Veno, and now admitted to be a most efficient and valuable medicine. Veno’s seaweed tonic is prepared on an entirely new principle, and is free from poisonous or mineral drugs. It cures all ailments arising from a diseased condition of the Stomach, Liver, Kidneys, and Blood, which, when diseased, cause nearly all sickness. Dose.—For an adult, one teaspoonful twice or three times daily.
The following extracts are taken from a pamphlet enclosed with the bottle:
Veno’s Seaweed Tonic is a specific remedy; money cannot make it better. If it fails, no other medicine will ever succeed; but sufferers must have patience.
Kidney Diseases, Weak Back, Backache or Lumbago, Incipient Bright’s Disease. If you suffer from a weak back, with pain, soreness, or stiffness; if there is a dragging weakness in the limbs and lack of muscular energy; or if your urine is very clear or high coloured, showing a sediment of white flakes through it, it indicates a weakness or disease of the kidneys. Veno’s Seaweed Tonic should be taken for at least two or three months, in teaspoonful doses twice or three times daily, after meals.
The mixture contained a small proportion of undissolved sediment, which, when collected and examined, agreed in all respects with the insoluble portion of leptandrin. Glycerine, a little phosphate, alcohol, and a trace of chloroform were present, and vegetable extractive. Careful examination of the latter gave evidence of the presence of the constituents of cascara sagrada, senna, and rhubarb. Such a mixture as this could not, of course, be quantitatively resolved into its components, and the proportions given below were arrived at by comparisons of the properties of various trial mixtures with the properties of the original; no indication was obtained of any substance derived from seaweed. The following formula gives a practically identical mixture:
| Leptandrin | 10 | grains. |
| Sodium phosphate, crystals | 33 | ” |
| Liquid extract of cascara sagrada | 45 | minims. |
| Concentrated infusion of rhubarb (1-7) | 1 | fluid dram. |
| ”” senna (1-7) | 2½ | fluid drams. |
| Glycerine | 2 | ” |
| Chloroform water | 1 | fluid ounce. |
| Water to | 3 | fluid ounces. |
The estimated cost of the ingredients is 1½d.