| Cascarans (Bell) | Dr. Johns’ Tablets | |
| “Taken as directed, it permanently
removes the great majority
of cases of habitual constipation.” “... a harmless vegetable preparation.” “... for the removal of pimples, yellowness and greasiness of the skin ...” “... one tablet at night, one night and morning, or, in severe cases, one three time a day, gradually decreasing the frequency of the dose as improvement permits.” | “Taken as directed ... permanently
remove the great majority
of cases of habitual constipation,
torpid liver and sick headache.” “A harmless vegetable remedy.” “... removes pimples, blotches, sallowness and greasiness of the skin ...” “One at night, one night and morning, or, in severe cases, one three times a day. Gradually decrease the frequency of the dose as improvement permits.” |
According to a leaflet sent out with samples by the L. D. Johns Company, the company is capitalized for $500,000, divided into 50,000 shares at $10 each; these shares are sold to those physicians who will agree “to prescribe the tablets at every suitable opportunity, to introduce them to other physicians” and “to promote their sale in every ethical way!” If the list of physicians’ names and addresses which the company sends out as comprising the eastern stockholders is to be relied on, it would seem that many medical men are promoting their sale. In prescribing it is, of course, “necessary to specify ‘Dr. Johns’ Tablets No XXX (Original bottle).’” As the name is on the bottle, it is not unbelievable that, as the company says in its prospectus, because of “our method of advertising, a large and very profitable business is being created.” That the L. D. Johns Company expects to profit by the self-drugging which this method of prescribing fosters is evident:
“Physicians not stockholders in this company suffer from the continual refilling of their prescriptions and from the recommendation of the preparation prescribed by patients to others. [Italics ours.—Ed.] Our stockholders benefit by the refilling of their prescriptions and by these recommendations.”
Put baldly the case amounts to this: Physicians who prescribe “Dr. Johns’ Tablets” not only are likely to foster self-drugging, but they will reap dividends therefrom. Truly a nice business to be in!
While Bell & Company and the L. D. Johns Company are said to be entirely distinct, they are to be found at the same address at Orangeburg, New York, and as will be seen, the officers of the two companies are more or less related.
| BELL & CO. | L. D. JOHNS CO. | |
| President | John L. Dodge | President |
| Secretary | Geo. C. Tennant | Vice-President |
| Vice-President | Chas. B. Smith | Secretary and Treasurer |
EXPLOITING THE PROFESSION
Nostrum promoters have two simple ways of “working” the medical profession. The first—and the more profitable—is, by lavish distribution of free samples, to get physicians to prescribe the blown-in-the-glass “original package” with the inevitable result of large sales direct to the laity. By the second method, which is merely a modification of the first, the physician furnishes the capital for floating the nostrum and then takes his share of the resulting profits. There may not be quite as much money in the second method for the promoter, but then the risks are correspondingly less. If the firm fails, the stockholders are the losers; the promoter is not necessarily “out” anything. From a commercial standpoint, a combination of the two methods is, of course, ideal—(From The Journal A. M. A., Aug. 14, 1909.)