The trade package assures the purchaser that Prunoids are:
“Recommended by Physicians Generally.”
A circular sent to physicians makes the unwarranted claim that Prunoids are “especially serviceable” in “... Neurasthenia, Jaundice, Chlorosis, Rheumatism, Gout ...” and that
“... their success in gouty diathesis and vague rheumatic symptoms tends to confirm the opinion expressed by some physicians that they have a solvent action on uric acid.”
In the following the haphazard and ill-considered use of purgatives is suggested:
“For the expectant mother, or in the treatment of female diseases, for bowel elimination, no happier or safer selection can be made.”
The Council refused recognition to Prunoids because the statement of composition is incomplete and therefore meaningless; because unwarranted therapeutic claims are made for them; because the name “Prunoids” gives the false impression that they depend on prunes for their effect; and because it is irrational and a detriment to medicine to disguise a well-known drug by means of a misleading name and to attempt to create the impression of special virtues by combining it with superfluous drugs.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 2, 1915.)