3. In the past year we have endeavored to place our preparation on a higher ethical basis by stating in our advertisements what our wafers contain, and by eliminating whatever seems to us open to criticism.
4. That the ingredients of the preparation are “simple” is no reason for considering them valueless. H. A. Kelly, in his work on medical gynecology, page 266, recommends these ingredients in a variety of conditions. Bandler also made important recommendations bearing on this subject in his “Medical Gynecology,” 1909 edition, page 472. We feel we have the right to recommend this preparation for these and similar conditions, especially when our statements are backed up by the clinical experience of numerous general practitioners.
5. That the owner of Micajah’s Wafers holds stock in a corporate firm which manufactures proprietary medicines and toilet articles, advertised to the laity, should not militate for or against our right to market a meritorious preparation on strictly ethical lines to the medical profession, inasmuch as many of the largest drug houses cater to both the doctor and the proprietary interests, and several are actively engaged in exploiting so-called nostrums.
6. We enclose a recent advertisement which has been accepted after investigation of our methods by careful medical journals, and we now believe we are conducting our business in entire conformity with the best interests of the medical profession and we feel certain of the true merits of our article.
Micajah & Company, Warren, Pa.
[Comment: This letter brings out still more strongly the points raised in the article which appeared in The Journal, March 26, 1910. Being unable to analyze motives we must perforce, accept Micajah & Co.’s statement that they “do not seek by word or deed the patronage of the laity.” In the comments on the laboratory’s report it was very explicitly stated that this nostrum was advertised only in medical journals and not directly to the public. Inasmuch, however, as the container in which this product comes has printed on it the various diseases in which the “wafers” are indicated, as, moreover, within the container there is a leaflet which describes in detail the use of the preparation in a list of pathologic states varying from “enlargement of the womb” to “gonorrhea in the male,” and, finally, as the name “uterine wafers” would seem in itself to be a plain bid to the public, we still maintain that “one might imagine that is was put up absolutely for the layman.”
The proposition that advertising matter should not be considered extravagant because it is largely “made up of clinical reports received from physicians” is an argument that is as old as the nostrum business itself—and as fallacious as it is old. Unfortunately, as our files show, the most extravagant statements made for proprietary products frequently emanate from men who legally are entitled to write M.D. after their name. The fact that it is not the manufacturer but a Buffalo physician who tells of the marvelous results he obtained from the use of Micajah’s Medicated Uterine Wafers in forty-three cases comprising no fewer than thirty-six pathologic conditions from “otitis media” to “injured toe,” and from “bunion” to “ophthalmia neonatorum” does not exempt the firm that prints such stuff from the charge that its “literature” is not merely extravagant, but ridiculously so.
As Micajah & Co. say, because the ingredients of their preparation are simple is no reason for considering them valueless. On the contrary, if the “wafers” were truthfully exploited for what they are and what they will do, their very simplicity would be a virtue. But such has not been done. And therein lies the viciousness of nostrums. Simple mixtures of well-known drugs are foisted on the medical profession with no hint as to their composition and with claims made that are not only false, but would immediately be recognized as absurd, if their actual composition were known.
That a mixture of borax and alum may be of value in some of the simple ailments of the female genital tract can easily be granted. That relief might follow the use of suppositories made of these ingredients—especially when supplemented by an increased attention to simple cleanliness—can also be admitted. To say, however, that such medicaments will quickly and permanently cure gonorrhea, urethritis, endometritis, etc., is foolish, false and vicious.]—(From the Journal A. M. A., April 16, 1910.)