“In Hemorrhoids and all Inflammatory Rectal Diseases, let your first thought Continue to be Anusol Hemorrhoidal Suppositories; they have Earned your lasting Confidence.” Thus speaks an attractive folder recently sent to physicians. With a prodigal use of superlatives, the medical profession is told that these suppositories have for years “maintained their World-Wide Reputation” as the “Most Effective, the Safest ... the Most Economical and ... the Most Credit-Bringing of all Topical Rectal Remedies.” The short memory of the public is notorious; from the point of view of the proprietary exploiter, the short memory of the medical profession must be equally well known. How, otherwise, would a firm try to make physicians believe that a product had “earned” their “lasting confidence” when the result of an examination by the Association’s chemists, published in The Journal,[106] had shown that Anusol Hemorrhoidal Suppositories contained practically no “anusol.” Moreover, as the Association’s findings were a practical verification of the findings of a foreign chemist who also had failed to find any “anusol” in Anusol Suppositories, it is not quite clear what is meant by the term “world-wide reputation.” Incidentally, the observant physician will notice that the list of the ingredients given on the Anusol Suppositories labels of 1913 differ from those of the vintage of four years ago. The label of the old boxes gave the ingredients thus:
Bismuth. iodo-resorcinsulfon (Anusol), Zinc oxydat. pur., Balsam Peruv., Ol. cacao, Unguent cereum.
On the latest label, however, we find these ingredients given:
“Bismuth oxyiodid and resorcinsulphonate with Zinc oxid and Balsam Peru, incorporated in suitable base.”
What will the formula be four years hence?—(From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 11, 1913.)
ANUSOL SUPPOSITORIES
To the Editor:—In the “Propaganda for Reform” department of the October 11 issue of The Journal, you published a short notice on Anusol Suppositories. We desire to correct the impression which your readers may have received, viz.: that there is any actual difference between Anusol Suppositories of the present and Anusol Suppositories of the past. We wish, therefore, to state that the composition of Anusol Suppositories has not been changed; the only modification that we have made is a revision of the label to the effect that the active medicinal ingredient of the preparation is a mixture of bismuth oxyiodid and bismuth resorcinsulphonate in place of bismuth iodoresorcin-sulphonate. The latter was originally claimed by the manufacturers, discovered to be doubtful by an investigation in the laboratory of the American Medical Association, as well as by one on the part of a foreign chemist, and finally disproved to our satisfaction by an independent investigation on our part. We feel that the remark “What will the formula be four years hence?” will carry the impression to your readers that the composition has frequently been changed and is likely to be changed again, and it is for this reason that we request the above correction and an assurance to the contrary.
The statement in the note that “Anusol Suppositories have been proved to contain no Anusol” is also likely to create an entirely erroneous impression. We dropped the use of the word “anusol,” as designating a definite chemical substance more than two years ago, and changed all our propaganda matter accordingly. Schering & Glatz.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 31, 1914.)