The product is now sold under the name “Waterbury’s Compound.” It was recently stated in this department that “Waterbury’s Compound” was one of the proprietary preparations advertised both in “display” form and also in the form of an “original article,” in the Army and Navy Medical Record—a fraudulent publication that offered its editorial pages for sale. Physicians are now receiving from the Waterbury Chemical Company a reprint of what purports to be an editorial from the Army and Navy Medical Record entitled, “One of America’s Most Valuable Preparations.” The preparation, of course, is “Waterbury’s Compound.” The company in sending out this reprint also reproduces on the reverse side the title-heading of the Army and Navy Medical Record. All of which goes to show that some concerns not only do not mind being found in bad company, but seem proud of it. By the way, we wonder whether those physicians who are still prescribing this nostrum think they are prescribing a preparation containing cod-liver oil!—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 15, 1913.)
COLLYRIUM-WYETH
“I should be glad of any information about Wyeth’s Collyrium and would also like to know if the position taken by this concern measures up to the requirements of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry.”
This inquiry was received from a Boston physician, who enclosed with his note the letter quoted below that he had received from John Wyeth & Brother, Philadelphia, the makers of the preparation in question:
“We have your letter of the 22d inst., in which you request us to send to you formula for ‘Collyrium,’ and in reply thereto, beg to advise, being a corporation you will, we think appreciate why we are not at liberty to disclose the various formulas under which our preparations are made. Such is the competition in the trade that secrecy in this respect is a valuable asset.
“You will not for a moment think that we take this position through any distrust of your discretion or good faith, but because we feel that our duty to the stockholders of the company prohibits us from disclosing our formulas.
“Let us assure you however, that the eyewash contains only the simplest and most harmless remedies well known to the medical profession.”
John Wyeth & Brother seek the patronage of the medical profession and desire physicians to use their preparations, but “being a corporation” they “are not at liberty to disclose the various formulas” of these preparations. In other words, they expect physicians of the country to prescribe “patent medicines” of whose composition they must be ignorant and to rely wholly on the word of John Wyeth & Brother as to the innocuousness of these products.