“... we have a drug in Chionia that will stimulate the circulation of the blood and lymphatics of the liver as well as stimulate its physiological activities and instead of the patient vomiting the blood an internal depletion of the liver occurs.”
“... in cases of simple jaundice due to circulatory (congestive) changes in the liver, Chionia is the drug ‘par excellence’ that will rapidly cause a disappearance of this symptom.”
As a prophylactic against eclampsia, if a history of torpidity of the liver is obtained:
“CHIONIA should be used during the major portion of child-bearing period because it acts directly on the liver stimulating its functional activity.”
Chionanthus virginica has never been shown to have the slightest pharmacologic activity and no evidence is presented that its offspring, Chionia, has any therapeutic value whatever in any disturbance of the liver. The promoters themselves indicate a lack of faith in their own preparation, for they advise the use of old and efficient forms of treatment along with Chionia—heart tonics and laxatives in passive congestion of the liver, mercurial purge or podophyllin and sodium phosphate in “biliousness,” and quinin in malaria. Finally, with delightful English and elaborate insouciance, they advise in the treatment of eclampsia:
“In all cases the uterus should be emptied as quick as possible. (Version of Cæsarian Section.)”
The physician who prescribes Chionia promotes a fraud.
The Council held Chionia ineligible for admission to N. N. R.
[Editorial Comment: In Peacock’s Bromides and Chionia the Peacock Chemical Company has, for a third of a century, been foisting on the medical profession nostrums composed of drugs that are easily combined in any proportion that the physician may want to prescribe. The company has been inflicting on the unthinking physician pseudo-scientific rubbish in the form of advertising literature that should long ago have been regarded as an insult to the intelligence of the medical profession. The following medical journals are carrying advertisements of Peacock’s Bromides and Chionia: