It seems then that this is another product which, for the time being at least, is to be a “patent medicine” on the other side of the Atlantic and an “ethical proprietary” on this. Doubtless the distinction will be a temporary one and as soon as American physicians have furnished the requisite number of testimonials and have recommended it to a sufficient number of their patients the advertisements will be quietly dropped from the American medical journals and the advertising pages of newspapers and magazines will be called into service.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 27, 1912.)
The So-Called Germ-Killing Throat Tablet
Formamint tablets have recently been put on the American market by the same concern that exploits Sanatogen, the “food tonic” or “tonic food”—according to whether one reads European or American newspapers. Formamint tablets are being introduced to the American public by that cheapest of all methods of advertising “patent medicines,” through the medical profession. It is not advertised in American newspapers or lay magazines—at present. For some years this product has been advertised in newspapers and other periodicals in Europe under such claims as the following:
“Formamint shields humanity against infectious disease.”
“Cures and prevents sore throat.”
“The dangers of infection from diseases like diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, tonsillitis, sore throat, mumps, etc., have now been reduced to an absolute minimum. This is due to the discovery of Wulfing’s Formamint—the ‘germ-killing throat tablet.’”
“Cleanses the mouth and throat from disease germs as easily and rapidly as dirt is removed from the skin.”
“Formamint will certainly prevent diphtheria.”
“Quickly render the whole mouth and throat thoroughly antiseptic.”
“Formamint destroys these [diphtheria] germs so rapidly that when a physician mixed a little Formamint with water and added it to the germs taken from the throat of a patient dangerously ill with diphtheria they were all killed within ten minutes.”