Disregarding the question whether or not this is a stock jobbing scheme or whether the purchase of the stock is a good investment, there is another side to the matter. It must be evident that the public is not getting a square deal when physicians are financially interested in the products they prescribe for, or recommend to, the sick. Whatever the value of the Thompson products, the method of exploitation and the attempts on the part of the company to get physicians financially interested in its ventures, are to be deprecated. If laymen of a speculative turn of mind wish to invest in the stock of companies putting out “bottled energy,” “blood builders” and “nerve repairers” that is their business, but it is certainly neither conducive to the scientific practice of medicine nor to the interest of the public for physicians to be financially interested in products of this sort.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 24, 1914.)
MANOLA
Physicians as Unpaid Pedlers of Nostrums
One of the most disheartening features of the fight against the proprietary evil within the profession is the slowness with which physicians awake to their responsibilities in the matter. It is a notorious fact, familiar to physicians against advertising men alike, that the simplest and cheapest way to introduce a nostrum to the public is through the instrumentality of the medical profession. Ever since the birth of the proprietary evil in this country, shrewd manufacturers have persuaded doctors to act as unpaid pedlers for their wretched nostrums and to become particeps criminis in the exploitation of such wares.
Manola is an alcoholic nostrum with just enough more or less inert medicinal products added to exempt it from the internal revenue tax, but not enough to prevent its being used as a tipple by those who object to taking their “toddy” in a simpler form. It is prepared by the Luyties Pharmacy Company of St. Louis, a homeopathic concern whose hahnemannian leanings are not so strong but that it is willing to cater to the various sectarian schools of medicine as well as to the regular profession. Since the promoters realize, doubtless, that to put this stuff out under a homeopathic label might not be conducive to stimulating physicians’ confidence, Manola is labeled: “Prepared only by the Manola Company, St. Louis.” In other words, it is the old dodge of forming subsidiary companies for the purpose of hiding the identity of the real owners. In this connection, it is worth reminding our readers, incidentally, that the Walker Pharmacal Company, St. Louis, is another subsidiary concern of the Luyties Pharmacy Company, created for the purpose of pushing another nostrum—Hymosa.
Manola is seldom advertised in medical journals. Instead the Luyties Pharmacy Company has discovered a more effective method of “putting one over” on physicians and druggists. The method which has been pursued for years and which, under the same title and subtitle that head this article, was exposed in The Journal as long ago as May 6, 1905, consists in sending to physicians a letter containing three postcards—unstamped, of course. With the postcard there is a slip that reads:
INSTRUCTION FOR OBTAINING
3 BOTTLES OF MANOLA FREE
Dear Doctor: Fill out the attached cards Nos. 1 and 2. Mail No. 1 to us and hand Nos. 2 and 3 to your druggist. Impress upon him the necessity of mailing postal card No. 3 direct to us, and not to his jobber.