The Bauer Chemical Co.
By F. W. Hehmeyer, Resident Manager.
[Comment: We devote considerable space to the above free advertisement of Sanatogen, as The Journal does not want to be accused of being unfair, even to patent medicine venders. As our readers will recognize, the above is simply a reiteration of the statements that have been published in the advertisements of Sanatogen. The song that runs through all the advertising matter is that Sanatogen is a chemical compound, and since it is a chemical compound it therefore possesses properties not to be found in the ordinary mixture. It is the old, old story; the “synthetic” argument is as hoary as the nostrum business itself but fortunately the medical profession is no longer easily fooled by it.
As a matter of fact, even assuming for the sake of argument that the casein and glycerophosphate in Sanatogen are in chemical combination, it would be a union of the loosest kind, which on entering the digestive tract must be broken up into its more stable components, casein and glycerophosphate. To claim that Sanatogen possesses any properties not possessed by its essential constituents is a silly piece of pseudo-scientific claptrap.
Of the testimonials on Sanatogen we shall at this time have nothing to say; The Journal has in the past repeatedly shown the worthlessness of this kind of evidence.
We have nothing to retract, rather we would emphasize and, had we space, enlarge on what we have already published, for we believe that a large and unfortunate portion of the public, that can ill afford it, is paying a ruinously high price for a substance having a very mediocre food value. That indigent consumptives, for instance, should be led by glittering falsehoods to squander on Sanatogen money that should go for “food tonics” of infinitely greater value, such as eggs, milk, vegetables and meats, is not only economic waste but inhuman cruelty.—Ed.]—(From The Journal A. M. A., May 18, 1912.)
The Sanatogen “Grand Prix”
A number of letters have been received recently expressing surprise that Sanatogen had been granted a “grand prix” at the Exhibition of Medical and Surgical Material held in London at the same time that the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine was in session. The correspondents have asked what such an “honor” meant. The company which exploits Sanatogen in the United States has not been slow to apprise the American public of the award. It has gone further and has written the advertising managers of magazines—including those that had refused Sanatogen advertisements—directing their attention to the fact that Sanatogen was awarded a “grand prize” and opining that “this unusual distinction” should make plain “the desirability of the presence of Sanatogen in the advertising columns of your esteemed publication.”
Those familiar with the methods of awarding prizes, medals and certificates to commercial firms and their products at expositions and exhibitions attach little weight to the “honors” thus conferred. It is a fact that most purchasers of large—and expensive—exhibit space at such exhibitions receive some kind of award which, it is tacitly understood, will be a useful advertising asset. Every one can call to mind many food products of mediocre quality that have flaunted on their labels the gold medals received at various expositions.
Nevertheless, it seemed worth while to find out just what the connection was between the commercial exhibition at which Sanatogen received the grand prize and the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine. The following facts were developed: The commercial exhibition was entirely distinct and separate from the scientific exhibit of the Congress. It was managed and conducted by a British drug journal which had been giving annual “exhibitions” of its own for some years past, and this took the place of its regular exhibition. Immediately after the awards were made public the advertising pages of this drug journal were filled with full-page advertisements of the various products that received prizes. It may interest our readers to know that while the cottage-cheese-glycerophosphate product Sanatogen received a “grand prize” two other proprietary cottage-cheese-glycerophosphate products received “gold medals” at the same time. In the pharmaceutical department of the exhibit a widely—and fraudulently—advertised “patent medicine” received a silver medal! From the facts given it should not be difficult to appraise at its right value the “honor” conferred on Sanatogen. The fact that the exploiters of this preparation are trying to make capital out of this “award” is significant.
