Anemia in a girl of 23 working in a bookbindery:

“I promptly decided to use Sanatogen. In addition, I was able to secure the girl’s absence from work so that she had the advantage of outdoor life and sunshine. Improvement was rapid.... Both a priori and from results obtained it seems almost justifiable to speak of Sanatogen as a specific in ordinary uncomplicated anemia.”

Note that in all these cases two or more remedial factors were introduced, yet any favorable result is promptly ascribed to only one factor, Sanatogen! And the factor of spontaneous improvement irrespective of all remedial measures is also ignored.

A “SCIENTIFIC” TESTIMONIAL

Every physician knows that the kind of evidence just quoted has the same scientific value as that of the average “patent medicine” testimonial—​none whatever. The exploiters of Sanatogen put forward some testimony, however, that purports to have a certain authority. This is a statement to the effect that “Sanatogen acts as a strong stimulus as far as the recuperative powers of the blood are concerned.”

This claim is based on biologic experiments carried out by two physicians, Drs. G. Mann and J. G. Gage, the record of whose work was published in the Lancet, Oct. 19, 1912. The article of Mann and Gage was gone over with some care and the experiments there described did not seem to justify the conclusions reached by the authors. As it had been published in the Lancet, a medical journal of standing, whose publishers apparently thought it of sufficient importance to warrant the expense of a colored plate insert, it seemed worth while to have the work of Mann and Gage reviewed and its conclusions checked by parallel experiments. A. J. Carlson, professor of physiology at the University of Chicago, was asked to do this work and kindly undertook it. His report follows:

Report of Professor Carlson

I am asked to review the work done by Drs. G. Mann and J. G. Gage, from which they draw the following conclusions:

“Sanatogen [sodium caseinogenate glycero­phos­phates] further stimulates blood cells to undergo nuclear division, which during the early period is mostly amitotic.... Therefore, it is evident that Sanatogen acts as a strong stimulus as far as the recuperative powers of the blood are concerned.”