That a nostrum of this sort should go to the public is not surprising, but that it should have reached the public through the instrumentality of the medical profession is a serious reflection on the judgment of physicians. But the incident has a bright side. That the exploiters of this nostrum no longer find it profitable to use medical journals as a means of getting their stuff to the public but must needs use the more expensive newspaper advertising, is cause for optimism. It means that physicians are no longer prescribing, indiscriminately, proprietary products and that they are refusing to be, what they have been in the past, the unpaid distributing agents for nostrum venders.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Aug. 24, 1912.)
VAPO-CRESOLENE
Vapo-Cresolene has been examined in the American Medical Association’s laboratory and the chemists’ report follows:
According to the statements on the trade package, Vapo-Cresolene “is a product of coal-tar possessing far greater power than carbolic acid in destroying germs of disease.” It is recommended as a remedy for a number of diseases, including croup, catarrh and diphtheria. According to the manufacturers, it should be used only in “the Cresolene vaporizer,” which makes it “unequaled for the disinfection of sick rooms” and the “safest and simplest method of destroying infection and purifying the air.” From the examination we conclude that Vapo-Cresolene is essentially cresol and corresponds in every respect to cresol U. S. P. (Physician’s Manual, page 36).
This report indicates that Vapo-Cresolene is a member of that class of proprietaries in which an ordinary product is endowed, by the manufacturer, with extraordinary virtues. The type is so common and has been referred to so frequently that but for the dangers attendant on the inhalation of any of the phenols, this particular product need not have been mentioned.—(From The Journal A. M. A., April 4, 1908.)