In spite of these facts the hypophosphites continue to be employed by many practitioners. Why? Because the theory, being plausible at the time when such chemical theories were popular, gained a certain recognition and was accepted without scientific investigation. Thus the hypophosphites came into use. It was not long before they were taken up by certain manufacturers, and the theory on which their use was based became a commercial asset. As a result the theory, which uncommercialized would have died of inanition, was kept alive by continued advertisement.
The manufacturer of proprietaries having settled on a plausible theory on which to sell his products has no further need for science. Thus, while these theories are no longer to be found in accredited text-books, they are still preached by the proprietary interests. An elaborate pamphlet on “Iodine and Phosphorus,” containing statements which are known to be false, is one firm’s text-book supplied to physicians to-day, and contains long quotations from Dr. Churchill’s writings of sixty years ago. This book contains no intimation that these theories have been overthrown. It is poor economy to waste money in changing literature when the old theories and the old plausible reasoning will sell goods just as well. Consequently the old errors are drummed into those physicians who are willing to read their physiology from the neat monographs of proprietary literature and to sit at the feet of glib salesmen who expound to them the proprietary theory of therapeutics.—(From The Journal A. M. A., April 25, 1914.)
BUFFALO LITHIA WATER
Contains One-Fifth as Much Lithium as Potomac River Water
Some years ago, Alexander Haig evolved the theory that most diseases are due to uric acid. The data on which he founded his theory were not corroborated by scientific men, and investigation showed that his methods were unreliable. In spite of the fact that Haig’s theories are utterly discredited, and have been for years, the uric acid fallacy still persists, although it is now largely confined to the public. Shrewd business men, especially those who are more intent on making money than they are concerned with the manner in which that money is made, owe much to Haig’s theory. As a business proposition, uric acid has been one of the best-paying fallacies on the market—and possibly still is. It is only necessary to refer to The Journal’s recent article[155] on the Turnock mail-order medical fraud to emphasize this fact.
Showing how “Buffalo Lithia Water” in the course of time became “Buffalo Lithia Springs Water.” The government has shown that, to obtain a therapeutic dose of lithium from Buffalo Lithia Springs Water, it would be necessary to drink 200,000 gallons of the water. The government also declared that Potomac River water contained five times as much lithium as does Buffalo Lithia Springs Water.
Contemporary with, and to a certain extent a corollary of, the uric acid fallacy was another, viz., that lithium would eliminate uric acid. This at once gave a good working principle for the proprietary men. Uric acid, we were told, causes disease; lithium, we were also told, would eliminate uric acid; therefore, lithium is the new elixir of life! Could anything be simpler?
Accepting this theory, it was inevitable that mineral waters containing lithium salts should become highly popular. Many exploiters of mineral waters began to place most emphasis on the lithium salts in their waters even in those cases in which lithium was present in such infinitesimal amounts as to render its detection impossible by any but spectroscopic methods.