Not that the Danderine case is the first one in which Parke, Davis & Co. have been exposed as manufacturers of nostrum supplies. “Vitaopathy” a method of “treatment” practiced by the notorious New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons in the person of “Prof.” Adkin and apparently consisting of “absent treatment” and pills, was finally put out of business by a fraud-order from the post office department. The concern used to advertise:
“In Professor Adkin’s laboratory, his chemists are daily engaged in extracting the life-and-health-giving principle from rare vegetables, fruits and plants.”
“Prof.” Adkin had no laboratory; his chemists, according to the government report, were Parke, Davis & Co., from whom he purchased the tablets which formed part of his stock-in-trade of quackery.
The Nutriola Company of Chicago was declared fraudulent by the postal authorities and a full account of the methods of this fake medical concern appeared in The Journal, April 28, 1906. Nutriola was advertised as:
“The greatest Chemical-Medical Preparation ever prepared by the skill of man.”
“Nutriola and Nature are the only invincible conquerors of diseases ever known.”
The promoter of this scheme was one Edward F. Hanson, who was questioned by the government inspectors regarding the manufacture of the Nutriola nostrum. Quoting from the government report:
“Q. Please name the chemists who now manufacture the remedies of the Nutriola Company.”
“A. Parke, Davis & Company, Detroit; E. L. Patch Manufacturing Company, Stoneham, Mass.; Seabury & Johnson, New York.”
Not that the course pursued by Parke, Davis & Co. is by any means an exceptional one in the pharmaceutical world. It may be recalled that The Journal has previously referred to the fact that Sharp & Dohme are reported to make or to have made the “Getwell Tablets” for the “patent medicine” concern which exploits the nostrum; and that Frederick Stearns & Co. make or did make the widely advertised “cures” Shac and Zymole Trokeys also has been mentioned. That Seabury & Johnson made preparations for a fake medicine concern was brought to light by Mr. Adams in the “Great American Fraud” series. And unquestionably there are many others. The attitude taken by such houses seems to be that they are willing to furnish anything in the pharmaceutical line that anyone is willing to pay for, whether it is for legitimate use of the physician or pharmacist or for furthering the business by which the ignorant or gullible sick are humbugged and defrauded.—(From The Journal A. M. A., July 2, 1910.)