In a recent booklet this semisecret salicylate mixture is recommended, not only in conditions in which salicylates are indicated, but also combined with aconite for rheumatic fever, with benzoate of soda in the treatment of “grippe,” with potassium bromid in nervous headaches, with gelsemium, glycerin and whisky for “heavy colds,” with ammonium chlorid, stramonium and cimicifuga in “rheumatic dysmenorrhea,” and even with mercury biniodid as a treatment of syphilitic eruptions!
“When administered with good judgment, Tongaline exerts a stimulating effect upon every organ of elimination; cleansing the complex sewerage system and putting it into working order. When this is done, the sluggish blood current begins to flow more freely; the lymphatic and glandular systems to give up and carry off the toxic products, so long retained ...”
TONGALINE TABLETS
Then because of a “desire to put Tongaline in a more compact and convenient form,” the same concern puts on the market Tongaline Tablets. Whether Tongaline Tablets are of the same composition, the doctor who prescribes them is not advised. In this form we have Tongaline and Lithia Tablets, and Tongaline and Quinin Tablets. Presumably those who are attracted by the word “lithia” are sufficiently uncritical to be content with the statement that:
“The addition of Lithia to Tongaline presents a most useful combination which does not rely upon its action on the kidneys alone as is the case with Lithia salts or Lithia waters as administered ...”
And the foregoing quotation, be it remembered, is for the information of the medical profession! Tongaline and Lithia Tablets, we are informed, are:
“... particularly indicated for certain diseases which are caused by deposits of urates in the joints and kidneys, and can be used with much benefit for many people who indulge in generous or intemperate habits of living.”
Tongaline and Quinine Tablets are also exploited without statement of composition. The promoters are probably justified in feeling that physicians who prescribe quinin in combination with “Tongaline” care little about the dosage.
It is unnecessary to discuss the silly claims made for Tongaline and its combinations, although it is worth while to point out that the prescribing of such nostrums by physicians is an imposition, if not a fraud, on the public.