“... it is now granted by all syphilologists that the antiluetic action of these drugs is immeasurably augmented by properly combining them, and that the best results are obtained when they are conjunctively administered throughout the entire course of the disease.”
Arguing along the same lines, this circular continues:
“... it was not until mercury and iodine in the form of Pil. Mixed Treatment (Chichester) was evolved that the marked advantages of the combined employment of these drugs in the various stages of syphilis became a scientific certainty.”
Further we are asked to believe that:
“Because of the greatly increased potency of mercury and iodine when combined, as in Pil. Mixed Treatment (Chichester), the foremost syphilologists are now agreed that the employment of these drugs in such form should be enjoined as soon as the disease develops, and should be thus continued until a cure has been effected; in other words, Pil. Mixed Treatment (Chichester) should be made the sole antisyphilitic medication throughout all stages of the disease.”
The circular illustrates the extent to which our knowledge of drugs may be distorted and misrepresented and the public health jeopardized in the exploitation of a proprietary medicine.
One reason scientific medicine lags. Uncritical medical journals perpetuate—for a price—the use of nostrums.