The article below is the first of a series written for The Journal by one who is thoroughly conversant with the work of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry and can speak authoritatively on questions dealing with the action of drugs and the treatment of diseases. We believe that these articles will prove of interest and profit and that they will help physicians to answer the questions just propounded.]
[Article I]
Bell-Ans (Pa-Pay-Ans Bell)[K]
Bell-ans, for years advertised only in medical journals under the name “Pa-pay-ans (Bell),” is now advertised in newspapers as a remedy that “Absolutely Removes Indigestion.” As it is still being advertised to physicians, we propose to analyze the claims made for it with as much care as would be exercised in the discussion of the newest discovery in medicine, because we believe that it is desirable to show the trend of exploitation of a certain type of preparation in the medical press.
In the New York Medical Journal the following advertisement recently appeared on the front cover:
Acute Indigestion
Yesterday a great soldier and today the head of a big trust succumbed to an attack of Acute Indigestion; and every day we hear from some physician of some case he has saved with BELL-ANS by giving SIX (6) tablets dissolved in a glass of hot water and repeating if necessary. Can any doctor who reads this fail to provide himself with the free supply of BELL-ANS which we gladly send for his emergency case?
