If we accept the statement that the preparations are largely vegetable proteins, it is a fair inference that, under certain conditions, they may cause a febrile reaction of the same general nature as that caused by other foreign proteins when injected into the body. We know that such reactions are not without danger and that the treatment of certain infections by induced reactions to foreign proteins is strictly an experimental procedure to be undertaken only under very special conditions. There is, therefore, no known valid reason why a physician should assume the responsibility for using these alleged remedies in the treatment of his patients; there is a very obvious reason why he should not—the therapeutic instructions of “the House of Merrell, always interested in the progress of plant therapy” to the contrary notwithstanding. It is the old story of exploiting physicians through commercial pseudoscience; of trading on the credulity of the profession to the detriment of the public. As Osler[254] recently protested so vigorously:
Some time ago a pamphlet came from X and Company, characterized by brazen therapeutic impudence, and indicating a supreme indifference to anything that could be called intelligence on the part of the recipients. That these firms [manufacturing pharmacists] have the audacity to issue such trash indicates the state of thraldom in which they regard us. And I would protest against the usurpation on the part of these men of our function as teachers. Why, for example, should Y and Company write as if they were directors of large genito-urinary clinics instead of manufacturing pharmacists? It is none of their business what is the best treatment for gonorrhea—by what possibility could they ever know it, and why should their literature pretend to the combined wisdom of Neisser and Guyon? What right have Z and Company to send on a card directions for the treatment of anemia and dyspepsia, about which subjects they know as much as an unborn babe, and, if they stick to their legitimate business, about the same opportunity of getting information? For years the profession has been exploited in this way, until the evil has become unbearable, and we need as active a crusade against the pseudoscience in the profession as has been waged of late against the use of quack medicines by the public. We have been altogether too submissive, and have gradually allowed those who should be our willing helpers to dictate terms and to play the rôle of masters. Far too large a section of the treatment of disease is today controlled by the big manufacturing pharmacists, who have enslaved us in a plausible pseudoscience.
What shall the profession do to protect itself against this humiliation—to throw off the credulity that extols pseudoscience and makes commercialized empiricism financially profitable? Osler says the remedy is obvious: “Give our students a firsthand acquaintance with disease, and give them a thorough practical knowledge of the great drugs, and we will send out independent, clear-headed, cautious practitioners who will do their own thinking and be no longer at the mercy of the meretricious literature, which has sapped our independence.” Excellent! But must humanity wait a generation? Why not stop this evil at once? The American Medical Association has provided the means whereby this can be done, if physicians will only make use of it—the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry.—(Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., July 12, 1919.)
An Alleged Endorsement of Proteogens Repudiated
To the Editor:—I note in the issue of The Journal for July 12, a statement regarding the so-called “Proteogens” manufactured by the Wm. S. Merrell Company of Cincinnati.
My attention has been called to the fact that salesmen of this company have been exhibiting a letter purporting to show that this department has endorsed their products in the treatment of venereal diseases. The letter in question was written by a physician employed in one of the clinics conducted jointly by this department and the U. S. Public Health Service, and the stationery of the department was used without authority. The physician in question has made numerous efforts to recall the letter, but the Merrell people profess an inability to control its use.
I need not add that this department has not endorsed and will not endorse these products, and has no evidence that they are of any value whatsoever.
Allen W. Freeman, M.D., Commissioner of Health,
State of Ohio, State Department of Health.
—(Correspondence in The Journal A. M. A., July 26, 1919.)