The Direct Sales Company, Inc., Buffalo, has, according to its letterhead, the following officers:
Geo. J. Dotterweich, President and Treasurer,
C. K. Dotterweich, Vice-President,
Louis B. Seufert, Secretary.
This concern circularizes physicians and emphasizes that it sells “Only by Mail.” It also features a “profit sharing rebate” scheme, whereby purchasers receive a coupon representing 10 per cent. of the invoice value of each purchase. After $100 worth of merchandise has been purchased the $10 worth of coupons when “presented for redemption at one time” will be “honored as cash”—presumably on the purchase of additional goods.
The Direct Sales Company catalogues have for some years, carried a guaranty, which reads, in part:
“We absolutely guarantee all preparations to be in exact accordance with the National Pure Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906.
“We also absolutely guarantee all preparations bearing our label to be equal, if not superior, to any on the market.”
In one of the Quarterly Bulletins of the State Board of Health of New Hampshire, issued last year, this paragraph appeared:
“The Direct Sales Company, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., is a pharmaceutical concern which until recently has done business direct with New Hampshire physicians. In two or three instances complaints have been received by this department that the preparations sold seemed to be lacking in potency. Some time ago a physician sent us a specimen of codein sulphate tablets, one-fourth grain, concerning which he was suspicious, admission being made that the price paid was very much less than current quotations. The amount of codein sulphate actually found per tablet proved to be but one-sixteenth grain. Later on, having subsequently received a new lot from this source, the same physician sent us a second sample, the composition of which was found to be practically identical with the first. Acting under the federal law, 500 lot packages of the following preparations were next purchased of the company direct, the analytical results indicating serious deficiency in every case, as follows:
“Tablets salicylic acid, 5 grains ... 1.72 grains found.
“Tablets acetylsalicylic acid, 5 grains ... 2.31 grains found.
“Tablets acetanilid, 3 grains ... 1.88 grains found.
“Tablets codein sulphate, 1⁄4 grain ... 1⁄15 grain found.
“Tablets nux and pepsin No. 2, claiming pepsin 1 grain, extract nux vomica, 1⁄10 grain, found to have a gross average weight per tablet of only 1.17 grains, 0.54 grains of which was represented by sugar and other medicinally inert material.
“Tablets Infant’s Anodyne (Waugh) showed serious discrepancy from formula.”