Claiming Exhilaration.—These medicines, by their insidious character, constitute a particularly dangerous variety. They depend, for their effect, upon the amount of alcohol that they contain. Many conscientious temperance workers have not only unsuspectingly taken them, but have actually indorsed them. Recently the published analyses of several State Boards of Health and the investigations made by Samuel Hopkins Adams, and published in his series on "The Great American Fraud" have shown that a majority of the "tonics," "vitalizers," and "reconstructors" depend for their exhilarating effect upon the fact that they contain from seventeen to fifty per cent of alcohol; while beer contains only five per cent, claret eight per cent, and champagne nine per cent. Pure whisky contains only fifty per cent of alcohol, yet few people would drink "three wineglassfuls in forty-five minutes"[14] as a medicine pure and simple. The United States Government has prohibited the sale of one of these medicines to the Indians, simply on account of the fact that as an intoxicant it was found too tempting and effective.[15]
If one must have a stimulant it is better to be assured of its purity. These medicines are not only costly, but contain cheap, and often adulterated, spirits.
Their worst feature is that they often induce the alcoholic habit in otherwise upright people. Commencing with a small dose, the amount is gradually increased until the user becomes a slave to drink. Could the true history of these widely used medicines be written, it would undoubtedly show that many drunkards were started on their downward career by medicinal doses of these "tonics" and "bracers."
Claiming Pain-relieving or Soothing Qualities.—The properties of this class of remedies depend generally upon the presence of cocaine, opium, or some equally subtle and allied substance. It should be needless to state that such powerful drugs should be taken only upon a physician's prescription. Habit-forming and insidious in character, they are an actual menace. When present in cough syrups, they give by their soothing qualities a false sense of security, and when present in "soothing syrups" or "colic cures" for babies, they may be given with fatal result. Never take a medicine containing these drugs without a full understanding of their dangerous character, and a realization of the possible consequences.
Testimonials.—These may mean anything or nothing; generally the latter. They are usually genuine, but, as Mr. Adams observes, "they represent, not the average evidence, but the most glowing opinions which the nostrum-vender can obtain, and generally they are the expression of a low order of intelligence."[16] It is a sad commentary on many men and women, prominent in public life, that they lend their names and the weight of their "testimony" to further the ends of such questionable ventures. Political and newspaper interests are responsible for the collection of this class of testimonials. An investigation of some men, who permitted the use of their names for this purpose, revealed that many of them had never tasted the compound, but that they were willing to sign the testimonials for the joy of appearing in print as "prominent citizens."[17] "Prominent ministers" and "distinguished temperance workers" are often cited as bearing testimony to the virtues of some patent medicine. It has been shown that, while the testimonials were real, the people who signed them had little right of credence, and were possessed of characters and attributes which would show their opinions to be of little value. Money and energy can be productive of any number of testimonials for any remedy. While some of them may be authentic, yet the fact that a medicine "cured" any one of the signers is no evidence that it will cure or even help anyone else. Many people recover from diseases with no medicine at all, and isolated "cures" can never be taken as a criterion of the value of any remedy or method.
Offering "Money Back Unless Cured."—Careful reading of this clause in most advertising literature will show that there is "a string attached." The manufacturers are usually safe in making this proposition. In the first place, the average person will not put the matter to a test. The second reason why this is a safe proposition for the maker is, that if the medicine does not cure, the patient may die, and dead men are hardly possible claimants.
Claiming to Cure Diseases Incurable by Medicine Alone.—Probably no class of people are greater users of patent medicines than those unfortunates afflicted with the so-called incurable diseases. The very fact of the serious nature of their complaint, and the dread of surgical intervention, makes them easy victims to the allurement of "sure cures."
The committee on the prevention of tuberculosis of the Charity Organization Society of New York City has announced in decided terms that there is no specific medication for consumption. Cancer, likewise, cannot be cured by the use of internal medicine alone. Surgery holds out the greatest hope in this dread disease. The medicines claiming to cure these diseases are, therefore, of the most fraudulent nature. Their use is positively harmful, for in taking them priceless time is lost.
Never temporize if there is any suspicion of the existence of such diseases as consumption or cancer. Self-treatment with patent medicines in such cases is worse than useless—it is actually dangerous to life itself. Consult a physician at the earliest possible moment, and put no faith in patent medicines.
There are, however, as has been pointed out, certain patent and proprietary medicines which may properly be employed by the physician. These include the newly discovered, manufactured chemicals of known composition and action; and single substances or combinations of known drugs in known proportions, which can only be made to best advantage by those having the adequate facilities. The habit of prescribing proprietary mixtures of several substances for special diseases is, however, generally a matter of laziness, carelessness, or ignorance on the doctor's part. This follows because no disease is alike in any two patients; because any one disease has many phases and stages; and because a doctor should always treat the patient and not the disease. Thus a doctor, after carefully questioning and examining the patient, should adjust the remedy to the peculiarities of the patient and disease. It is impossible to make a given combination of drugs fit all patients with the same disease.