The quantity of patent medicine sold in the United States is enormous. A series of articles by Samuel Hopkins Adams appeared in Collier's Weekly during 1905 and 1906, in which he not only showed the fraudulent character of many of the best-known patent medicines, giving their names and most minute details concerning them, but furnished much reliable information in an interesting and convincing manner. In the course of these articles he pointed out that about one hundred millions of dollars are paid annually for patent medicines in the United States. As explaining this, in part, he affirmed that as many as five companies each expended over one million dollars annually in advertising patent medicines.
What Are the Good Ones Good For?—In any great movement, when a dormant public suddenly awakens to the fact that a fraud has been perpetrated or a wrong committed, the instinctive and overwhelming desire is for far-reaching reform. In efforts to obtain needed and radical improvement, and with the impetus of a sense of wrong dealing, the pendulum of public opinion is apt to swing too far in an opposite direction. There are bad patent medicines—the proof of their fraudulent character is clear and overwhelming; but there are good ones whose merits have been obscured by the cloud of wholesale and popular condemnation. It is true that the manufacturers of even some of the valuable ones have an absurd habit of claiming the impossible. This attitude is to be regretted, for the makers have thus often caused us to lose faith in the really helpful uses to which their products might be put.
However, it is well in condemning the bad not to overlook the good. The mere fact that a medicine is patented, or that it is a so-called proprietary remedy, does not mean that it is valueless or actually harmful. The safety line is knowledge of the medicine's real nature, its uses and its dangers; the rules given above should be rigorously followed.
It is far easier to give general indications for the guidance of those wishing to shun unworthy patent medicines than to enable the reader to recognize the worthy article. It is safe to assume, however, that there are certain simple remedies, particularly those for external application, which have a definite use and are dependable. In justice it must be said that great improvement has taken place, and is now taking place in the ethical character of patent medicines, owing to recent agitation, and what is true concerning them to-day may not be true to-morrow.
The only proper, ethical patent medicine is the one showing its exact composition, and refraining from promise of a cure in any disease. Such a one might, nevertheless, advertise its purity, reliability, advantageous mode of manufacture, and the excellence of its ingredients with more modest and truthful claims as to its use.
The purchaser of a patent medicine pays not only for the ingredients, the cost of combining them, and the maker's just profit, but he also pays the exploiter's bills for advertising and distributing the finished product. With such standard remedies as those mentioned above, this added cost is usually a good investment for the purchaser, because trade-marked remedies which have "made good" possess two advantages over those less advertised, and over their prototypes in crude form: procurability and integrity.
Even at remote cross-roads stores, it is possible to obtain a popular remedy, one which has been well pushed commercially. And an article sold in packages sealed by the makers gets to the consumer just as pure as when it left the laboratory. This is not always true of ingredients held in bulk by the retailer; witness the evidence brought forward in recent prosecutions for drug adulteration.
It is not the purpose of this chapter, in any sense, to advertise or place the seal of its unrestricted approval upon any one article of a class. Its position in the matter is absolutely impartial. But in order that it may be as helpful as possible, it definitely mentions the most widely known, and therefore the most easily obtainable, remedies. There are other equally good remedies in each case, but as it would be almost impossible to mention each individual remedy with similar virtues now on the market, the ones discussed must be taken as representative of their class in each instance.
Do not forget that the use of these simple remedies does not justify their abuse. They may make great claims while their use is really limited. Do not rely upon them to do the impossible.
Vaseline.—This is pure and refined petroleum, and will be found of much service in many forms of skin irritation. It is useful in the prevention of "chapping," for softening rough skin, for preventing and healing bleeding and cracked lips, as a protective dressing in burns, cuts, or any acute inflammation of the skin where the cuticle has been injured or destroyed, or where it is desirable that a wound should be protected and kept closed from the air. Rubbed over the surface of the body when a patient is desquamating or "peeling" after scarlet fever or measles, it keeps the skin smooth, soothes the itching, and prevents the scales from being carried about in the air and so infecting others. Vaseline is a soothing, nonirritating, and bland protective ointment for external use. It is perfectly harmless, but should not be used for severe skin disease or for internal use, unless recommended by a physician in conjunction with other means of healing.