This compound "speedily cures all derangements and irregularities of the menstrual function, congestion, inflammation, ulceration and displacement of the womb, and other things too numerous to mention." It is claimed that it is made of the purest and most carefully selected herbs which can be obtained. If, however, one picked up two handfuls of dried leaves in the woods and put them in a package, the average man could not distinguish between such rakings and "Dr. D——'s —— Compound" at $1.00 a package.
The Journal of the American Medical Association in commenting on this fake, states:
—— Compound is, in short, but one more of the innumerable cure-alls on the market in which discarded, unrecognized or useless drugs are pressed into service and invested with miraculous virtues. What shall be said of men who prey on pregnant women? Who create in the mind of the expectant mother the fear of untold agonies and then offer immunity to these supposititious tortures at the price of their worthless nostrums? Who, with the help of such publications as will accept their lying advertisements, do more to encourage abortion than even the professional abortionists themselves? There seems to be but one remedy: Speed the time when in their acceptance of advertising those publishers who fail to recognize decency as a moral obligation may be forced by public opinion to recognize its value as a business proposition.
The C. B. M. Remedy Company: In a small town in Indiana there is a "lady" who has been spending a fortune in giving medical treatment absolutely free to suffering women. The letters, literature, and advertisements by implication lead one to suppose that a woman is in charge of the business of this concern. The advertisements have a picture of a lady giving away packages of medicine. The business was conducted by one F. D. M. The name of his wife was simply used as an advertising asset; the idea, of course, being that a woman would be more willing to write to a business concern telling of her private illnesses if she understood that she was confiding in a woman than she would if under the impression that her letter would be read by a man. This is an old scheme which was employed by others for many years with great success.
M. himself is not a physician and is in no way qualified to give advice to these women who write in response to the advertisements detailing their symptoms and telling of their troubles. Investigation showed that the medicine was compounded by the clerks and stenographers in the employ of the company, and that all communications were answered by form letters. It did not matter what ailed the patient, the treatment was the same.
The claims made by this concern for their remedy, and they had only one, were along the usual line—everything they could think about which has a remote connection with the specialty in which they were interested—leucorrhea, ulceration, displacement or falling of the womb, profuse, scanty or painful periods, uterine or ovarian tumors or growths, and piles from any cause, no matter of how long standing; also pains in the back head and bowels, bearing down feelings, nervousness, creeping feeling up the spine, melancholy, desire to cry, hot flushes, weariness, uterine cancers in their earlier stages.
Analysis of the remedy showed it to be a combination of two weak, commonly used drugs, one a very mild antiseptic and the other a mild astringent. These were held together with cocoa butter into which a drop of carbolic acid may have been put. There is nothing unusual in the combination, nor has it any wonderful qualities which would justify the claims made in behalf of it. The remedy contains nothing which could under any circumstances effect the removal of cancers, fibroid growths, or polypi, or which is capable of radically relieving laceration of the womb due to child-birth.
The following is one of the specious appeals which this meretricious concern sent to the ailing women of America:
Mrs. M. receives more mail than any other woman in the state.