Physician and patient

by Worthington Hooker

Take any remedy, no matter what it is, whether it be positive in its character, or entirely inert, and it can be made to acquire an extensive reputation for curing disease. Suppose that it is of a positive character. Let quite a large number of persons in a community be persuaded to take it. It would be appropriate to a few out of the whole number of cases, just as a man firing into a crowd of men at random would be apt to hit some of them. Then there are some, who, through the recovering power of nature, get well while using the medicine, perhaps even in spite of it, and falsely attribute the cure to it. The many that are not benefitted soon, give up the use of the remedy, and the fact that they have taken it is known to but few, and is soon forgotten even by them. But the few that chance to derive benefit from it, or that are cured by nature while taking it, proclaim everywhere the virtues of the remedy with the ardent gratitude of restored health, and willingly give certificates of their cure for the benefit of suffering humanity. All this helps to get the new remedy in vogue in other places; and wherever it is introduced, the same result, for the most part, is realized. The consequence is, that the remedy comes into extensive use, and continues in the popular favor, till some other remedy, by the same process, supplants it.

Even if the remedy be not of a positive character, but wholly inert, enough of the whole number that take it will get better, from the curative power of nature, and from mental influence, to give it, for a time, the reputation of curing disease. Many examples might be given. An amusing instance of the celebrity sometimes gained by inert remedies, occurred in Paris. A man who had sold to great profit an eye-water, at length died without communicating to any one the composition of it. His widow regretted the loss of the profits which came from the sale of the eye-water. Without telling her trouble to any one, she filled up the phials from the River Seine, and went on to sell the eye-water as usual. Cures occurred as before, and everybody believed that her husband had bequeathed the recipe to her. On her death-bed her conscience was much disturbed on account of the deception which she had thus practised upon the community, and she made confession to the physician who attended upon her. He, however, quieted her mind by telling her, that he was sure she need give herself no uneasiness, for her medicine had at least done no harm—a consolation which most venders of secret medicines could not have.

The variety of both active and inert remedies, which have enjoyed, in the way that I have indicated, a temporary popularity, is very great. Even calomel, which now seems to be especially despised by all empirics and their followers, has had its hey-day of popular favor. It was one of the chief remedies of Paracelsus, who has been styled the prince of quacks. And some years ago an empiric, in the staid city of Boston, acquired a great reputation for wonderful cures, by giving calomel in very large doses, even by the teaspoonful. His reputation was, of course, short-lived; for, though he seemed to make some capital hits, so glaring an abuse of a good remedy could not but be attended with bad results, occasionally of so palpable a character, as to undeceive even the credulous public.

The most prominent quack medicines are principally of three kinds.

1. Evacuants. To this class belong the almost numberless varieties of pills advertised in the newspapers. There is a great similarity in the composition of these pills, although each kind is ushered into notice with all the pretensions of an entirely new discovery. Aloes, gamboge, &c., medicines in common use, form the basis of nearly all of them. They are simply good cathartic preparations, and have none of the extraordinary virtues attributed to them. And, as those who are ailing are commonly benefitted by producing some amount of cathartic effect, these different pills actually do some good to quite a large proportion of the cases to which they are applied. The difficulty with them is, that used indiscriminately, as they so generally are, they in many cases do injury, and in some to a fatal extent.

2. The second class of quack medicines are those which are supposed to act upon the system slowly, producing a change in its general condition. The general term alterative may be properly applied to them.

The various preparations of sarsaparilla belong to this class. The same remark can be made in regard to these that was made in relation to the great variety of popular pills. They are all very much alike, although the proprietor of each claims for his preparation that it is entirely new in its combination, and that it is pre-eminently successful. A single fact, which came to the knowledge of the author, will show what kind of imposition some of these discoverers of new preparations of sarsaparilla practice upon the community. Twenty years ago, Carpenter’s Fluid Extract of Sarsaparilla had a high reputation, both with the profession and with the public. No secret was made of its composition. A student of medicine copied the formula. A few years ago he furnished an apothecary with this formula, who forthwith came out before the public with what purported to be a new preparation of sarsaparilla, which, by the usual machinery of quackery, obtained extensive popular favor, and made a fortune for the apothecary. His preparation was not a new one, but was made according to Carpenter’s formula, with some slight additions to alter the taste and the appearance of the medicine. The sale of this once famous preparation of sarsaparilla has, with that of its rivals, almost, if not wholly gone by; and others are now the candidates for fame and money with their entirely new preparations.

3. As consumption is the most common of all chronic diseases, there is a very large class of remedies which are supposed to act especially upon the lungs. Each one of these is claimed by its proprietor to be a certain cure for this formidable disease. They are generally combinations of articles which are in common use among physicians in affections of the lungs. In the indiscriminate use to which they are put by the empiric, while they benefit some cases to which they happen to be appropriate, in the great majority of instances they undoubtedly do harm; and in the forming stage of many cases, they fasten the disease irrecoverably, when a judicious and discriminating treatment might have saved the patient. These nostrums, therefore, add much to the mortality of consumption in the community.

It is well understood by any one who proclaims the discovery of a new medicine for any disease, that his day of prosperity must necessarily be short. He knows that his medicine, whatever amount of popular favor it may acquire, will soon be supplanted by some other newly-discovered preparation. He must, therefore, make the most of his time. Accordingly, as soon as he succeeds in getting his name up by certificates, advertisements, &c., he throws as large quantities as possible of his medicine into market, and has but little care for the quality of the materials of which it is made. Great quantities of sarsaparilla and other articles which have been damaged, or have become inert by age, are constantly used up in this way, furnishing a profitable outlet for the refuse, which accumulates annually in the shops of the dealers in such articles. Large amounts, too, of adulterated articles are used in the manufacture of quack remedies.

Another imposition of a kindred character deserves a passing notice. When any particular article is high in favor with the public, every empiric incorporates it into the name which he gives to his medicine, in order to ensure its popularity, though there may be little, perhaps none, of the article used in its composition. If the article command a high price, or if there be any difficulty in obtaining it in sufficient quantity, other substances can supply its place—the name is all that is essential to secure a profitable sale of the medicine. Much of the sarsaparilla which is sold, has little or none of the real Spanish sarsaparilla in it; and as the Canchalagua of California is now rising into notice, there will, undoubtedly, be much sold as the genuine article, which will be composed of substances that Californians never saw.