Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-09-10
Receipts for Making DIR. Sage's Ca
tarrh Remedy and DIR. Pierce's
Golden Medical Discovery


Something over a year since, a periodical
issued in Berlin, Prussia, and laying claims
10 a scientific character, published what was
represented as being the formule or receipts
for making DR.. Sage'S Catarrh Remedy and
Dr.. PierceS Golden Medical Discovery. The
people We're left to infer that these had been
deducted from a careful chemical analysis OF
the medicines, which are rapidly growing in
popular favor in that as well as in this and
most other civilized countries. The receipts
We're evidently invented by those jealous OF
the reputation and large sale which these
medicines are rapidly acquiring and who are
pecuuiarily interested in endeayOring to check
their sale. So TidiculOusly prepOsterous are
those receipts that medicines compounded
after them could never have gained any repu-
tation orr sale in any country, for they would be
50 cauStic, poisonous, Immediately and posi-
lively injurious, as in every case to be
| promptly condemned by the people on
the first trial as miserable, dangerous
and wicked humbugs. Whereas, it is
well-known fact that all my med
icineS enjoy the reputation, honestly earned,
Of being not only effcacious, but perfectly
mild, pleasant and harmless in effects. Not
! withstanding, however, that the bogus receipts
| We're so ridiculOusly prepOsterous as scarcely
TO have been believed by the most unscientlnc,
! thOu@htleSs and unSuSpecting people, yet,
! strange and incredible as it may seem, paper
! Of high scientific pretensiOnS, published in this
country, COPIED lIlG HCIllOuS IcCGIDlS lEOl lllC
| German paper This they evidently did with
out moments reflection, for that much con
| sideratOn given by an intelligent mind to
! the receipts and the properties and effects OF
! the mixtures that would result from such a
| compromising of welI-knOWn caustic and pOis-
| OnOuS chemicals and drugs would have con-
| demned them as bogus fabricatiOns, and the
| pretentiOus publishers of the paper that orig
| inally inserted them as either knaveS or fools.
| On nv attention being called to the matter, in
| order that some thOughtless and Oyer-credu-
| lOus people mightnO be deceived and misled
| by seeing such an announcement in a paper
| having claims to scientific character, as well
| as to clear myself of the imputatiOn of being
| guilty of perpetrating wicked fraud upon The
| people as such announcement uncOntradict-
ed, would imply, /, as proprietor and manu-
facturer of the aforesaid celebrated medi-
| cines, went before magistrate and made
| oath to the fact that the said receipts were
utterly false. My affidavit was sent to the
publishers of the paper into which the
| bogus receipts had been copied, and in a
| subsequent issue an editorial notice was given
of my denial. But, Notwithstanding such
| correction and denial, made under oath, certain
| individuals, who lounge around and infest our
large cities, gaining livelihood by perpetrat-
ing all kinds Of catch-penny frauds upon the
! credulous, were thereby given the hint that,
as my medicines were universally popular, by
advertising for sale bogus receipts for making
them they could get lots of ignorant people
to bite at their bait One Frank NJ. Reed, of
l39 Eighth street, New York, who publishes
Love and Courtship Cards." a " Fortune
| Teller and Dream Book" 1.-THE Mysteries of
| Love Making" How to Woo and How to
Win" and various other swindles sends his
dupes the following in exchange for their
| stamps. It is copied from the papers alluded
to and is as follows: For DR.. Sage's Ca
tarrh Remedy, take eight grains Carbolic
| Acid, seven grains of CamphOr and two and a
half grains of common Salt, the whole to be
cOlored with a little Prussian blue" This
makes powerful caustic mixture as unlike
| Dr. Sages Catarrh Remedy (Which is perfect
| ly unirritating, mild, soothing and pleasantly
| as light is from darkness. As a q" burnt child
breads the fire. if any have been so foolish as
to have burned their noses sore with this
| caustic compound, thinking that they were
using the same as DR.. Sage's celebrated Ca
| tarrh Remedy, they will, it is to be hoped,
profit by the lesson thereby taught them and
| not be so ready next time to bite at every
! catch-penny advertising dodge that swindlers
NAV offer them. For Dr. Pierce's Golden
| Medical Discovery the bogus receipt reads:
take four drachms purified Honey, fifteen
| grains extract poisonous Lettuce, thirty grains
of Opium, three and a fourth ounces dilute
| Spirits, three ounces water. Mix" Of the
ridiculous bogus formula [ will say, as did
| under oath, not one Of the medicinal or poison
| Gus ingredients therein given enters into the
| COHDOSlJlOH OF TUY JOtOeIL II ettcUL DLSCOtefY.
And furthermore, will say that defy all the
| chemists in the world to ascertain, by chemical
| anal ysis, the composition of any OF my Family
Medicines, as they cannot be anal Zed so as to
| determine their ingredients, many of which
are new in medicine and, like nearly all vege-
| table extracts, there are no known reagents or
chemical tests by which their presence can be
determined. If any further proof is wanted to
| satisfy any person that the receipt given above
| Is utterly false let that person have the mix
| ture as given compounded, and not only Will
it be seen to be entirely unlike my Discovery
in appearance, but if further test is wanted,
| by taking a dose of it, it will be found to pro-
| duce drowsiness and stupOr, whereas my Dis
cOvery in ever so large doses, produces no
| such effect Others, located in different cities
| and engaged in advertising for sale bogus re-
! ceipts for making my medicines send those
that bite at their bait other and various ridicu-
| lOus formula. One sent out by a yillainOus
| knave, located in Chicago, gives the chief in
gredient of DR.. Sage's Catarrh Remedy as
| being Blue NitriOl, which is only equaled in
absurdity by another issued by parties in Phil
adelphia who say that the ingredients com
posing DIR. Sage's Catarrh Remedy are burnt
| Alum, White NltriOl, Sugar of Lead, and PruS-
State of Iron" and that my Golden Medical
| Discovery IS simply Syrup and tncture OF
Ginger" In reputation of all the various and
| ridiculous bogus receipts for making my medi-
clnes that have ever been or may hereafter be
| puDIISIcu anu cTcuIaJGQ, WOuIu say IldG l
| have, IN dealing with the people, ever been
governed by the maxim that honesty is the
| best policy" and that success makes sue
| cess; Tor 1t IS because some sufferer has OBJ
| tanned relief and cure that that sufferer has
| sent another to me; and it is because thou
| sands have been cured that they have recon-
| mended me and my superior remedies to other
| thousands of sufferers. In this way am con-
| stantly making liUing advertisements for my
self and medicines. 1t is common thing to
| hear people say that plenty of advertising will
| make success out OF anything, whether IL
ther from the truth. 1t is with this delusive
idea actuating them that thousands have
rushed headlong into advertising, only to find
| themselves bankrupt in a little while. Not
more than one in five hundred who engages
! in advertising medicines ever makes a tinan-
| cIaI success out of the undertaking, for the
| reason that medicine to be successful must
possess unusual and extraordinary merit. 1t is
| not enough that it should be a remedy of fair
| efficacy; it must possess superior and 1rOnder-
tiH remedial properties, for if it does not
| those who use it with the most sanguine eX-
| pectations will condemn it. They well expect
| much of it, and it must be equal to the test, or
| it will prove ruinous TO the proprietor. For,
although a great display Of advertising will,
! many times, create considerable immediate
! demand for the article advertised. vet if that
| article does not possess real merit the demand
| will be only temporary; the fraud will be de-
tected, and the reaction will upset the proprie-
| tor and all his high expectations long before
he is able to recover the amount Of money
already expended. With this view of the sub
| iect I have felt warranted in contracting for
hundreds of thousands Of dollars worth Of adj
vertising in the newspapers Of this and other
| countries, feeling perfectly assured that the
! merits Of my remedies Were so great as to in
sure financial success out of such a bold
undertaking. And in this I have not been
disappointed, for my sales have increased