The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-07-07

4
| whole current of her destiny -"Don'
Pa like to see you look p,'ettye"
Patent Panaceas.
"Well, sir; Yes, sir, I do recollect 6
| good many patent medicines in my time,
| said the old druggist, as he glanced ovel
the bottle.laden counters. "Some o.
them have gone out of fashion, some O.
them are no longer made, and some o.
them I have upon the shelves still. i
is curious, though, how the use of them
has increased. When I first went into
business, and that's over thirty years age
now, there were only two or three sold
Most Of the st.,f people used to take
then was ordered by the doctor or given
by the women.foIks in the form of hert
teas. Even the patent medicines were
more attempts TO take the place Of the
herbs every woman had in the house
then, than regular compounds of drugs
As, for example, there was 'Townsend's
Sarsaparilla,' " hich had run from 40
to '45, and then disappeared. Ayers and
Morris's extracts of the same plant came
in about the time that Townsend's went
out, and I sell them still. Wistar's
'Balsam of Wild Cherry too, is one Of
the oldest; and pulmonary Balsam'
dates from 1926, yet sell it to-day. But
most of them die out. They run for
about ten years, as o rule, and then we
hear little about them. AS l just said,
the first came to take the place of the
homemade decoctions of herbs. Then
came the reign of the bitters, about the
time the war broke out, and every one
took to drinking them, either as medi-
cine or because they liked them. Of late
years, I notice that the proprietors of
patent medicines talk less about what
they are made of and more about the
good they will do the purchaser. The
method of placing them upon the market
is different. They used to leave them
with US to sell; thatis, we would take a
dozen bottles, and, when the agent came
round, would pay for what we got rid of.
Now, bless your soul, we have to pay for
them whether ne sell or not-pay for
them when we get them. Why, I sup
pose I have got in the store over eight
hundred dollars worth of them that
never have been sold, nor never will be.
But what can I do? A medicine comes
out; they advertise it heavily; people
ask for it; and so I have to keep it.
Look at that paper of ours, and count
the patent medicine advertisements !;
nine and half columns out of twenty
one, eh? Well, don't you suppose I have
to keep those things? tell you, people
will buy what is advertised. It's only of
late years that this enormously extensive
advertising has been done; that is, when
I say late years, l mean in the last twen-
ty. Before that, medicines were allowed
to make their own way. But now they
have got the advertising of them down to
science.
"About the effect of them on consum-
ers, it is somewhat difficult to give gen.
eral opinion. People nowadays have
given up. the simples our fathers, or
rather mothers, we're so fond of, and their
place is filled by the patent medicines.
I suppose these can be divided into two
classes-those for external use and those
you swallow. The former are generally
good. They consist of liniments, pain
killers, oils, salves and things like them,
which, if they do not do any good, will
rarely do any harm. But, as l said, they
generally do good. I have patent medi-
cines in this store which 1 believe to be
Just as good liniments for cuts and bruises
as any doctor could get up. I use them
myself. and I recommend them to others.
But when you begin to look at the other
class-those which are to be swallowed
it's horse of another color; some of
them are good, too. You take some of
the sarsaparillas, for example, and l can
get no better extracts from the manufac-
turing druggists. Then there are other
things which / find the physicians con-
stantly order and give their patients.
They are what might be called proprie-
tary NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. which have
been discovered by physicians or chem
lists, and patented in order to keep val
liable property in the possession of the
person who FIRST found it out. They are
good, and it is we'll that we have them.
Merely because they have been patented
or copyrighted. is no argument against
them.
"But among these medicines which you
see advertised are some which in my
opinion are nothing more than slow poi
SONS; aye, / might say, worse than poi
sons. don't suppose any one, except q
man in my business, would see tithe Of
the harm they do; that is, others might
see it, but not recognize the cause. Look
at it for moment. I am a duly quail
fed druggist under the laws of the State.
By those laws I am forbidden to sell GER
tain drugs without prescription from
a physician. More than that, am ex-
pected to know enough to be able to tell
whether physician, in writing a pre-
scription, has combined drugs in danger
Gus quantities; and. if he has, my busi-
ness is to notify him, in order that he
may correct the mistake. In addition to
the drugs mentioned in the law, which
are chiefly poisons, by the way, there are
others which I would, in common with
all druggists of my standing, refuse to
sell, except upon order of a physician.
But in these patent medicines may be
these very drugs, and I know nothing
about them. / may suspect their pres
ence after noticing the effect the medi.
cines have; but the mischief is done
then. The position held by druggists in
the community is little peculiar. We
are retail traders, dealing in drugs as
articles which people buy but, in addi.
tion to that, we have to guard the people
and prevent them buying things which
we have to sell, but which may do them
harm. There is not day passes but
what I am asked for drugs which would
be dangerous unless used intelligently
that is, with a clear idea of the danger as
we'll as the benefit of them. When
sell such things, I tell the purchaser
about them, and in this way guard
against evil consequences. The greatest
danger in connection with patent medi
cines is that the men who sell them-the