Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-13

! physicians arc to be cfedited with the
maternity of many popular and SUCCESS
| ful patent medicines. Probably the real
| rise and wide sale of patent medicines
| do not extend much further back than
half a century. Most of the very sue
cessful ones trace th(ir history no fur
ther back than that. Out of about five
thousand articles of domestic make not
more than fifty cam be carried on as o
business apart fromIother interests. In
deed, out of the fvt thousand there are
probably only five hundred that can be
set down rs of any Importance. 1t is
safe to say that not more than half a
dozen have made b million each.
..The people OF this country are great
patrons of patent medicines, the mid
die classes especially. The rich can
always consult q physician at the least
%provocation, and the very poor can
avoid both doctors expenses and the
cost of patent medicines by going to
dispensaries, where they arc treated
gratuitously. Much is claimed for the
efficiency Of the Sc mcdiciues-too much,
indeed, for some of them. But, as 8
rule, they possess a certain virtue:
Many of them are merely physicians
prescriptions made up on a grand scale,
and are statkd to cure only specific
cases of bodily arrangement. The day
of the 'curc-iW medicines is as good as
gone by. 5me of the medicines arc
really excellent for the purposes they
are applied to. There arc new remc-
dies constantly coming into the field,
but unltss backed by heavy capital they
and thir projectors invariably come to
grief. Not ever plenty Of money can
bolster up q remedy if it be worthless,
or if there be too many articles Of the
same kind in the market.
"Allowing the remedy to be all tina.
is claimed for it, that it is backed ny
heavily. advertised well, and has elbow
room in its own particular field,
there still remain the usual contingent
cies and risks related to all business
ventures. The business is not all profit.
as many people think. The manufacture
er sees but a small proportion of the
dollar that the customer rays the retail
er for his bottle of medicine. a dollar
bottle Of medicine is generally sold to
the trade through the jobber at 81 pcr
dozen. Before the manufacturer be.
gins to think of profit he must figure on
labor, material, rent, freight. express,
clerk hire and advertising bills. Tho
last expense is an important item. 1t
has been estimated that in the last
twenty years 500, 600, 600 have boon
spent in advertising proprietary medi-
cines. The small advertiser is nowhere.
So, in the end, if the proprietor makes
twelve cents on the dollar-bottlc of med
icine he iS lucky. The retailers net
profit is nearly double that amount.
When the stamp tax on proprietary
medicines was lcvied-about four per
cent. on the. retail price, in reality ten
per cent. ON the manufacturers price
the manufacturers made even less than
now. In four years only the stamp tax
thus levied rolled into the Government
Golfers an'average of at least 81, 500, 600
a year. The stamp tax has been done
away with, but the tax of $3.50 q gal
Ion on aacohol--a principal Ingredient
in the manufacture of medicines still
exists.
according to-the. last United States
census there are 563 establishments in
this country devoted to the proprietary
medicine business, employing 4,O15
operatives, with an aggregate invest
ment of capital amounting to $40, &C.,
600, and the annual product is valued
at s14, 682, 900. Now York State leads
all others with an invested capital of
$3,512, 4s0, which is about one-third of
the entire country's investment Penn
sylvania comes next, andiMissouri!ranks
third in invested capital, followed re-
spectively by Ohio and Massachusetts,.
In the amount of annual product New
York again stands first, followed in
order by Massachusetts, and Pcnnsyl-
vania, the other States standing about
even. The foreign tradcin our proprie-
drawback of the heavy tax on alcohol,
but the trade is slowly Increasing. A
fair calculation is that about twenty-five
American proprietary medicines have
at present a very large. sale in Err
gland."-M Y. Herald.