, 1888-08-03
THE FAMILY OF Doseas
Growth of a Pernicious Habit-Em iching
Patent Medicine Proprietors.

Growth of a PernicIous Notwithstanding
Patent Medicine Proprietors.
Drink it; it can't hurt you"
Unless you happen to be a person with
a strong will of your own, this ,njunc-
ton, with its accompanying as urance,
is likely to do the business, and you
straightway take the first steI in the
broad avenue which leads to tie great
and ever growing community oil dosers.
1t is probable that Americans arr greater
sufferers from the dosing habit than the
people of any nation on the footstool,
and it would be difficult to say what
nostrum they would not grasp at and
greedily gulp down, provided it were put
up in an attractive form, with a name
no matter what-blown in the bottle.
And there is good reason for this pre-
dilection for patent proprietary p%otions.
In the first place, a bottle of medicine,
although claiming to be a specific for
but one disease or one class of disorders,
is shown also to be a radical cure, or
helpful, or at the least innocuous in any
or all other forms of bodily derange-
ments; and as this fact is testified to, not
only by the dealers, who of course have
no interest in deceiving the public, but
by an endless array of unsolicited testi-
NcAAh )" w 3 hitht "hob ~ "OuAN
seem, indulge in this variety of literature
as a recreation from excessive labor In
the soul saving department of industry;
from actors, actresses, singers and other
show people, who therefrom receive in
cidental notoriety; from respectable
druggists, whose position of middlemen
is merely an adventitious circumstance
and not to be urged against their known
disinterested conduct outside of business
and after business hours; and, generally,
from unknown and u~nknowable persons
whose last and usual place of abode is
the greatest possible distance from the
city or town in which you happen to
live.
Then the inducements for a copious
hbation are generous to a fault, but this
is not the fault of the proprietor. Quite
the contrary. While the temperate doser
is forced to pay 81 lawful money for
each and every bottle of the syrup, elixir,
bitters or whatever appellation the medi-
cine affects, the regular and approved
doser is offered special terms-$5 for six
bottles-so that, beside being given an
opportunity to indulge his dosing propen-
sites to the full, he has the satisfaction of
knowing that tine more of the stuff he
devours the more money he is saving,
and, conversely, the more saving he is,
the greater the opportunity for dosing
which is vouchsafed him. Thus, by n
stroke, he is building up both his fortunes
and his health.
And then it is SO handy TO have in the
housed Could anything be more con-
venient han to nave in ones cupboard
the wherewith to cure rheumatism,
coughs, colds, neuralgia, chilblains,
cancer, ringwerm, consumption, CORN
and kidney complaints, when that where
withal is comprised within the conven
ient compass of one quart bottle Give to
the GALLON, and especially when, as il by
special providence, it usually happens
that symptoms of all the diseases named
are ever present within the house which
has that p~uissant bottle in its cupboard2
There are, to be sure, incredulous per-
sons who hold that this perpetual dosing
does no good; but these doubters should
consult a few of the consumers of the
patent medicines, and hear said consum-
ers' testimony as to how much better
they feel during the dosing period, which
generally lasts the year round, and how
depressed they feel when they abstain
for a day or two. The doubters should
also examine the bank accounts of the
manufacturers and dealers in proprietary
specifics, and h rooms of their spacious
and beautifully adorned houses and their
extensive grounds. If they shall then
they are doubling Thomases indeed, and
it were idle TO further discuss the matter
with them.-Boston Transcript.