Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-11-07
The Drug Swindlc.

GOntC vi Odi " CSlCin
are waging meritorious warfare on what
they aptly describe as "the substitute
drug swindle'-that is, The sale by some
retail dealers of an article prepared in
close imitation of some well-known pro-
prietary medicine in place of the genu-
inc article. The extent to which this
fraud is carried on is undoubtedly very
great, quite as great in the East as in tho
West. There ought to be a way OF
reaching it by law. Perhaps there is,
but the law may be SO easily evaded that
probably no force can be practically ap-
piled in restraint of the fraud so potent
as public opinion. Whatever is to be
said against the practice, all too general
in America, of tinkering at ones system
with drugs whose qualities and functions
are not known and for complaints not
unders TODD, aud however much patent
medicines have tended to increase this
admitted evil, the fact remains that there
are many such medicines with reputa-
tions established by long aud extensive
use, and the character of their mauufac-
turers is to some degree a guarantee that
they possess certain virtues Extensive
advertising has rendered the public in
every country village familiar with their
nature, with the ingredients of which
they are claimed to be composed, with
the diseases they are intended to subdue,
with the results their use is alleged to
have produced, and with the appearance
of packages in which they are placed up
on the market. 1t is common trick,
after such medicines have become known
and after demand for them has been
created, for INSCRIPTIONS persons to de,
wise inferior substitutes, meauly dis
guised in name and appearance, and by
profitable arrangements with some retail
druggists to reap the advantage of the
genuine articles reputation. The
druggist of whom particular sarsapa-
rilla or liver pill is asked doesn't
happen TO have that potion in
stock, but instead hes another, claimed,
perhaps, to be his town make" or. at
least, to be well known to him, which
he is always prepared to recommend as
cheaper than the article demanded and
fully as good.
In this way vast number of danger
Gus drugs are foisted upon the public in
place of those which, however undesir-
able for use without a physicians pre-
scription, are at least reputable and in
real demand. So far has this substitu.
ton gone that the market for certain of
the most favored proprietary medicines,
market created by large exdendture
aud tested service, is occupied now by
spurious preparations that no reputable
druggist ought to have upon his shelves.
/ The chief sinner in this business. we re.
greet to say, is TO be found among the
retail druggists. Not infrequently he
makes himself knowing partner in the
fraud, permitting his name to be printed
on the bottles in which the substitute is
supplied, or evel engaging directly in
its manufacture. This is altogether dis
honest Those who buy patent medi-
cines need to be warned against allowing
themselves to be cheated They take
great risks whenever they permit sales
man to persuade them to buy auy drug
except the one they know or want It
is little enough that science in its highest
exempllfication understands about the
human system and the treatment of dis
eases, and people who undertake to do
their own doctoriug should at least be
sure that they are obtaining what they
intend to obtain, and that they are not
taking cheap tosdstooI for mush-
room. -Neg York Tribune.