Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-28
The Drug Swindle.

Some of our Western contemporaries are
wagiug meritoriouS warfare on what they
aptly describe as 1.-The substitute drug
swindle''-that is, the sale by some retail
dealers of an article prepared in close imi-
tatiOn of some well-known proprietary med
icine in place of the genuine article. The
extent to which this fraud is carried on is
undoubtedly very great quite as great i'll
the East as in the West There ought to
be way OF. reaching it bylaw. Perhaps
there is, bpt the law Ieay be so easily
evaded that fSobably no free can be prac-
tically appliedAp restraiYt of the fraud so
potent as publia opiniof Whatever is to
in America. of tihEe4ng at ones system
with drugs whose Adlities and functions
are not known and complaints not I'M
derstood, and howafeNmuch patent medi-
cines have tended II ind gease this admitted
evil, the fact REM fms that there are many
such medicines w tn regulations established
byslong and extensive use, and the character
of their manufaf urers is to some degree
guarantee that 0hey possess certain virtues.
Extensive adv$ rtising 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 al
legged to have produced, and with the
dpHcdFcHCt VI pdt hdScS III WHICH Jtley are
placed upon the market. 1t is common
trick, after such medicines have become
known and after demand for them has
been CT Gated, for INSCRIPTIONS persons to
devise inferior substitutes, meanly dis
guised in name and appearance, and by
profitable arrangements with some retail
druggist to reap the advantage of the genu-
inc articles reputation. The druggist of
whom particular sarsaparilla or liver pill
HOaSn't hnnnnn n hot no,
ton in stock, but instead has another,
claimed, perhaps, to be his Gown make or
at least, to be well known to him, which he
is always prepared to recommend as cheap
err than the article demanded and fully as
good.
In this way 4 vast number of dangerous
drugs are foisted upon the public in place
of those which, however undesirable for use
without physicians prescription, are az
least reputable and in real demand. So far
has this substitution gone that the market
for certain of the most favored proprietary
medicines, market created by large eX-
penditure and tested service, is occupied
now by spurious preparations that no re-
putable druggist ought to have upon his
shelves. The chief sinner in this business,
we regret to say, is to found among the ne
tail 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 even engaging directly in its manufac-
ture. This is altogether dishonest. Those
who buy patent medicines need to DE warned
against allowing themselves to be cheated. >,
They take great risk whenever they permit
a salesman to persuade them to buy any
drug except the one they know and want.
1t is little enough to know that science it its
highest exemplification understands about
the human system and the treatment of
diseases, and people who undertake to do
their own doctoring should at least be sure
that they are obtaining what they intend to
obtain. and that they are not taking a cheap
toadstool for mushroom. New York