The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-10-01
The Drug Swindle.

NEW 1 oTh 1TlDuHV'
Some of our western contemporaries
are waging meritOrious warfare on
what they aptly describe as "the sub
stitute drug swindle''-that is, the
sale by some retail dealers of an arti-
Gle prepared in close imitation of some
well-known proprietary medicine in
place of the genuine article. The eX-
tent to which this fraud is carried en-
is undoubtedly very great, quite as
great in the East as in the West.
There ought to be way of reaching
it by law. Perhaps there is, but the
law may be so easily evaded that
probably no force can be practically
applied 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
understood, and however much patent
medicines have tended to increase this
admitted evil, the fact remains that
there are many such medicines with
regulations established by long and
extensive use, and the character of
their manufacturers is to some de-
gree a guarantee that they possess
certain virtues. Extensive advertis-
ing 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
| hA Of nnl l. in, li nh
they are placed upon the market. 1t
is common trick, after such medi-
cines have become known and after a
demand for them has been created,
for INSCRIPTIONS persons to devise in
ferior substitutes, meanly disguised in
name and appearance, and
| by profitable arrangements
with some retail drug
gists to reap the advantage Of the
genuine articles reputation. The
druggist of whom a particular sarsa-
parilla or liver pill is asked doesn't
happen to have that portion 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 cheaper than the article demanded
and fully as good.
In this way vast number of dam
gerous drugs are foisted upon the
public in place of those which, how
ever undesirable for use without a
physicians prescription, are at 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 expenditure and
tested service, is occupied now by
spurious preparations that no reput.
able druggist ought to have
upon his shelves. The chief
sinner in this business we re-
gret to say, it is to be found
among the retail druggists. Not in
frequently he makes himself q know
ing partner in the fraud, permitting
his name to be printed on the bottles
in which the substitute is supplied, or
even engaging directly in it's manu-
Those who buy patent medicines need
to be warned against allowing them
selves to be cheated. They take great
risks whenever they permit sales.
man to pursuade them to buy any
drug except the'One they know and
want tits little enough that science
in it's highest Publication under
stands about the human system and
treatment of diseases, and people who
undertake to do their own dOctorine
should at least be sure that they are
obtaining what they intend to obtain
and that they are not taking q cheap
toadstool for mushroom.