Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-06-27
PREPARED MEDICINES.
OVER TWENTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS
INVESTED IN THEM.

SzAo nAATAeb HVexy xo@E-NOC On0 Aum@
bred OF them surv1ve-some Interest,"
1ng Facts About Patent Medicines.
"Of 5000 proprietary medicinal articles
which are put on the market every year,
not 100 survive" said a prominent manu-
facturer in this line to a Cincinnati Times
Star reporter the other day. This may
be ascrtbed to various causes: first, the
medicines themselves are worthless; Sec
ond, they are not sufficiently advertised;
third, there is not sufficient capital back Of
them. do not believe that a worthless
drug can hold the market for long while.
But If an article, however good it may be.
Is not skillfully advertised it might as we'll
never have been put on the market. Adj
vertising Is one Of the vital points in our
business. It Is through the newspapers
that we get the people to notice our wares.
Big bill posters do US some service, too.
Not day passes but receive solicitations
for advertising in magazines or on the
back OF novels, but never notice them,
for the only advertisement which is bene-
fetal to us must be inserted in newspapers,
daily or weekly.
GAS for capital invested, we'll, there are
firms In our line which spend from
$500,000 to $1,000, 600 yearly for ADVERTISE
ments and they depend on the result of
the tremendous expense for their success.
Comparatively very little advertising may
secure local trade, but there Is no city
large enough to support q proprietary
medicine firm. Almost every druggist has
some preparation of his own and for which
he has local call, but he could not live on
the proceeds. And even his case is differ
emit from ours, for while he makes the
medicine at wholesale cost he sells it at
the retailers profit. We do not sell to the
| user Of our articles and on a 81 article we
do not make more than fifty-ffve cents,
with which we must do our buying, adver-
Using, etc. We have agents in India,
Australia, Egypt, etc. Ali good firms have
the same and hence the enormous capital
| it takes for concern like ours, and besides
| that it takes almost lifetime to give q
| medicine wide hold on the people,"
People are not as hostile to patent
medicines as they used to be, are they?"
"No; they have changed in this regard,
and attribute this to the reading public.
The people Of the United States are the
greatest readers in the world and they are
moro wide awake to our articles than are
the people Of any other country. People
are being educated, they are getting to
| tell quack from true medicines. pro-
| prietary article Of medicine now takes the
place Of many doctor bill. And, in fact,
busy physicians do not like to be bothered
with patients coming to them for slight
headaches and like ailments. Their time is
i wv FoAuoOk0 eh44 LULU 10 Wu0I0 We u0Lp bu0Iu
out. Proprietary articles, it may surprise
| you. are more accurately compounded
than are the prescribed medicines at the
drug stores, for we, in the first place. have
drugs of the utmost purity. which hard
ly think can be Bought anywheresin this
| city. We have to have our drugs of chemi-
cal purity, for 1t is sometimes years before
our preparations are used after they are
made. We make few specialties and
work every additional process over be-
cause more exact. We make large quanti-
ties, making not less than sixteen gallons
Of one sort of medicine at once, and hence
| we do not make the error which a drop
could cause in a small amount Of medicine.
Our men who do our work are experts, and
the methods Of our work have become
greatly simplifed. The standard firms
in this country make the finest
pharmaceutic preparations in the
world, and we buy all American
chemicals, they being as good as imported
ones. Taking all these things into con-
sideration, it is not strange that an intelli-
gent public likes a prepared medicine for
an ordinary ailment of which it knows al
most as much as aphysician. People are
no longer afraid Of proprietary medicines,
and our business has increased sixty per
gent. in the last eight years. Fall is our
busiest season, not because people are
mostly sick then, but because jobbers lay
in all their goods then. The trade has
grown so that to-day there are $25 ,0O0, 00l
Invested in the proprietary medicine bust.
IneSS