The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-05-21
Especial Correspondence.l

| NEW LUCK, MAY l2.-IT is WIN no IN
tention of disparaging the testimony of
enthusiastic graduates of the gold
cure" that propose to tell the result
If my own Investigation. If man has
been in the terrible thralldom of alcohol,
and has found any deliverance from it
by any means, it is natural and right
FOR him to praise God and any of his
Instruments that may have ministered
| toward his release.
But it is pertinent and really neces-
sary to look further into the matter be-
fore deciding on the testimony of one,
Or one Thousand, or ten thousand per-
sons who believe that they have derived
benefit from it, that any proprietary
medicine is really safe and good. Be-
| cause Smiths pills have cured one man
Of rheumatism it by no means follows
| that they will cure another man of a
broken leg, or of fits.
What, then, is this remedy It's author
man who has achieved great fame
by treating victims Of alcoholism, the
morphine and the cocaine habits. Many
81 his patients claim honestly to be
sured. Many have relapses, some have
gone mad and some have died. It is
manifestly within the province of the
medical profession to decide whether the
cures are permanent, and whether the
disasters are IN any way traceable to the
treatment.
Doctors, however, have been unable
until recently to even study these cases
because the gold curist refused to tell
what he was using. All they knew was
that he took Thousands of patients widely
different in habits, constitutions, dis
eases and conditions and subjected them
al to the same treatment. He injected
into them what he called bichloride of
gold, and different results followed
They knew only two or three things:
l. That the treatment was not profess
nonal, for no doctor would think of
treating all sorts of patients in the same
way. 2. That the method was unpro-
fessional, for doctors do not conceal
their methods from one another. 8.
That there was no such substance as
bichloride of gold.
Manifestly they could tell little about
the whole matter until they knew what
this medicine was, and until recently
they did not know. Now, however, they
do know. There are lying on my table
as write two walls, one of which con-
tains some of this mixture put up by the
inventor of the gold cure, and the other
some that was put up by we'll known
physician The two are identical, and
the fact has been conclusively proven by
chemical analysis.
In this mixture there is no gold,
There is not the shadow of a trace of
gold. Neither is it bichloride of any
description.
What is it? Well, it would be fool
ssh thing for any man to publish to the
world the exact formula of a medi-
cine that is capable of doing much
harm. The main ingredients, however,
may be told properly enough. Briefly,
then, the gold cure is composed of the
nitrate Of strychnia and atropine, GER
tsin proportion of caffeine, some cadeine
and little "a very ittle-cocaine.
These form the bulk of the composition.
Traces, and only traces, of other drugs
may be found in the mixture.
AS a matter of course this statement
is likely to be disputed. I hold myself
ready to prove it at any time.
Some thirteen years ago Dobronrayoff.
q Russian physician Of great eminence
and the head of the Russian military med
ical service, was instructed by his govern
s,,o,.4 10 c4,,6u f1,n -
ness, as it prevailed among the officers
Of the Russian army. Dobronravoff
studied, and presently originated treat
ment. He published it in the medical
journals of Russia. It was republished
in Buda-Pesth, Berlin, Vienna and Paris
in the leading medical journals of those
cities Thence it was copied into the
London Lancet, and thence into the
New York Medical Record. Since that
time it has been included in the stand
ard medical books. Here is Dobronra-
voff's formula:
r Strychni@ Nitratis, or !.
Aqu@ Destillate, 5 iiss.
M. For simultaneous injection.
S. Daily to injections, commencing with
sminims, later reducing to minims, 10 to IS
LuJ6ctlONS suIHClNB ZOE cure SOQu brOnlQo
may be given at the same time.
A similar search Of the books shows
that atropine given similarly technical
details are hardly needed just here) is
known as the standard remedy for the
morphine habit, as the strychnine is
known as the standard remedy for alco-
holism and delirium tremens. These two
drugs are the principal part of the new
secret formula. What are their effectss
Both are deadly, or worse, unless there
exists in the patient a condition or dis
ease or the traces of drug antagonistic
to them. Atropine makes maniacs I'M
less there is morphine in the system of
The patient who takes it. Similar things
nay be postulated about the other drugs
used in the formula.
Now the doctors unhesitatingly affirm
that these things occur to the people
who use these drugs. The question re-
mains, What happens to the gold cure
patients? 1t has been publicly declared
that out of 10000 patients treated, 95
per cent, or 66,500 Of them, are perma-
nently cured, while $500 have relapsed
In, ,7p,$e,,H1lx, i, Jrro,oD 100000,