The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1904-07-16
SEARCHLIGHTS
Conducted by
MRS. DORA A. WEYMOUTH


Medicine =, =, n'u.'iio uSeu anu
Co"rso the implicate faith people put
in them, and the claims made
by the manufacturers, it seems to us that
the following articles taken from the
Ladies Home Journal, written by the edi-
tor, Edward Box, is both timely and neces-
sary, that people may know, or at least
have better knowledge, of what they are
taking themselves and giving to their chill
dren. 1t it any wonder that the vast army
| of drunkards so readily find recruits to Fl IL
| their ranks as each victim goes to fill an
untimely grave:
Every year, particularly in the SPRING
| time, tens Of thousand of patent medicines
| are used throughout the country by per-
| sons who are in absolute ignorance of what
they are swallowing. They feel sluggish"
after the all-winter indoor confinement;
| they feel that their systems need a "toning
up" or a. blood purifier" Their eye
| catches some advertisement in a newspaper
or on fence, or on the side of barn, and
| from the cleverly worded descriptions of
symptoms they are convinced that this
mans "bitters" or that mans "sarsapar-
lila" or that doctors" { y vegetable
| compound" or So-and-so's pills" is ex-
actly the thing they need as a "tonic."
mo use going to DOCTOR" argue these
folks; 1--WE can save that money" and IN
stead of paying one or two dollars for hon
est, intelligent medical advice they invest
| from twenty-five to seventy-five cents for a
bottle of this or a box of that. And what
| do they buy. and what do they put into
| their systems? Few know. Fewer realize
the absolute damage they are working upon
themselves and their households. For the
sake of saving physicians fee they pour
into their mouths and into their systems
| quantity of unknown drugs which has in
them percentages of alcohol, cocaine and
opium that are absolutely alarming.
"A mother who would hold up her hands
in holy horror at the thought of her child
drinking glass of beer which contains
two to five per cent of alcohol, gives to
that child with her own hands a patent
medicine that contains from seventeen to
forty-four per cent of alcoholic say
nothing of opium and cocaine! have
seen temperance woman who ragged at
the thought of whisky, take bottle after
bottle of some "bitters" which contains
five times as much alcohOl-and compared
to which sherry, port, claret and cham
payne were as harmless as the pink lemon
ade at Sunday School picnics. 1 have
heard women rage in letters to this office
because this magazine advertised a certain
root beer, with really no alcohol in it at all,
while all the time these same women were
swallowing bottle after bottle of Lydia
Pinkhams Vegetable Compound" contain
Ing, by volume, 206 per centage of alcohol
and allowing Boxers Stomach Ritters,"
with 1875 per centage of alcohol, by volume,
to be advertised on their barns!
Fancy, for moment, the slate of ig-
| nOrance of some young wife who was ex-
pecting her first baby, She was suffering
some of the discomforts incident to this
| condition when a friend recommended to
her as a Sure relief from these discomforts
| a widely advertised patent medicine known
| as DIR. Pierce's Favorite Prescription"
Fortunately doubt arose in the mind of
| the young mother as to whether it was
| really good thing for her to take. She
asked Miss Maud Bantield of The Jour
nails editorial staff. for advice; whereupon
we communicated with DIR. Samuel W.
Abbott, Secretary OF the State Board of
Health of Massachusetts, who quotes the
following extract from an analysis made
by the well-known German chemist, Hugo,
and published in Hagn's Geheimmittel:
LIN about nine ounces of this "Favorite
Prescription" there were among other in
gradients: Tincture of Digitalis, x fluid
drachms; Tincture of Opium, 4 fluid
drachm; Oil of Anise, drops; Alcohol,
IL ounces. This would make a prepare
ton containing about seventeen per cent
of alcohol"
Now, as Miss Banfeld rightly says,
think for moment on the life yet unborn
OF the mother taking habitually three
times day any portion, however small, of
opium, of digitalis, which is a powerful
drug and has a marked effect on the heart,
| and alcohol! -
- - g., -
G1o,,