The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-25
Patent and Proprietary Medicines
A Reply to Mir. Box.

cinaI or culinary, cannot be made or preserved without alcohol. The use of alcohol in medicine is approved by the pharmacopoeias of all nations. It Is in accord with the prac- | tice of all medical authorities in the |. world.
 The abuse of alcohol is another mat ter. but the cost alone is enough to prevent abuse, Alcohol costs about s2,60 per gallon. It Is too expensive for any medicine maker to use more than he needs of it. And he cannot hope that people are going to take the medicine because of the alcohol, when good whisky can be purchased for one- fifth as much.
 dose of medicine which contains even 20 per cent of alcohol does not seem to me very dangerous matter. That means one-f1fth of a teaspoonful of alcohol at time. Physicians do not hesitate to give brandy 70 a child In teaspoonful doses. and brandy is half alcohol. When one compares medicine with wine or beer, he should also compare the dosage. One takes more alcohol in a glass of wine than he takes in a great many doses of medicine.
 MT. Box is also most unfair in his reference to poisons used in proprie- tary medicines. It Is true that some medicines contain poisons in small percentages, but the use Is not nearly as general as in physicians prescrip- tions. A great many drugs which are recognized by every physician as help ful In small doses are poisonous when taken in excess.
 An elderly druggist told me a few days ago that he had personally exam ined more than 100000 physicians pre- scriptions, and, by actual count, 70 per cent of them contained an opiate. Yet analysis shows not a trace of opiate in the largest sellers among the pro- prietary remedies.
 Strychnine is another dangerous drug largely prescribed by physicians. It Is used as a tonic and stimulant
 Yet this Is drug rarely found in pro- prietaries.
 The maker of proprietary medi- cine must be more careful about the use of any poison than the physician. The physician is in position to direct his doses and to watch the results. He Is able to take chances which no mak- CT of general remedy will take, for fear that the directions on the bottle will not be adhered to.
 There are thousands of physicians whose interests are opposed to proprie- tary remedies. They are ready to de- nounce a ready made remedy at the slightest evidence of harm from 1t. Yet how seldom we hear of any harm from proprietaries have myself nev- CT heard of a single authenticated case.
 It is the lack of poison, rather than its presence, which forms the real ob- Jection to proprietaries. It is by using a poison which the medicine maker avoids that the physician often secures a greater effect. The maker of a rem edy has too much at stake to use any thing which will result in occasional harm. And this caution leads him of- ten to omit ingredients which he knows to be valuable.
 Proprietary remedies are used not alone by the poor who cannot afford to call a physician. They are employed by those to whom expense is of no im- portance. And in ordinary ailments, when a physician is called. he pre- scribes a ready made remedy. Propri- etary remedies are at some time taken by all of us They are found !n near ly every home.
 And I know of no business where fraud has less chance of success than in medicine. A worthless remedy is very quickly found out. A sick person will not long continue a remedy which does not help. The lack of merit in a food may remain long undiscovered, but if a medicine lacks virtue the fact is at once apparent.
 When need remedy for any ordi- nary ailment. my choice goes to a rem edy so good that 1t made it's maker rich. A DEFENDER.
 sat-su