The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-25

Patent medicines are friends of my youth, and friends of my family. They have helped me when I needed help; and if they, need help now l feel like defending them. It is only fair reel procity.
 The fact is that the term patent medicines as applied to advertised remedies. is a misnomer. Very few of the remedies advertised to the laity are : patented. The real patent medicines are advertised to physicians alone. They are brought into use almost sole ly through physicians prescriptions.
 Practically all the synthetic chemi- calls produced in late years are pro- tected by patents. The most valuable products used by modern physicians are patented. The coal tar prepara- tions which are most widely used, and the most effective germicides. are among them. All physicians prescribe these remedies. yet they know that their owners control a monopoly.
 The largest pharmaceutical houses are not those which make remedies ad- vertised in the newspapers. They make the remedies which are adver- tised to physicians alone. and they con- trol those remedies absolutely by patent or trademark. If the medical
 
 ed remedies. half the prescriptions which are written would need to be al- tered
 This does not bear out Mir. Bok's theory that the discoverer of a remedy of real value gives 1t freely to the world. The custom with those who in vent such remedies today is to patent them and control them. just as does the man who invents a new machine. ANNA tI and approve the method. for every modern physician prescribes patented remedies more frequently than any others. And enormous enterprises are built solely on this fact.
 The mere fact, therefore, that a man controls remedy, either by a patent or trademark, does not argue against 1t. It Is rather evidence that the man has something which he considers worth controlling.
 If the man. in addition, spends large sums In advertising, whether to physi- clans or to the laity, it forms to me further evidence of value Nothing is more certain than the fact that worthless article cannot be advertised profitably.
 Those who know advertising know that the cost of selling a bottle or package to a new user is several times the pront made on 1t. The only hope of profit comes through continued use; and without merit. continued use can not be expected When a man has made a success in advertising a medi- cine, it is to me the best evidence pos sible that he has something good
 A physician may put up a prescrip- tion for some individual case without giving much thought to 1t. But if that physician is going to spend a fortune on advertising, with no possibility of getting his money back unless he sat- isfies millions of users, he is naturally going to put up the best prescription he can make. If he is wise he will get the best prescriptions for his pur- pose that any man can make.
 Then there is the question of alcohol which MT. Box seems to consider such a perilous one. All the fluid extracts and tinctures used in medicine must employ alcohol as a solvent and pre- servative. Prohibit a physician from using alcohol in his prescriptions and you would make the practice of medi- cine impossible. If a physician must use alcohol in certain prescriptions, shall we complain that a ready made medicine employs it for the same pur- poser
 If we are going to avoid the use of alcohol we must banish the extracts and essences used in our kitchen. nasAAA Axtxaata whether they are medi-