Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1905-11-17
a Patent Medicine Talk

Readers of such lcaCing maya
zines, as the Ladies' Home Jour
nal" and Golfers Weekly" rluSt
have noticed recently many articles
relative to patent medicines.
The editors of these magazines
are seeking to bring about by leg;5-
lation and agitation, what they
choose to call reform in the patent
medicine business. They make the
statement that it is not only unsafe.
but unwise, and in many cases de-
structive of health, for people to
purchase and consume patent medi-
cines the ingredients of which they
have no knowledge.
1t it not our purpose to enter into
a discussion of the merits or C.
merits of this agitation or crusade.
Thousands of people hive used
patent medicines and have been
benefited by them. At the same time
there are undoubtedly evils existing
in the ABUSE of some so-called
patent medicines. Because you
have thief in your neighborhood
you would not say the whole neigh
borhood is composed of thieves. We
know that we have plenty of Gus
toners at our counters who tel our
clerks what benefit they derive from
this or that preparation.
Yet even with this knowledge
1t is hard for us to say what one
among the patent medicines is the
'.neighborhood backlog" The un-
fortunate part of our position is
that we do not know the formulas
of the patent medicines we sell.
We do not believe that the pro-
prietors of patent medicines are dis
honest or that they are Intentionally
disappearing their products. If
we did we would certainly refuse to
sell their goods over our counter.
Our exact position in this patent
medicine agitation is this: We are
the servants of the public. We sell
and will continue to sell patent
medicines just the same as the gro
Ger sells you canned corn or pota-
toes. We want our patrons to find
in our stock just what they demand,
only we can positively say that at
any time we find a medicine is in
furious we will throw it out of our
store.
Several years ago, a thousand of
the leading druggists throughout
the United States organized them
selves together in a cooperative
company to produce remedies which
they could back up with their own
names and their own regulations.
The first object of this co-opera-
tive company was to produce line
of remedies that every druggist
would know thoroughly. There
were to be no secret formulas; the
ingredients of every remedy would
be known to every druggist.
Each of these thousand druggists
contributed to the organization all
that his knowledge and experience
had brought to him in the way of
advice as to different remedies.
The formulas of something like
1000 or more remedies were sent to
the company. A committee of ex-
perts was appointed and this COM
mittee went over the various for
mulas conscientiously and earnestly
for long period of time and selected
from the entire list about 400 stand
ard remedies, the manufacture of
which the company then undertook.
The company in the meantime
had erected perfect laboratory
large, well-appointed, with every ap-
pliance known to modern skill. The
combined capital of a thousand
druggists made it possible for the
company to purchase in the largest
quantities, the fundamental drugs
and herbs, etc., that form the in
gradients of the various remedies.