Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-16
PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC.
The Suppression of Quackery and
Adulteration

| From the New York Herald.
| The organization of a national league for
| the suppression of medical quackery and
| the sale of adulterated foodstuffs is a very
important movement, which should be
/ heartily Endorsed by the public. Already
the league is sufficiently representative Of
religious, professional and phlanthropic i'll
| terests to obtain for II a wide hearing and
a proportionate weight of influence.
| The main purpose of the new society ap-
pears to be to crush out medical quacl5-
cry in its various forms and to oppose the
indscriminate sale of so-called patent
medicines and adulterated drugs and such
secret and patent foodstuffs are claimed
to have peculiar medical properties.
The American people are peculiarly gull
lible in regard to such matters. In all
other affairs affecting their interests they
are apt to be reasonably cautious, but the
| lying quack and the pretentous healer has
an undisputed hearing with the best regu-
lated families and has little or no diff
Guilty in obtaining certificates Of skill from
! leading members of any community.
Strange to say, clergymen, statesmen.
jurists, railroad magnates, authors, singers
and other prominent persons who should
know be tier are constantly appearing as in
dorsers of schemes of which they known
nothing, and fostering a distrust in
legitimate medication which affects the life
and blood of all TO whom their aprcaIs are
made.
1t is well admitted and statist!cally
proved that Americans conSCne mere
drugs and use more patent medicines than
any nation on the civilized globe. In old
times pills, tablets and powders We're made
and mixed by hand, but now machines,
driven by steam, can scarcely meet the de
mand for the new and sure cures that are
constantly appearing.
Self medication has, in view of these
facts, quite naturally grown TO tremendous
proportions. The man who would not think
of tinkering with his watch will endanger
his heart by taking some headache powder
or dull his brain by some patent narcotic,
merely because he is advised TO do so by
some friend who has been foolish enough
to try the dangerous experiment
All patent medicine manufacturers should
be compelled by law to label their products
and give not only the ingredients, but their
proportions so at least that each Venturous
experimenter can know what he Is taking
No secret should be withheld wnen health
or life is at stake. No mere trade interests
should balance themselves against human
suffering and human needs
The medical profession has teen keenly
alive to the necessity of reform IN 1nis mat
ter and refuses to use remedies the com
position of which is not given. Even the
various medical journals which shametuily
advertise such nostrums for purely busl-
ness reasons, thus doing double wrong IN
attempting 10 deceive the profession ana
the public are now being called to the bar
of medical opinion for violation or the nun
damental principles of high medical ethics.
The American Medical Association, with
all praise oe il said, is using Its powerful
influence through its journal TO remedy con-
ditions in this regard and to give the true
sentiment of the profession IN the prem
Uses There is also great promise re-
form not Only in this but in o her direc-
tons when the legislative committee of
this learned body openly joins ITS endeaN-
ors to those of the National League and
valiantly and unreservedly commits the
medical profession of the country to the
praiseworthy movement in question.