The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-12
HAS THE QUEEREST
JOB ON RECORD
Man Employed to Contract Ailments
to Test Power of Medicines.

There is a man living in a Boston |
suburb who makes himself sick in a |
variety of ways in order that ne may
test the healing powers of the medi-
cines manufactured by the company
which employs him.
Instead of being a shaky wreck from
constant indulgence in foods taken pur-
posely to provoke disorders, this vindi-
Gator of infants soothing syrups, head
ache cures, indigestion medicines and
cold cures is hale and hearty. a stout
German, past middle age, of a stu
dious and phlegmatic temperament.
His Office is one of the best of all
at the headquarters of the company
that employs him. There are oil paint
ings, soft carpets and Turkish rugs; he
has library of medical volumes, win
dows filled with flowers and a profu-
sion of bottles, glasses and crucibles
distributed in the apartment.
He has a variety of duties. Accord
ing to the Boston Herald he sits in
a draught or wanders about cOatless to
entiee a cold and then doses himself
with cold cures. He contracts a violent
headache in order to try the efficacy
of a headache cure which is to be put
ON the market.
He acquires the headache by concen-
trating his mind so closely upon one
subject that at the end of a few hours
the nervous strain produces the pains
| in the head he has set out to obtain
Then he takes a dose of the medicine
that is being experimental with and
watches results carefully. noting every
effect in a book in order to make his
report on it.
Often he has to contract aches that
aren't headaches. 1t may be that
new medicine is to be brought out for
indigestion or the scores of disorders
resulting from dyspepsia.
The manufacturers desire to make a
practical test of the formula for their
own satisfaction. The German tester
| goes to a restaurant late in the even
| ing and gives an orGer that makes
| the walters eyes bulge.
L eat a lobster salad, then drink
milk, which is usually prohibited with
such a salad" he says cheerfully in
! telling about it. ITO make it more
milk and follow it all with a Welsh
rarebit. After that the only thing 1
have to do is to wait for the results.
They are usually not long in COM
| ing. Soon / have violent pains in the
chest a feeling as of a heavy weight
lying upon it, with sharp pains shoot
ing across my body every second. OF
| course, it is agony while it enduTes,
| but l take a dose of the remedy to re-
lieve it.
If it gives me relief 1 note all the
circumstances of my sensations to the
minutest detail, and if it doesn't 1 do
the same. You have no conception of
what a delightful feeling it is to ex-
perience the contrast of intense pain
and quick relief. L know that feeling
WE'LL
There are from IS to 100 drugs men
toned in materia medica for disorders
of indigestion and the German tester
has tried them all. Some of the things
he has to do would make an ordinarily
courageous man look about for the cy-
clone cellar.
!, For an eyewash he has more than
once thrown sand into his eyes TO pro-
duce Inflammation in order to test the
wash as to its relief-giVing properties.
He even imagines himself a baby &C.
, casionally in order to try the infants
medicines. He drugs himself by COM
pounding a sleeping potion of infants
soothing syrup.
you may say he explains, that
because a thing soothes me it does not
] necessarily follow that it would sOOthe
! a baby. Nevertheless, my results have
r invariably proved that what was good
for me was good for the infant, but
5 of course, in milder doses.
You see, we cannot get a baby tC
t experiment on, even if we desired one
5 which we don't. A baby could not tel
its sensations or impressions after il
3 took the medicine, which is necessary
r to the success of the experiments"
] The man who voluntarily submits tC
trying it on the dog is not at all q
dense animal so robust that nothing
5 can harm him, and willing from ignor-
D ance to sacrifice himself in this strange
= way He is himself d chemist, a skill
I full one.
That makes him all the more valu
I able, as he can record with accuracy
the sensations before and after taking
q medicine and the results obtained
And, of course, he knows quite well the
: properties of each remedy he takes
what its effect should be, how grea
a dose is required and how violent hi.
ailment is.
f How came such a man to embrace al
occupation thar carries with it So man!
disag reeable features? lie viii tell yol
himself that before he got his presen
berth he was a wreck, a victim o
! chronic indigestion, a wasted SHADOW
of the man he had been in early youth
L had been in the manufacturer;
drug business myself for twenty-sevel
o years." he says. But things wen
wrong, my health gave out, my stom
ach was gone and soon l had not evel
employment.
1T was then, that l conceived tn
plan of offering myself as a subject 70
experiment to the manufacturers o
proprietary medicines. The first [
whom 1 applied said that he would
glad to obtain such a man who had
knowledge of chemistry and that
was a great difficulty to find him.
4 at once offered myself and hav
been with the firm ever since. Tha
was some years ago, and you can sc
for Yourself what excellent health 1 al
in now"