The Falls City tribune., 1910-06-17
THE DEMAND FOR NOSTRUMS
DIR. MoRSMAN TALKS ON AN
IMPORTANT SUBJECT.
The Power OF Advertising Clearly
Shown in the Demad for
Worthless Mixtures.


According 10 Webster, any medi-
cine is n nostrum II it's composition
be n secret. That definition is too
sweeping FOR modern days. Language
changes, and this word nostrum has
come to mean a mnch-lauded. secret
medicine of little merit. 1t can
not be applied today to all secret com
pounds, because there are hundreds
of ethical preparations used by medi-
cal met that are practically as sec
ret as any patent medicine on the
druggists shelves. T%wo.thirds Of
the pharmaceutieals the physicians
use are really secret preparations,
but they can hardly be called nos
trums, rs the meaning Of the word
is understood now.
In this talk | limit the term, right
ly or not. to unseientific prepare
tions of little or no merit, or that
make ~eXtravagant claims, palpably
untrue, or. in the yernaeular, fake
medicines"
This class of preparations emenate
either from ignorant persons or else
they are deliberate swindles; more
frequently the latter. In all of
them there is more blow and brag
in the advertisement than medicine in
the bottles. They ara worthless pre-
parations, marketed by blatant and
absolutely dishonest advertising.
They cure nothing and their owners
do not expect them to. The goods
are fraudulent, the advertising is
fraudulent, and their testimonials tot
ally worthless as testimonials. There
is little reliance to be placed upon
published testimonials even when
they are voluntary and genuine, un-
less the persons are known and the
conditions are known. But the Nos
trum makers are Supremacy indiffer-
ent to genuineness in testimonials
A testimonial Is a testimonial with
them, to be worked for all il is worth
Lik the motto, get the money!
theirs Is get the testimonial" How
they get ii is a mere detail of little
importance. They do have some
testimonials that are genuine in a
sense. That is, there is somebody
behind them who will reply to any
inquiring letters that the Investigator
writes them, and for each reply they
make to such letters of inquiry the
maker of the testimonial gets TWEEN
ty-five cents. That arrangement was
not unusual a few years ago and |
presume is in vogue yet. When the
advertiser boldly urges the read
er to write to The person who's testi-
monial he publishes, it is highly
probable he knows just what kind of
an answer will be forthcoming. The
writing of testimonials therefore isn't
q bad side line it would look like
easy money TO some persons. \
testimonial means little unless the per-
son and the facts are known. 1t
is hard to determine how serious
the case was or how much the medi-
cine had to do with the cure, If it
was a cure.
All the advertising put out by the
Nostrum makers tor fakers) is
crooked. They give wrong symp-
toms of ailments and exaxggerate min
or troubles into signs of serious dis
ease and their promises are still more
mendacious, One of their book
lets is like a railroad map where all
the towns on the road are moved
this way or that in order to make
the road straight, so these fakirs des-
cribe sensations and feelings thai
are of little Importance, as symptoms
that lead straight up to the disease
for which they make the only reli-
able cure.
1t is nice reading for the unsophis-
ticated and usually makes him think
he has 'em bad"
But what help is there for it? Peo-
pie will read the stuff. We might