The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-11
PROGRESSIVE FARMER AND G,zrrr,
Why Patent Medicines are "Fraudsu

them. 10 all such tnere IL just one reply to ho
made
The patent medicine business Is i'm its ycrv -
sence and nature a fraud. and the fact thai -
man is proposing one general prescription IN.
miscellaneous aggregation Of sufferers whom h.
has never seen is in itself all the evideno. ~
quackery that is needed.
In other words. while the ingredients =,
some patent medicines may be good for spec,.
cases, still there virtually good pateD,
nedicines-that is to say. no medicine has ev.,
been compounded suitable for use in the gener,
and indiscriminate way In which patent medicine.
are advertised and sold
The fact that neither honesty nor sense IA =.
CURED OF any patent medicine maker-this IN
itself II enough to keep any man from making
bis body a garbage-can receptacle for concoctions
he knows nothing of. but even IL patent medl.
cine maker were honest and did have n knowled,.
Of medicine II is still true that to advertise sny
one prescription general remedy for a dis
would be n fraud In very warp and wool, b.
cause in the very nature OF the case no medicine
has been compounded suited for such indis.
crimnate use under such general conditions The
reasons for this statement not perhaps b
better set forth than in tho following editorial
statement in The Progressive Farmer and Gazette
year ago.
Consider frat that tho number OF com.
plants from which man and his domestic
animals suffer runs up into tho hundreds
Likewise there are hundreds of remedies used
In the treatment OF these diseases. More
over 1t lie a wel-known fact tina, tho ars, and
most difficult step in the treatment of any
case is to ascertain the nature of the discasn
Now. what does the use of patent medicines
mean7
I'D II means that the patient must dag
nose his own case. and with his lack Of
knowledge OF anatomy. physiology. aud OF
diHeugaf IL Al
better than guess. lie may DO suffering
from any ono of a hundred different diseases.
and as he has only one guess. the chances are
hundred to ono that no misses IT.
III But even II rashy suppose that
the user OF patent medicines diagnoses his
case correctly. he must ,hcn aeiec, tho rem
edy. There few OF the hundreds in
use "hieh VIII III his particular case. and
ohiy lew And here again no must guess
Again. the remedy which would bc indi-
Gated Tor use In the FIRST stage of n disease
may DC positively Injurious In tho more ad-
'ahced stages OF the same disease II he
selects patent medicine he mus, take tho
sanpe remedy. not only for all stages of tho
disease but In most cases tho aame medi-
cine Tor great variety of diseases
In other words. the use OF patent mcdi-
eihes Is based on two guensea II In either
"'e tue wrong gueas is made. positive injury
Done and in both guessos tho chances for
hs the wrong guess are more than one
hundred TO one.
mhiie healthy man or heas, does lot need
aeuieihes. sick one should be treated with
ne remedies appropriate to the particular
'ease ana the particular stage OF that dis
case from which he Is suffering
my other policy is vicious. and harmful.
ana there is no reason In the common feel
e tnat there are medicines which n they
o no good VIII do no harm II is pretty
care 10 state that n remedy which will do no
n .a "hen wrong VIII do no good at any
80 anu a remedy which IN forccfui enough
" u" good when right viii do harm when
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